Beach Boys
FORMED: 1961, Hawthorne, CA
DISBANDED: 1996
Beginning their career as the most popular surf band in the nation, the Beach
Boys finally emerged by 1966 as America's preeminent pop group, the only
act able to challenge (for a brief time) the over-arching success of the
Beatles with both mainstream listeners and the critical community. From their
1961 debut with the regional hit "Surfin," the three Wilson brothers -- Brian,
Dennis, and Carl -- plus cousin Mike Love and friend Al Jardine constructed
the most intricate, gorgeous harmonies ever heard from a pop band. With Brian's
studio proficiency growing by leaps and bounds during the mid-'60s, the Beach
Boys also proved to be one of the best-produced groups of the '60s, exemplified
by their 1966 peak with the Pet Sounds LP and the number one single, "Good
Vibrations." Though Brian Wilson's escalating drug use and obsessive desire
to trump the Beatles (by recording the perfect LP statement) eventually led
to a nervous breakdown after he heard Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band,
the group soldiered on long into the 1970s and '80s, with Brian only an inconsistent
participant. The band's post-1966 material is often maligned (if it's recognized
at all), but the truth is the Beach Boys continued to make great music well
into the '70s. Displayed best on 1970's Sunflower, each member revealed individual
talents never fully developed during the mid-'60s -- Carl Wilson became a
solid, distinctive producer and Brian's replacement as nominal band-leader,
Mike continued to provide a visual focus as the frontman for live shows,
and Dennis developed his own notable songwriting talents. Though legal wranglings
and marginal oldies tours during the '90s often obscured what made the Beach
Boys great, the band's unerring ability to surf the waves of commercial success
and artistic development during the '60s made them America's first, best
rock band.
The origins of the group lie in Hawthorne, California, a southern suburb
of Los Angeles situated close to the Pacific coast. The three sons of a part-time
song-plugger and occasionally abusive father, Brian, Dennis and Carl grew
up a just few miles from the ocean -- though only Dennis Wilson had any interest
in surfing itself. The three often harmonized together as youths, spurred
on by Brian's fascination with '50s vocal acts like the Four Freshmen and
the Hi-Lo's. Their cousin Mike Love often joined in on the impromptu sessions,
and the group gained a fifth with the addition of Brian's high-school football
teammate, Al Jardine. His parents helped rent instruments (with Brian on
bass, Carl on guitar, Dennis on drums) and studio time to record "Surfin',"
a novelty number written by Brian and Mike Love. The single, initially released
in 1961 on Candix and billed to the Pendletones (a musical paraphrase of
the popular Pendleton shirt), prompted a little national chart action and
gained the renamed Beach Boys a contract with Capitol. The group's negotiator
with the label, the Wilsons' father Murray, also took over as manager for
the band. Before the release of any material for Capitol, however, Jardine
left the band to attend college in the Midwest. A friend of the Wilsons,
David Marks, replaced him.
Finally, in mid-1962 the Beach Boys released their major-label debut, Surfin'
Safari. The title track, a more accomplished novelty single than its predecessor,
hit the Top 20 and helped launch the surf-rock craze just beginning to blossom
around Southern California (thanks to artists like Dick Dale, Jan & Dean,
the Chantays, and dozens more). A similarly themed follow-up, Surfin' U.S.A.,
hit the Top Ten in early 1963 before Jardine returned from school and resumed
his place in the group. By that time, the Beach Boys had recorded their first
two albums, a pair of 12-track collections that added a few novelty songs
to the hits they were packaged around. Though Capitol policy required the
group to work with a studio producer, Brian quickly took over the sessions
and began expanding the group's range beyond simple surf rock.
By the end of 1963, the Beach Boys had recorded three full LPs, hit the Top
Ten as many times, and toured incessantly. Also, Brian began to grow as a
producer, best documented on the third Beach Boys LP, Surfer Girl. Though
surf songs still dominated the album, "Catch a Wave," the title track, and
especially "In My Room" presented a giant leap in songwriting, production,
and group harmony -- especially astonishing considering the band had been
recording for barely two years. Brian's intense scrutiny of Phil Spector's
famous Wall of Sound productions were paying quick dividends, and revealed
his intuitive, unerring depths of musical knowledge.
The following year, "I Get Around" became the first number one hit for the
Beach Boys. Riding a crest of popularity, the late 1964 LP Beach Boys Concert
spent four weeks at the top of the album charts, just one of five Beach Boys
LPs simultaneously on the charts. The group also undertook promotional tours
of Europe, but the pressures and time-constraints proved too much for Brian.
At the end of the year, he decided to quit the touring band and concentrate
on studio productions. (Glen Campbell toured with the group briefly, then
friend and colleague Bruce Johnston became Brian's permanent replacement.)
With the Beach Boys as his musical messengers to the world, Brian began working
full-time in the studio, writing songs and enlisting the cream of Los Angeles
session players to record instrumental backing tracks before Carl, Dennis,
Mike and Al returned to add vocals. The single "Help Me, Rhonda" became the
Beach Boys' second chart-topper in early 1965. On the group's seventh studio
LP, The Beach Boys Today!, Brian's production skills hit another level entirely.
In the rock era's first flirtation with an extended album-length statement,
side two of the record presented a series of downtempo ballads, arranged
into a suite that stretched the group's lyrical concerns beyond youthful
infatuation and into more adult notions of love.
Two more LPs followed in 1965, Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!) and Beach
Boys' Party. The first featured "California Girls," one of the best fusions
of Brian's production mastery, infectious melodies, and gorgeous close harmonies
(it's still his personal favorite song). However, dragging down those few
moments of brilliance were novelty tracks like "Amusement Parks USA," "Salt
Lake City" and "I'm Bugged at My Old Man" that appeared a step back from
Today. When Capitol asked for a Beach Boys' record to sell at Christmas,
the live-in-the-studio vocal jam-session Beach Boys' Party resulted, and
sold incredibly well after the single "Barbara Ann" became a surprise hit.
In a larger sense though, both of these LPs were stopgaps, as Brian prepared
for production on what he hoped would be the Beach Boys' most effective musical
statement yet.
In late 1965, the Beatles released Rubber Soul. Amazed at the high song quality
and overall cohesiveness of the album, Brian began writing songs -- with
help from lyricist Tony Asher -- and producing sessions for a song suite
charting a young man's growth to emotional maturity. Though Capitol was resistant
to an album with few obvious hits, the group spent more time working on the
vocals and harmonies than any other previous project. The result, released
in May 1966 as Pet Sounds, more than justified the effort. It's still one
of the best-produced and most influential rock LPs ever released, culminating
years of Brian's perfectionist productions and songwriting. Critics praised
Pet Sounds, but the new direction failed to impress American audiences. Though
it reached the Top Ten, Pet Sounds missed a gold certificate (the first to
do so since the group's debut LP). Conversely, worldwide reaction was not
just positive but jubilant. In England, the album hit number two and earned
the Beach Boys honors for best group in year-end polls by NME -- above even
the Beatles, hardly slouches themselves with the releases of "Paperback Writer"/"Rain"
and Revolver.
The Beach Boys' next single, "Good Vibrations," had originally been written
for the Pet Sounds sessions, though Brian removed it from the songlist to
give himself more time for production. He resumed working on it after the
completion of Pet Sounds, eventually devoting up to six months (and three
different studios) on the single. Released in October 1966, "Good Vibrations"
capped off the year as the group's third number one single and still stands
as one of the best singles of all time. Throughout late 1966 and early 1967,
Brian worked feverishly on the next Beach Boys' LP -- a project named Dumb
Angel, but later titled Smile -- that promised to be as great an artistic
leap beyond Pet Sounds than that album was from Today. He drafted Van Dyke
Parks, an eccentric lyricist and session man, as his songwriting partner,
and recorded reams of tape containing increasingly fragmented tracks that
grew ever more speculative as the months wore on. Already wary of Brian's
increasingly artistic leanings and drug experimentation, the other Beach
Boys grew hostile when called in to the studio to add vocals for Parks lyrics
like, "A blind class aristocracy / Back through the opera glass you see /
The pit and the pendulum drawn / Columnaded ruins domino / Canvas the town
and brush the backdrop" (from "Surf's Up"). A rift soon formed between the
band and Brian; they felt his intake of marijuana and LSD had clouded his
judgment, while he felt they were holding him back from the coming psychedelic
era.
As recording for Smile dragged on into spring 1967, Brian began working fewer
hours. For the first time in the Beach Boys' career, he appeared unsure of
his direction. If Smile ever appeared salveagable, those hopes were dashed
in May, when Brian officially cancelled the project -- just a few weeks before
the release of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. In August,
the group finally released a new single, "Heroes and Villains." Very similar
to the fragmentary style of "Good Vibrations," though a distinctly inferior
follow-up, it missed the Top Ten. That fall, the group convened at Brian's
Bel Air mansion-turned-studio and recorded new versions of several Smile
songs plus a few new recordings and re-emerged with Smiley Smile. Carl summed
up the LP as "a bunt instead of a grand slam," and its near-complete lack
of cohesiveness all but destroyed the group's reputation for forward-thinking
pop.
As the Beatles were ushering in the psychedelic age, the Beach Boys stalled
with the all-important teen crowd, who quickly began to see the group as
conservative, establishment throwbacks. The perfect chance to stem the tide,
a headlining spot at the pioneering Monterey Pop Festival in summer 1967,
was squandered. Though the Beach Boys regrouped quickly -- the back-to-basics
Wild Honey LP appeared before the end of 1967 -- their hopes of becoming
the world's preeminent pop group with both hippies and critics had fizzled
in a matter of months.
All this incredible promise wasted made fans, critics, and radio programmers
undeniably bitter toward future product. Predictably, both Wild Honey and
1968's Friends suffered with all three audiences. They survive as interesting
records nevertheless; deliberately under-produced, including song fragments
and recording-session detritus often left in the mix, the skeletal blue-eyed
soul of Wild Honey and the laidback orchestral pop of Friends made them favorites
only after fans realized the Beach Boys were a radically different group
in 1968 than in 1966. Sparked by the Top 20 hit "Do It Again" -- a song that
saw the first shades of the group as an oldies act -- 1969's 20/20 did marginally
better. Still, Capitol dropped the band soon after. One year later, the Beach
Boys signed to Reprise.
The first LP for Brother/Reprise was 1970's Sunflower, a surprisingly strong
album featuring a return to the gorgeous harmonies of the mid-'60s and many
songs written by different members of the band. Surf's Up, titled after a
reworked song originally intended for Smile, followed in 1971. Though frequently
loveable, the wide range of material on Surf's Up displayed not a band but
a conglomeration of individual interests. During sessions for the album,
Dennis put his hand through a plate glass window and was unable to play drums.
Early in 1972, the band hired drummer Ricky Fataar and guitarist Blondie
Chaplin, two members of a South African rock band named the Flame (Carl had
produced their self-titled debut for Brother Records the previous year).
Carl and the Passions - So Tough, the first album released with Fataar and
Chaplin in the band, descended into lame early-'70s AOR-rock. For the first
time, a Beach Boys album retained nothing from their classic sound. Brian's
mental stability wavered from year to year, and he spent much time in his
mansion with no wish to even contact the outside world. He occasionally contributed
to the songwriting and session load, but was by no means a member of the
band anymore (he rarely even appeared on album covers or promotional shots).
Though it's unclear why Reprise felt ready to take such a big risk, the label
authorized a large recording budget for the next Beach Boys album. After
shipping most of the group's family and entourage (plus an entire studio)
over to Amsterdam, the Beach Boys re-emerged in 1973 with Holland. The LP
scraped the bottom rungs of the Top 40, and the single "Sail On, Sailor"
(with vocals by Chaplin) did receive some FM radio airplay. Still, Holland's
muddy sound did nothing for the aging band, and it earned scathing reviews.
Perhaps a bit gun-shy, the Beach Boys essentially retired from recording
during the mid-'70s. Instead, the band concentrated on grooming their live
act, which quickly grew to become an incredible experience. It was a good
move, considering the Beach Boys could lay claim to more hits than any other
'60s rock act on the road. The Beach Boys in Concert, their third live album
in total, appeared in 1973.
Then, in mid-1974, Capitol Records went to the vaults and issued a repackaged
hits collection, Endless Summer. Both band and label watched, dumbfounded,
as the double-LP hit number one, spent almost three years on the charts,
and went gold. Endless Summer capitalized on a growing fascination with oldies
rock that had made Sha Na Na, American Graffiti, and Happy Days big hits.
Rolling Stone, never the most friendly magazine to the group, named the Beach
Boys their Band of the Year at the end of the year. Another collection, Spirit
of America, hit the Top Ten in 1974, and the Beach Boys were hustled into
the studio to begin new recordings.
Trumpeted by the barely true marketing campaign "Brian's Back!," 1976's 15
Big Ones balanced a couple of '50s oldies with some justifiably exciting
Brian Wilson oddities like "Had to Phone Ya." It also hit the Top Ten and
went gold, despite many critical misgivings. Brian took a much more involved
position for the following year's The Beach Boys Love You (it was almost
titled Brian Loves You and released as a solo album). In marked contrast
to the fatalistic early-'70s pop of "Til I Die" and others, Brian sounded
positively jubilant on gruff proto-synth-pop numbers like "Let Us Go on This
Way" and "Mona." However idiosyncratic compared to what oldies fans expected
of the Beach Boys, Love You was the group's best album in years. (A suite
of beautiful, tender ballads on side two was quite reminiscent of 1965's
Today.)
After 1979's M.I.U. Album, the group signed a large contract with CBS that
stipulated Brian's involvement on each album. However, his brief return to
the spotlight ended with two dismal efforts, L.A. (Light Album) and Keepin'
the Summer Alive. The Beach Boys began splintering by the end of the decade,
with financial mismanagement by Mike Love's brothers Stan and Steve fostering
tension between him and the Wilsons. By 1980, both Dennis and Carl had left
the Beach Boys for solo careers. (Dennis had already released his first album,
Pacific Ocean Blue, in 1977, and Carl released his eponymous debut in 1981.)
Brian was removed from the group in 1982 after his weight ballooned to over
300 pounds, though the tragic drowning death of Dennis in 1983 helped bring
the group back together. In 1985, the Beach Boys released a self-titled album
which returned them to the Top 40 with "Getcha Back." It would be the last
proper Beach Boys album of the '80s, however.
Brian had been steadily improving in both mind and body during the mid-'80s,
though the rest of the group grew suspicious of his mentor, Dr. Eugene Landy.
Landy was a dodgy psychiatrist who reportedly worked wonders with the easily
impressionable Brian but also practically took over his life. He collaborated
with Brian on the autobiography Wouldn't It Be Nice and wrote lyrics for
Brian's first solo album, 1988's Brian Wilson. Critics and fans enjoyed Wilson's
return to the studio, but the charts were unforgiving, especially with attention
focused on the Beach Boys once more. The single "Kokomo," from the soundtrack
to Cocktail, hit number one in the US late that year, prompting a haphazard
collection named Still Cruisin'. The group also sued Brian, more to force
Landy out of the picture than anything, and Mike Love later sued Brian for
songwriting royalties (Brian had frequently admitted Love's involvement on
most of them).
Despite the many quarrels, the Beach Boys kept touring during the early '90s,
and Mike Love and Brian Wilson actually began writing songs together in 1995.
Instead of a new album though, the Beach Boys returned with Stars and Stripes,
Vol. 1, a collection of remade hits with country stars singing lead and the
group adding backing vocals. Also, a Brian Wilson documentary titled I Just
Wasn't Made for These Times aired on the Disney Channel, with an accompanying
soundtrack featuring spare renditions of Beach Boys classics by Brian himself.
Just as the band appeared to be pulling together for a proper studio album
though, Carl died of cancer in 1998.
Ten years after his first solo album, Brian became aware of his immense influence
on the alternative-rock community; he worked with biggest-fans Sean O'Hagan
(of the High Llamas) and Andy Paley on a series of recordings. Again, good
intentions failed to carry through, as the recordings were ditched in favor
of another overly produced, mainstream-slanted work, Imagination. By early
1999, no less than three Beach Boys-connected units were touring the country
-- a Brian Wilson solo tour, the "official" Beach Boys led by Mike Love,
and the "Beach Boys Family" led by Al Jardine. In 2000, Capitol instituted
a long-promised reissue campaign, focusing on the group's long out-of-print
'70s LPs. ~ John Bush, All Music Guide