50th Anniversary (1961-2011)

Today I will interrupt my series of posts to comment upon the significance of this year to Beach Boy fans.

This year (specifically this Fall), marks the 50th anniversary of the band. There appear to be a number of special things in the works to commemorate the occasion, but it seems as though the biggest official push will come next year when the band celebrates the 50th anniversary of their first hit and major record label deal.

But the first anniversary event took place this past Saturday at a celebration of Ronald Reagan's 100th birthday. The Boys have a bit of history with the Reagans. After playing to a huge crowd on the national mall on July 4th, 1980 (during the Carter administration), the Beach Boys returned the next year after Reagan's election. But they were famously not allowed to return in 1982 on the grounds that they drew an "undesirable" crowd. This caused a huge public outcry.

In June of 1983, after playing a show in D.C., the band played a private gig on the White House lawn for Ronald and Nancy in support of the Special Olympics. I guess the Reagans liked the Boys well enough because they were allowed to resume their Fourth of July concerts at the mall the next year. So 1984 saw them back there, as did 1985. And between those summers, they actually performed "Their Hearts Were Full of Spring" at Reagan's inaugural celebration in January of '85.

So as you can see Ronald Reagan and The Beach Boys definitely had some history together (and that's not counting how Dennis Wilson and First Daughter Patti Davis allegedly got to know each other, um, extremely well...).

And for the 100th birthday party this past Saturday, the band performed a set of six songs. To understand what made the show special you need to understand the current state of things in Beach Boy Land.

With the passing of Carl Wilson in February of 1998, the band finally splintered. Brian seemed further estranged from Mike than ever before and Al left the act very quickly (his last show as a Beach Boy was in May of 98). Mike then acquired the legal right to use the name "The Beach Boys" and continued to tour under that name with Bruce and a band of backing musicians.

Al formed The Beach Boys Friends and Family Band, which included his sons as well as Brian's daughters, Carnie and Wendy (of Wilson Phillips fame). Mike then sued Al for misusing the name Beach Boys (forcing Al to change the name of his act to The Endless Summer Band). And later, in 2004, Mike sued Brian for using the Beach Boys name to promote his solo release of SMiLE.

So you can see the mess of things. With Dennis and Carl dead and Mike alienating Brian and Al, it was really-- finally-- at last--the end of The Beach Boys.

...except it wasn't.

Mike and Bruce have continued to tour heavily with a backing band that has changed drastically since Carl's death. A lot of the longtime supporting band members (e.g. Billy Hinsche, Ed Carter, Jeff Foskett) can now be found in either Brian's or Al's band.

In 2007, Al even played a series of dates with Brian, but he has not shared the stage with Mike & Bruce. Not since May of 1998, after the last of the shows for which he was already contracted prior to Carl's death in February, has Al Jardine taken the stage as a Beach Boy.

Until this past Saturday.

At Regan's party, Mike and Bruce made room for Al for the first time in nearly 13 years. Not only that, but Brian had been officially invited to join them. Brian's camp released a statement last week explaining Brian couldn't participate as he is hard at work in the studio working on a new album.



So it wasn't quite a big, official Beach Boys reunion (which by all rights should include not only Brian but David Marks as well), but it was a kinda-sorta mini-reunion having Al finally back with them.

In the six-song set, Al even sang lead on two of them. It wasn't the best show this incarnation of the band is capable of but it seemed to pick up momentum as it went along. Mike looked bad like he might not have been completely healthy, but he is about to turn 70 in a couple of weeks so maybe we can cut him some slack in that area.

Of the six songs, three of them were #1 hits. The set list was California Girls, Sloop John B (Al), Good Vibrations, Kokomo, Help Me Rhonda (Al) and Fun Fun Fun.



The 50th anniversary has the fan community buzzing. Expectations are that Capitol Records will put out a Beach Boys SMILE box set and the possibilities of a proper reunion are still high. In my mind, though, a reunion should include not only Brian and David, but Ricky and Blondie and all of the supporting band veterans like Hinsche, Foskett, et. al.

We shall see what happens. I, for one, am hoping Brian will agree to do some shows. I wonder if they'll even wear their striped shirts?

Surfin'

During my research for the last post in which I looked for hit singles by The Beach Boys that were never included on any studio albums, I came across a few interesting cases that didn't quite fit that discussion.

It turns out there were several instances where The Beach Boys recorded and released a single with no original intention or immediate plans to have it included on a studio album. In most cases they did eventually end up on an album at some point, the exceptions being listed in my previous post.

Let's take a look at the ones I discovered. If I have missed any, I trust there's a fan out there somewhere that will point it out to me.

SURFIN'

In October of 1961, two months before their first live appearance, the group held their first recording session. Over the summer, Al Jardine and two friends (calling themselves The Islanders) had auditioned for a man named Hite Morgan who happened to have put together his own studio.

In August, Jardine returned for another audition, this time with the three Wilson brothers and their cousin. It is possible this audition included a performance of "Sloop John B" but regardless, the response was lukewarm. When Morgan asked if they had any original material, Dennis stepped up and blurted out that Brian and Mike had indeed written a song about surfing. They hadn't really. But that didn't stop them from going home and quickly doing just that.

Brian and Mike's first songwriting efforts together produced "Surfin'". Morgan liked what he heard and immediately put the band in the studio and recorded it along with a pair of songs that he and his wife had written: "Luau" and "Lavender".

Brian, Mike, Carl, Dennis and Al were barely a band at this point. They were calling themselves The Pendletones but it's not clear how seriously they viewed the whole enterprise. They had yet to even perform live anywhere and by February Al would leave to work for Garrett AiResearch. . By no stretch were they polished performers. In fact, Carl was only 15 and still in high school, and Brian had included Dennis only because their mother had made him.

But Candix Records, a small-time label, released "Surfin'" (B-side: "Luau") locally and it did extremely well. Its west coast success quickly earned it a national release where it broke into the Top 100 and peaked at #75.

There were no thoughts of an album when the song was first released. Candix saw it as a novelty record, and the band may have, too. Of course, no one knew what kind of success was in store for The Pendletones but there was more than one person involved with motivation to pursue it further.

Mike was already a father and desperate for a way to make good money. Murry Wilson, the brothers' abusive and domineering father, saw dollar signs and would soon begin aggressively booking the band. Brian... it's hard to imagine the effect that recording a song and hearing it on the radio must have had on Brian. Brian was too much of an artist, too aware of the possibilities of the studio, too eager to follow in the footsteps of The Four Freshmen and Phil Spector to ever think of not continuing chasing a career in recording.

However, none of this was guaranteed when the group entered Hite Morgan's little studio in October of 1961 and recorded their new little song. And certainly there was no thought of producing an entire album (although the song would eventually show up on their debut album). Who could have known it was the first step in a journey that would lead to international celebrity and the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame?

(Side note: The Pendeltones were upset to open up a box of newly pressed 45s of "Surfin"/"Luau" to discover someone had taken the liberty to rename the act The Beach Boys. They fought it, but there was not enough money available to go back to press so they were forced to keep the name.)

NEXT TIME: "Surfin' Safari" and "409"

Welcome!

Welcome to this brand new blog dedicated to The Beach Boys. Over the course of future posts I will provide whatever insight, trivia, opinion and analysis I can offer on anything from individual songs to entire albums to what was going on offstage.

Born in 1971, I am too young to have experienced the band during their early peak years. Actually, my earliest exposure to their music may have been from the Sunkist television commercials in the early 80s that famously used “Good Vibrations” for their jingle.

Having been raised on a fun diet of 50s doo-wop and the harmonizing of Southern Gospel quartets, I was primed at just the perfect impressionable age to become a Beach Boys and Brian Wilson fan. When those Sunkist ads hit, I didn't stand a chance.

The pop music scene of the early 1980s experienced the so-called Second British Invasion. It was during this time when my peers at school were deciding that to be cool they had to like the songs that Casey Kasem told them were in the Top 40. But you could have found me digging through my Dad's oldies compilations looking for anything that said “Beach Boys”.

I remember discovering “I Get Around” in this way. And “Fun, Fun, Fun”, perhaps “Surfin' USA”.

I was on my way. Everything about the band that I was learning as a 11-, 12-, 13-year old was fascinating to me. But still my interest in the band didn't extend beyond listening to what small handful of songs I could get my hands on, perhaps because my interest couldn't expand.

The Beach Boys weren't exactly in heavy rotation on the radio and this was way before YouTube or iTunes. Heck, this was before I had an allowance, much less the ability to drive to a record store and buy my own stuff. Maybe I just wasn't made for my time.

So I languished as this creative, imaginative preteen, biding my time for the freedom of a driver's license and money in my pocket. I wasn't mourning my lack of more Beach Boys material, I was living a normal life with my interests being pulled in all kinds of directions.

But the seed had been planted. It would lay dormant for many years, but now, as a 40 year old full-blown Beach Boys and Brian Wilson fanatic, I can clearly see its earliest origins.

at seed would start to sprout in the Summer of 1985, but that shall be the topic of my next post. Soon after that, I will begin a detailed examination of all The Beach Boys' albums.

Please join me on this journey and celebration of a Magical Californ-I-A where the summer is endless, the music ranges from goofy to brilliant, girls named Wendy and Barbara Ann have hair that's soft and long and everyone is drinking Sunkist.