Three brothers (Carl, Brian, and Dennis Wilson), a cousin
(Mike Love), and a friend (Al Jardine) became America's first great rock
band. They came out of Hawthorne, a suburb of Los Angeles, with songs that
glorified the Southern California life-style that revolved around cars,
surfing, and having a good time. Their crisp instrumental style and
astonishing vocal harmonies produced four number one hits and gave us a band
that was able to stand up to British Invasion groups that flooded the U.S.
beginning in 1964.
Their first national hit was "Surfin Safari,"
released in 1962. Brian Wilson focused on producing the group's studio sound
beginning with their third album, Surfer Girl. He was impressed by
the recordings that Phil Spector was turning out and he tried to mimic
the "wall of sound" featured on the records of the Ronettes, Crystals, and
Righteous Brothers. Although many of the Beach Boys songs focused on
adolescent fun there was also a darker side represented in songs like
In My Room and When I Grow Up
Inspired by the Beatles release of their album Rubber Soul, the
Beach Boys reached their creative zenith with Pet Sounds, in 1966. It
was a concept album "charting a young man's growth to maturity" (Rollingstone.com).
The record included the use of cellos, a harmonica and the theremin (an
early electronic instrument) on its most popular cut, Good Vibrations.
Although it enjoyed considerable success abroad, Pet Sounds fell
short of the popularity reached by previous albums they had released in the
U.S. Brian Wilson conceived of a follow-up album to Pet Sounds
entitled Smile and work began on the album but it was abandoned for
thirty-seven years due to Brian's drug problems and some resistance from
other members of the group. The recording was finally completed and released
to great critical acclaim in 2004. Smile includes some truly impressive
tracks such as the a capella "Our Prayer" and "Heroes and Villians."
Their four number one songs were "I Get Around" (1964), "Help Me Rhonda" (1965),
"Good Vibrations" (1966), and "Kokomo"
(1988).
