Apples and Oranges: Stand-Alone Singles

Any study of The Beach Boys that includes placing their work in the proper context of the 1960s must, at some point, draw comparisons to The Beatles. The Beach Boys were one of the few American bands to hold their own during the height of Beatlemania.

Any time I compare The Beach Boys and The Beatles, I will title it Apples and Oranges in reference to the Beatles' record company and the fruit that stands as another symbol of California.

I've never been any kind of Beatles' historian, but one thing I learned just in the last couple of years was that a majority of their #1 hit songs were never included on any studio albums. (“All You Need is Love”, “Hey, Jude”)

I found that amazing and immediately wondered if the Beach Boys had ever done such a thing. The quick answer was no, all their #1 hits appeared on studio albums. It doesn't take long to run down the list. While the band notched thirty-six Top 40 hits (a record among American rock bands), they only reached the top spot three times in the 60s (thanks largely to the domination of the Fab Four) and once more in 1988.

“I Get Around” led off 1964's All Summer Long album. (One year after Brian had scored his first #1 as producer of Jan and Dean's "Surf City".)

“Help Me, Rhonda” found a home on 1965's Summer Days (and Summer Nights) album,

while “Good Vibrations” eventually appeared on Smiley Smile in 1967.

In 1988, the band scored a surprise #1 hit with “Kokomo” that originally appeared on the Cocktail soundtrack but was also included on the band's Still Cruisin' album the next year.

So the quick answer: No, the Beach Boys never failed to include a #1 song on a studio album. Even if its inclusion occurred well after the song had already been proven a hit.

But had they ever had a hit song of any stature not find a home on an album but remain an unaffiliated single, the way the Beatles had?

The answer is yes, they did. At least once and maybe more depending on how you choose to look at things. On this list are "Be True To Your School", "The Little Girl I Once Knew", "Cotton Fields" and "Break Away".

Astute fans should immediately recognize two of those as being found on studio albums, so allow me to explore each of these songs as I look to answer "Did The Beach Boys ever have a hit single not included on a studio album?"

"Be True To Your School"

A version of this song appears on the Little Deuce Coupe album. It was not released as a single. During the sessions for the album, a few days after recording the first version, Brian re-worked the arrangement. He changed the key, increased the tempo (editing the vocal to match), then brought in female singers to overdub cheerleader parts. These ladies were the recording act The Honeys, which included Marylin Rovell, Brian's future wife.

This new version of the song was then released-- a completely different arrangement from what appears on the album-- and it climbed the charts, peaking at #6 . This new version was not included on any future albums. So does it count? Does it follow the Beatles' habit of unaffiliated hit songs? Or does the song's earlier, unreleased incarnation on the Little Deuce Coupe album disqualify it? You decide. Considering that it was recorded during the same studio sessions as the album, I would personally choose to disqualify it. So let's keep looking...

“The Little Girl I Once Knew”

This song is the one definitive example of a hit single without a studio album to call home.

February of 1965 saw the release of Today and it was followed up in July by Summer Days. Later, as the year was winding down, Brian began his most vital work. Having been inspired by The Beatles' Rubber Soul to create an album that existed as a unified, whole work as opposed to a collection of individual works and filler, Brian realized he was on the threshold of something very special.

Capitol Records, radio station program directors and the public had grown accustomed to the astonishing output of 3 or 4 albums a year from The Beach Boys. But Brian, setting out now to craft a “teenage symphony to God”, knew that his next project needed more time and care to gestate.

So "The Little Girl I Once Knew" was quickly produced and released in the fall of 1965. It's an excellent song and would have been very much at home on either of that year's earlier albums. But Brian, constantly experimenting, had chosen to include long pauses, moments of complete silence in the song. This frustrated program directors who hated dead air and confused DJs who were caught unaware and didn't know when the song was over.

As a result, airplay was reduced and the song only peaked at #20. It was a chart position the band would have killed for a few short years down the road, but in 1965 it was seen as a clear disappointment.

With Capitol Records pressuring for a new album, Brian opted to throw together a quickie album rather than to compromise the project he really cared about, the one that would change The Beach Boys forever. The result was Party!, a collection of cover tunes done acoustically with little more than a guitar and a tambourine. The overdubbing of talking and laughing throughout the album along with the casual singalong scene depicted on the front cover sold the illusion that listeners were eavesdropping in on a private gathering of friends. Here was a glimpse of the band just being themselves, having fun with friends, and we the fans were allowed in.

Without a new original tune anywhere on it, without the elaborate production Brian and grown fond of, with everything about it screaming economy, it was clear the album was done in a hurry by design. But the idea of eavesdropping in on such a fun-sounding party proved intoxicating to the public. It went straight into the Top Ten of the album charts.

Brian had accidentally produced a hit album, peaking at #6 (#3 in the UK).

Being as it was a collection of cover tunes, Capitol had no planned single releases for Party!. Instead, it continued to promote the failing “Little Girl I Once Knew”, which was still in circulation at radio stations at the time Party! came out in December.

So a funny thing happened. The final track on Party!, the one with perhaps the tightest group vocals found anywhere in the relaxed vibe of the album, was a cover of “Barbara Ann”. DJs began dumping “Little Girl” in favor of “Barbara Ann” on their own accord and it caught on. It became a so-called “turntable hit”, finding an audience through disc jockeys playing the track off an LP rather than through the promoted release of a single from the label.

Capitol was quick to roll with it, immediately pulling the plug on “Little Girl” and rushing a single version of “Barbara Ann” into production that cut out extraneous silliness on either end of the song that appeared on the album.

“Barbara Ann” shot all the way to #2 very early in 1966, an accidental hit. And that next project Brian had his sights on? That teenage symphony to God? That would prove to be Pet Sounds.

And what happened to “The Little Girl I Once Knew”? Well, it never made it to a studio album. So there you go, the one definitive instance of a hit song (#20) that only knew life as a stand-alone single. What I'm left to wonder is what if it had been a huge hit? It wouldn't fit in on Party!, Brian surely would not have wanted it on Pet Sounds, and Capitol certainly would have pushed for that to ensure sales on a decidedly non-commercial album. Who knows?

"Cotton Fields"

The story on this song is a little complicated. It is originally a Huddie Ledbetter song made popular by The Highwaymen in 1961. The Beach Boys recorded Brian's version of the song in November of 1968 and it appeared on the 20/20 album in 1969. This album version was titled "Cottonfields" and features Al Jardine on lead vocals. It was never released as a single.

1969 and 1970 proved to be extremely prolific years for the band. During about an 18-month span between studio albums, they worked in a staggering amount of writing and recording around their tour schedule. This 18 month period also included a change in record labels and having an album rejected. Over thirty songs were recorded during this period, including not only everything that would appear on the Sunflower album for their new label, but also gems like "Soulful Old Man Sunshine" which would languish in the vaults for years.

It was during this time of no album releases but prolific recording that Jardine decided to re-visit "Cottonfields". He apparently felt that Brian's arrangement, for once, had missed the mark and came up with his own version. So, eventually, after having toured internationally supporting 20/20, the band recorded Jardine's version in August of 1969.

Retitled "Cotton Fields" (two words), it became the band's last single for Capitol in April of 1970.

It failed miserably in the USA, peaking at #103.

However, it reached #5 in the UK and made it all the way to #1 in Australia and Norway (and #2) in Sweden.

"Cotton Fields" was never included on an American release of a studio album. However, it was included on international versions of Sunflower later that year. (It finally was released in America in 1998 on the excellent Endless Harmony soundtrack, along with "Old Man Sunshine".)

So does it count? A new arrangement, a new title, only a hit in other countries, and included only on international releases of a studio album. Again, you decide. No clean answer.

And our last candidate:

"Break Away"

During the same prolific period in 1969, this song (sometimes listed as "Breakaway") was recorded in March and April and then released in June. Interestingly, Brian's father Murry, from whom he had been estranged since 1964, is credited as lyricist.

This would be the last song listing Brian Wilson as producer for the next five years.

It failed to do well, peaking at #63. It also never appeared on a studio album. Could it have? It was released by Capitol and by the time their next album came out it was for Reprise Records. Not sure "Break Away" could have avoided the fate of no studio album even if it had been a smash.

As it is, it was a commercial disappointment but charted in the Top 100. So does it fit our category? Probably not, but it depends on your definition of a hit. Like so many other of the band's output from 1967 to '71, this song has risen in acclaim over the decades.

Next Up: my research turned quite a few examples of songs released as singles with no thought of future inclusion on albums and also songs with a bit of a fuzzy relationship to their albums. We'll look at these next time!