The Beach Boys are an American band founded in 1961 by brothers Brian Wilson, Dennis Wilson and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love and school friend Al Jardine.
Strongly encouraged by their father and manager Murry Wilson, himself a rather unsuccessful songwriter, the boys made music in the style of The Four Freshmen, with harmonious singing playing the leading role. The single "Surfin'" from 1961 became a hit and was typical of the direction the band would follow in the coming years: a combination of surf music, a style that had until then been mostly instrumental, and lyrics about surfing, cars and girls. Singles and albums were released at a rapid pace. Al Jardine said about this: "The Beach Boys themselves were our biggest competitors."
The leader of the band was Brian Wilson, who also wrote most of the songs and who, especially from the third LP onwards, proved to be a gifted producer. At the end of 1964, the shy Brian decided to stop performing live and to focus more on writing songs and producing. His replacement in the live band was Bruce Johnston. Murry Wilson was fired, which gave Brian complete artistic freedom. As he discovered more of the possibilities of the studio, he wrote more complex music, which he had played by the best studio musicians in Los Angeles, now known as The Wrecking Crew. The other members of the group later added the vocals.
When The Beatles released the album Rubber Soul in 1965, this was the inspiration for Brian to create Pet Sounds, which appeared in 1966 and was named the second-best album ever by Rolling Stone magazine. This album, which contained unprecedentedly complex music and personal lyrics for pop music at the time, was received with rave reviews but sold worse in America than the previous albums. However, in Europe, the popularity of The Beach Boys increased significantly. The later single "Good Vibrations", the recording of which took six months in three different studios, became a big hit. The follow-up, "Then I kissed her", also reached the top charts despite being a cover of The Crystals from 1963, who released it as "Then he kissed me".
The last big Beach Boys hit in the Netherlands was "Kokomo" (1989) from the film Cocktail with Tom Cruise. The very last Beach Boys album would be Stars and stripes, Vol. 1 from 1996, on which old successes were sung by famous country singers and the Beach Boys only provided the backing vocals. Carl Wilson's death from cancer in 1998 marked the definitive end for the group.
In 2012, a new studio album from the group appeared for the first time since 1996. The album titled That's why God made the radio was recorded in 2011 and 2012 to mark the 50th anniversary of the group. The core lineup of the group is Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine, Bruce Johnston and David Marks. The inclusion of Marks was remarkable, as he officially was only part of the group for two years, from 1962 to 1963. It was also the first studio album without Carl Wilson, who died in 1998. The album was largely produced by Brian Wilson and reached fifth place on the Billboard 200 in the US. On 7 August 2012, the band performed in the original lineup during the Lokersefeesten in Lokeren, Belgium.
Sunday Morning Classic: Pet Sounds
The Beach Boys have several songs in the Top 2000. On 18 April 2021, The Beach Boys were guests as Sunday Morning Classic with the album Pet Sounds.
Historically, Pet Sounds has never been taken as seriously as the other big albums from 1966, Bob Dylan's Blonde On Blonde, The Beatles' Revolver or The Rolling Stones' Aftermath. Nowadays, Pet Sounds is not only considered the equal of those records, but in some circles also their superior. Certainly, together with the equally groundbreaking single Good Vibrations, which followed five months later, it created an ambitious roadmap for the future of rock.
It may have been a quantum leap for the composer, the fragile 'man-child' Brian Wilson, but Pet Sounds was not entirely a bolt from the blue. 1965's Today contained a series of songs on side two that showed harmonic refinement and a desire to explore more mature themes than the usual surf songs.
Pet Sounds was, however, a sustained act of complex creation, on the one hand work with orchestral ambition, on the other a concept album. Now, with The Beatles' Rubber Soul in his ears and his competitive drive increased, he set out to make what he promised his wife Marilyn, "the best rock album ever made."
To turn the pocket symphonies in his head into a brilliant reality, he made two crucial moves. First, he entrusted the translation of his ideas about the loss of innocence and the inscrutability of existence to lyricist Tony Asher. Second, he enlisted the help of session musicians The Wrecking Crew.
The resulting songs - Wouldn't It Be Nice, Don't Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder), I'm Waiting For The Day, God Only Knows, I Just Wasn't Made For These Times, Caroline, No - were perfect miniatures of wonder.
It certainly would not have been possible without the contributions of Wilson's brothers Dennis and Carl, cousin Mike Love, Al Jardine and new member Bruce Johnston.
But Wilson was not finished yet. Although Pet Sounds stalled at number 10 in the US after its release in May 1966, every disappointment about the commercial performance was offset by the arrival of a new single, Good Vibrations, in October. With its mosaic of sound fragments, it set new standards for how rock music could sound.
Source: Jan Liebregts and Wikipedia Photo: public domain and Louise Palanker
