The Beach Boys

The Beach Boysare an Americanrockband formed inHawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothersBrian,DennisandCarl Wilson, their cousinMike Love, and friendAl Jardine. Distinguished by theirvocal harmonies, adolescent-oriented lyrics, and musical ingenuity, they are one of the most influential acts of the rock era. The group drew on the music ofolder popvocal groups, 1950srock and roll, and blackR&Bto create their unique sound. Under Brian's direction, they often incorporatedclassicalorjazzelements andunconventional recording techniquesin innovative ways.
The Beach Boys formed as agarage bandcentered on Brian's songwriting and managed by the Wilsons' father,Murry. In 1963, they enjoyed their first national hit with "Surfin' U.S.A.", beginning astring of top-ten singlesthat reflected asouthern Californiayouth cultureofsurfing, cars, and romance, dubbed the "California sound". They were one of the few American rock bands to sustain their commercial standing during theBritish Invasion. Starting with 1965'sThe Beach Boys Today!, they abandoned beachgoing themes for more personal lyrics and ambitious orchestrations. In 1966, thePet Soundsalbum and "Good Vibrations" single raised the group's prestige as rock innovators; both are now widely considered to be among the greatest and most influential works inpopular musichistory. After scrapping theSmilealbum in 1967, Brian gradually ceded control of the group to his bandmates.
In the late 1960s, the group's commercial momentum faltered in the U.S., and they were widely dismissed by theearly rock music pressbefore undergoing a rebranding in the early 1970s. Carl took over asde factoleader until the mid-1970s, when the band responded to the growing success of their live shows andgreatest hitscompilations by transitioning into anoldiesact. Dennis drowned in 1983, and Brian soon became estranged from the group. Following Carl's death from lung cancer in 1998, the band granted Love legal rights totour under the group's name. In the early 2010s, the original members briefly reunited for the band's50th anniversary tour. As of 2025, Brian and Jardine do not perform with Love's edition of the Beach Boys, but remain official members of the band.
The Beach Boys are one of the most critically acclaimed andcommercially successful bandsof all time, selling over 100 million records worldwide. They helped legitimize popular music as a recognized art form, and influenced the development of music genres and movements such aspsychedelia,power pop,progressive rock,punk,alternative, andlo-fi. Between the 1960s and 2020s, the group had 37 songs reach the U.S.Top 40of theBillboardHot 100(the most by an American band), with four topping the chart. In 2004, the group was ranked number 12 onRolling Stone's list of thegreatest artists of all time. Many critics' polls have rankedToday!,Pet Sounds,Smiley Smile(1967),Sunflower(1970),Surf's Up(1971), andThe Beach Boys Love You(1977) among the finest albums in history. The founding members were inducted into theRock and Roll Hall of Famein 1988. Other members during the band's history have beenDavid Marks,Bruce Johnston,Blondie Chaplin, andRicky Fataar.
At the time of his 16th birthday on June 20, 1958,Brian Wilsonshared a bedroom with his brothers,DennisandCarl—aged 13 and 11, respectively—in their family home inHawthorne. He had watched his fatherMurry Wilsonplay piano, and had listened intently to the harmonies of vocal groups such asthe Four Freshmen.After dissecting songs such as "Ivory Tower" and "Good News", Brian would teach family members how to sing the background harmonies.For his birthday that year, Brian received areel-to-reel tape recorder. He learned how tooverdub, using his vocals and those of Carl and their mother.Brian played piano, while Carl andDavid Marks, an eleven-year-old longtime neighbor, played guitars that each had received as Christmas presents.
Soon Brian and Carl were avidly listening toJohnny Otis'KFOXradio show.Inspired by the simple structure and vocals of therhythm and bluessongs he heard, Brian changed his piano-playing style and started writing songs.Family gatherings brought the Wilsons in contact with cousinMike Love. Brian taught Love's sister Maureen and a friend harmonies.Later, Brian, Love and two friends performed atHawthorne High School.Brian also knewAl Jardine, a high school classmate.Brian suggested to Jardine that they team up with his cousin and brother Carl. Love gave the fledgling band its name: "The Pendletones", a pun on "Pendleton", a brand of woollen shirt popular at the time.Dennis was the only avid surfer in the group, and he suggested that the group write songs that celebrated the sport and the lifestyle that it had inspired inSouthern California.Brian finished the song, titled "Surfin'", and with Mike Love, wrote "Surfin' Safari".
Murry Wilson, who was an occasional songwriter, arranged for the Pendletones to meet his publisher Hite Morgan.He said: "Finally, [Hite] agreed to hear it, and Mrs. Morgan said 'Drop everything, we're going to record your song. I think it's good.' And she's the one responsible."On September 15, 1961, the band recorded a demo of "Surfin'" with the Morgans. A more professional recording was made on October 3, at World Pacific Studio in Hollywood.David Marks was not present at the session as he was in school that day.Murry brought the demos to Herb Newman, owner ofCandix RecordsandEra Records, and he signed the group on December 8.When the single was released a few weeks later, the band found that they had been renamed "the Beach Boys".Candix wanted to name the group the Surfers untilRuss Regan, a young promoter with Era Records, noted that there already existed a group by that name. He suggested calling them the Beach Boys."Surfin'" was a regional success for the West Coast, and reached number 75 on the nationalBillboardHot 100chart.
By this time the de facto manager of the Beach Boys, Murry landed the group's first paying gig (for which they earned $300) on New Year's Eve, 1961, at theRitchie ValensMemorial Dance inLong Beach.In their early public appearances, the band wore heavy wool jacket-like shirts that local surfers favoredbefore switching to their trademark striped shirts and white pants (a look that was taken directly from theKingston Trio).All five members sang, with Brian playing bass, Dennis playing drums, Carl playing lead guitar, and Al Jardine playing rhythm guitar, while Mike Love was the main singer and occasionally played saxophone. In early 1962, Morgan requested that some of the members add vocals to a couple of instrumental tracks that he had recorded with other musicians. This led to the creation of the short-lived group Kenny & the Cadets, which Brian led under the pseudonym "Kenny". The other members were Carl, Jardine, and the Wilsons' mother Audree.In February, Jardine left the Beach Boys and was replaced by David Marks on rhythm guitar.A common misconception is that Jardine left to focus ondental school. In reality, Jardine did not even apply to dental school until 1964, and the reason he left in February 1962 was due to creative differences and his belief that the newly-formed group would not be a commercial success.
After being turned down byDotandLiberty, the Beach Boys signed a seven-year contract withCapitol Records.This was at the urging of Capitol executive and staff producerNick Venetwho signed the group, seeing them as the "teenage gold" he had been scouting for.On June 4, 1962, the Beach Boys debuted on Capitol with their second single, "Surfin' Safari" backed with "409". The release prompted national coverage in the June 9 issue ofBillboard, which praised Love's lead vocal and said the song had potential."Surfin' Safari" rose to number 14 and found airplay in New York and Phoenix, a surprise for the label.
The Beach Boys' first album,Surfin' Safari, was released in October 1962. It was different from other rock albums of the time in that it consisted almost entirely of original songs, primarily written by Brian with Mike Love and friendGary Usher.Another unusual feature of the Beach Boys was that, although they were marketed as "surf music", their repertoire bore little resemblance to the music of other surf bands, which was mainly instrumental and incorporated heavy use ofspring reverb. For this reason, some of the Beach Boys' early local performances had young audience members throwing vegetables at the band, believing that the group were poseurs.
In January 1963, the Beach Boys recorded their first top-ten single, "Surfin' U.S.A.", which began their long run of highly successful recording efforts. It was during the sessions for this single that Brian made the production decision from that point on to usedouble trackingon the group's vocals, resulting in a deeper and more resonant sound.Thealbum of the same namefollowed in March and reached number 2 on theBillboardcharts.Its success propelled the group into a nationwide spotlight, and was vital to launching surf music as a national craze,albeit the Beach Boys' vocal approach to the genre, not the original instrumental style pioneered byDick Dale.Biographer Luis Sanchez highlights the "Surfin' U.S.A." single as a turning point for the band, "creat[ing] a direct passage to California life for a wide teenage audience ... [and] a distinct Southern California sensibility that exceeded its conception as such to advance right to the front of American consciousness".
Throughout 1963, and for the next few years, Brian produced a variety of singles for outside artists. Among these werethe Honeys, a surfer trio that comprised sisters Diane andMarilyn Rovellwith cousin Ginger Blake. Brian was convinced that they could be a successful female counterpart to the Beach Boys, and he produced a number of singles for them, although they could not replicate the Beach Boys' popularity.He also attended some ofPhil Spector's sessions atGold Star Studios.His creative and songwriting interests were revamped upon hearingthe Ronettes' 1963 song "Be My Baby", which was produced by Spector. The first time he heard the song was while driving, and was so overwhelmed that he had to pull over to the side of the road and analyze the chorus.Later, he reflected: "I was unable to really think as a producer up until the time where I really got familiar with Phil Spector's work. That was when I started to design the experience to be a record rather than just a song."
Surfer Girlmarked the first time the group used outside musicians on a substantial portion of an LP.Many of them were the musicians Spector used for hisWall of Soundproductions.Only a month afterSurfer Girl's release the group's fourth albumLittle Deuce Coupewas issued. To close 1963, the band released a standalone Christmas-themed single "Little Saint Nick", backed with ana cappellarendition of thescripturalsong "The Lord's Prayer". The A-side peaked at number 3 on the USBillboardChristmas chart.By the end of the year David Marks had left the group and Al Jardine had returned.
The surf music craze, along with the careers of nearly all surf acts, was slowly replaced by theBritish Invasion.Following a successful Australasian tour in January and February 1964, the Beach Boys returned home to face their new competition,the Beatles. Both groups shared the same record label in the US, and Capitol's support for the Beach Boys immediately began waning. Although it generated a top-five single in "Fun Fun Fun", the group's fifth album,Shut Down Volume 2, became their first sinceSurfin' Safarinot to reach the US top-ten. This caused Murry to fight for the band at the label more than before, often visiting their offices without warning to "twist executive arms".Carl said that Phil Spector "was Brian's favorite kind of rock; he liked [him] better than the early Beatles stuff. He loved the Beatles' later music when they evolved and started making intelligent, masterful music, but before that Phil was it."According to Mike Love, Carl followed the Beatles closer than anyone else in the band, while Brian was the most "rattled" by the Beatles and felt tremendous pressure to "keep pace" with them.For Brian, the Beatles ultimately "eclipsed a lot [of what] we'd worked for ... [they] eclipsed the whole music world".
Brian wrote his last surf song for nearly four years, "Don't Back Down", in April 1964.That month, during recording of the single "I Get Around", Murry was relieved of his duties as manager. He remained in close contact with the group and attempted to continue advising on their career decisions.When "I Get Around" was released in May, it would climb to number 1 in the US and Canada, their first single to do so (also reaching the top-ten in Sweden and the UK), proving that the Beach Boys could compete with contemporary British pop groups."I Get Around" and "Don't Back Down" both appeared on the band's sixth albumAll Summer Long, released in July 1964 and reaching number 4 in the US.All Summer Longintroduced exotic textures to the Beach Boys' sound exemplified by thepiccolosandxylophonesofits title track.The album was a swan-song to the surf and car music the Beach Boys built their commercial standing upon. Later albums took a different stylistic and lyrical path.Before this, a live album,Beach Boys Concert, was released in October to a four-week chart stay at number 1, containing a set list of previously recorded songs and covers that they had not yet recorded.
In June 1964, Brian recorded the bulk ofThe Beach Boys' Christmas Albumwith a forty-one-piece studio orchestra in collaboration withFour FreshmenarrangerDick Reynolds. The album was a response to Phil Spector'sA Christmas Gift for You(1963). Released in December, the Beach Boys' album was divided between five new, original Christmas-themed songs, and seven reinterpretations of traditional Christmas songs.It would be regarded as one of the finestholiday albumsof the rock era.One single from the album, "The Man with All the Toys", was released, peaking at number 6 on the USBillboardChristmas chart.On October 29, the Beach Boys performed forThe T.A.M.I. Show, a concert film intended to bring together a wide range of musicians for a one-off performance. The result was released to movie theaters one month later.
By the end of 1964, the stress of road travel, writing, and producing became too much for Brian. On December 23, while on a flight from Los Angeles to Houston, he suffered apanic attack.In January 1965, he announced his withdrawal from touring to concentrate entirely on songwriting and record production. For the last few days of 1964 and into early 1965, session musician and up-and-coming solo artistGlen Campbellagreed to temporarily serve as Brian's replacement in concert.Carl took over as the band's musical director onstage.Now a full-time studio artist,Brian wanted to move the Beach Boys beyond their surf aesthetic, believing that their image was antiquated and distracting the public from his talents as a producer and songwriter.Musically, he said he began to "take the things I learned from Phil Spector and use more instruments whenever I could. I doubled up on basses and tripled up on keyboards, which made everything sound bigger and deeper."
Released in March 1965,The Beach Boys Today!marked the first time the group experimented with the "album-as-art" form. The tracks on side one feature an uptempo sound that contrasts side two, which consists mostly of emotional ballads.Music writer Scott Schinder referenced its "suite-like structure" as an early example of therock album formatbeing used to make a cohesive artistic statement.Brian also established his new lyrical approach toward the autobiographical; journalistNick Kentwrote that the subjects of Brian's songs "were suddenly no longer simple happy souls harmonizing their sun-kissed innocence and dying devotion to each other over a honey-coated backdrop of surf and sand. Instead, they'd become highly vulnerable, slightly neurotic and riddled with telling insecurities."In the bookYeah Yeah Yeah: The Story of Modern Pop,Bob Stanleyremarked that "Brian was aiming forJohnny Mercerbut coming upproto-indie."In 2012, the album was voted 271 onRolling Stonemagazine's list of the500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
In April 1965, Campbell's own career success pulled him from touring with the group.Columbia Recordsstaff producerBruce Johnstonwas asked to locate a replacement for Campbell; having failed to find one, Johnston himself became a full-time member of the band on May 19, 1965. With Johnston's arrival, Brian now had a sixth voice he could work with in the band's vocal arrangements, with the June 4 vocal sessions for "California Girls" being Johnston's first recording session with the Beach Boys. "California Girls" was included on the band's next albumSummer Days (And Summer Nights!!)and eventually charted at number 3 in the US as the second single from the album, while the album itself went to number 2. The first single fromSummer Dayshad been a reworked arrangement of "Help Me, Rhonda", which became the band's second number 1 US single in the spring of 1965.For contractual reasons, owing to his previous deal with Columbia Records, Johnston was not able to be credited or pictured on Beach Boys records until 1967.
To appease Capitol's demands for a Beach Boys LP for the 1965 Christmas season, Brian conceivedBeach Boys' Party!, a live-in-the-studio album consisting mostly of acoustic covers of 1950s rock and R&B songs, in addition to covers of three Beatles songs,Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are a-Changin'", and idiosyncratic rerecordings of the group's earlier songs.The album was an early precursor of the "unplugged" trend. It also included a cover ofthe Regents' song "Barbara Ann", which unexpectedly reached number 2 when released as a single several weeks later.In November, the group released another top-twenty single, "The Little Girl I Once Knew". It was considered the band's most experimental statement thus far.The single continued Brian's ambitions for daring arrangements, featuring unexpected tempo changes and numerous false endings.With the exception of their 1963 and 1964 Christmas singles ("Little Saint Nick" and "The Man with All the Toys") it was the group's lowest charting single on theBillboardHot 100 since "Ten Little Indians" in 1962, peaking at number 20.According to Luis Sanchez, in 1965, Bob Dylan was "rewriting the rules for pop success" with his music and image, and it was at this juncture that Wilson "led The Beach Boys into a transitional phase in an effort to win the pop terrain that had been thrown up for grabs".
Wilson collaborated withjinglewriterTony Asherfor several of the songs on the albumPet Sounds, a refinement of the themes and ideas that were introduced inToday!.In some ways, the music was a jarring departure from their earlier style.Jardine explained that "it took us quite a while to adjust to [the new material] because it wasn't music you could necessarily dance to—it was more like music you could make love to".InThe Journal on the Art of Record Production, Marshall Heiser writes thatPet Sounds"diverges from previous Beach Boys' efforts in several ways: its sound field has a greater sense of depth and 'warmth;' the songs employ even more inventive use of harmony and chord voicings; the prominent use of percussion is a key feature (as opposed to driving drum backbeats); whilst the orchestrations, at times, echo the quirkiness of 'exotica' bandleaderLes Baxter, or the 'cool' ofBurt Bacharach, more so than Spector's teen fanfares".
ForPet Sounds, Brian desired to make "a complete statement", similar to what he believed the Beatles had done with their newest albumRubber Soul, released in December 1965.Brian was immediately enamored with the album, given the impression that it had nofiller tracks, a feature that was mostly unheard of at a time when 45 rpm singles were considered more noteworthy than full-length LPs.He later said: "It didn't make me want to copy them but to be as good as them. I didn't want to do the same kind of music, but on the same level."Thanks to mutual connections, Brian was introduced to the Beatles' former press officerDerek Taylor, who was subsequently employed as the Beach Boys' publicist. Responding to Brian's request to reinvent the band's image, Taylor devised a promotion campaign with the tagline "Brian Wilson is a genius", a belief Taylor sincerely held.Taylor's prestige was crucial in offering a credible perspective to those on the outside, and his efforts are widely recognized as instrumental in the album's success in Britain.
Released on May 16, 1966,Pet Soundswas widely influential and raised the band's prestige as an innovative rock group.Early reviews for the album in the US ranged from negative to tentatively positive, and its sales numbered approximately 500,000 units, a drop-off from the run of albums that immediately preceded it.It was assumed that Capitol consideredPet Soundsa risk, appealing more to an older demographic than the younger, female audience upon which the Beach Boys had built their commercial standing.Within two months, the label capitulated by releasing the group's firstgreatest hitscompilation album,Best of the Beach Boys, which was quickly certified gold by theRIAA.By contrast,Pet Soundsmet a highly favorable critical response in Britain, where it reached number 2 and remained among the top-ten positions for six months.Responding to the hype,Melody Makerran a feature in which many pop musicians were asked whether they believed that the album was truly revolutionary andprogressive, or "as sickly as peanut butter". The author concluded that "the record's impact on artists and the men behind the artists has been considerable".
Throughout the summer of 1966, Brian concentrated on finishing the group's next single, "Good Vibrations".Instead of working on whole songs with clear large-scale syntactical structures, he limited himself to recording short interchangeable fragments (or "modules"). Through the method oftape splicing, each fragment could then be assembled into a linear sequence, allowing any number of larger structures and divergent moods to be produced at a later time.Coming at a time when pop singles were usually recorded in under two hours, it was one of the most complex pop productions ever undertaken, with sessions for the song stretching over several months in four major Hollywood studios. It was also the most expensive single ever recorded to that point, with production costs estimated to be in the tens of thousands.
In the midst of "Good Vibrations" sessions, Wilson invited session musician and songwriterVan Dyke Parksto collaborate as lyricist for the Beach Boys' next album project, soon titledSmile. Parks agreed.Wilson and Parks intendedSmileto be a continuous suite of songs linked both thematically and musically, with the main songs linked together by small vocal pieces and instrumental segments that elaborated on the major songs' musical themes.It was explicitly American in style and subject, a conscious reaction to the overwhelming British dominance of popular music at the time.Some of the music incorporated chanting, cowboy songs, explorations in Indian and Hawaiian music, jazz, classicaltone poems, cartoon sound effects,musique concrète, and yodeling.Saturday Evening PostwriterJules Siegelrecalled that, on one October evening, Brian announced to his wife and friends that he was "writing a teenage symphony to God".
Recording forSmilelasted about a year, from mid-1966 to mid-1967, and followed the same modular production approach as "Good Vibrations".Concurrently, Wilson planned many different multimedia side projects, such as a sound effects collage, a comedy album, and a "health food" album.Capitol did not support all these ideas, which led to the Beach Boys' desire to form their own label,Brother Records. According to biographerSteven Gaines, Wilson employed his newfound "best friend"David Anderleas head of the label.
Throughout 1966,EMIflooded the UK market with Beach Boys albums not yet released there, includingBeach Boys' Party!,The Beach Boys Today!andSummer Days (and Summer Nights!!),whileBest of the Beach Boyswas number 2 there for several weeks at the end of the year.Over the final quarter of 1966, the Beach Boys were the highest-selling album act in the UK, where for the first time in three years American artists broke the chart dominance of British acts.In 1971,Cuemagazine wrote that, from mid-1966 to late-1967, the Beach Boys "were among the vanguard in practically every aspect of the counter culture".
Released on October 10, 1966, "Good Vibrations" was the Beach Boys' third US number 1 single, reaching the top of theBillboardHot 100 in December, and became their first number 1 in Britain.That month, the record was their first single certified gold by theRIAA.It came to be widely acclaimed as one of the greatest masterpieces of rock music.In December 1966, the Beach Boys were voted the top band in the world in theNME's annual readers' poll, ahead of the Beatles,the Walker Brothers,the Rolling Stones, andthe Four Tops.
Throughout the first half of 1967, the release date forSmilewas repeatedly postponed as Brian continuously tinkered with the recordings, experimenting with different takes and mixes, and appeared unable or unwilling to supply finished versions of songs. Meanwhile, he began to suffer from delusions and paranoia, believing on one occasion that the would-be album track "Fire" caused a building to burn down.On January 3, 1967, Carl Wilson refused to be drafted for military service, leading to indictment and criminal prosecution, which he challenged as aconscientious objector.The FBI arrested him in April,and it took several years for courts to resolve the matter.
After months of recording and media hype,Smilewas shelved for personal, technical, and legal reasons.A February 1967 lawsuit seeking $255,000 (equivalent to $2.33 million in 2023) was launched againstCapitol Recordsover neglected royalty payments. Within the lawsuit was an attempt to terminate the band's contract with Capitol before its November 1969 expiry.Many of Wilson's associates, including Parks and Anderle, disassociated themselves from the group by April 1967.Brian later said: "Time can be spent in the studio to the point where you get so next to it, you don't know where you are with it—you decide to just chuck it for a while."
In the decades followingSmile's non-release, it became the subject of intense speculation and mystiqueand the most legendary unreleased album in pop music history.Many of the album's advocates believe that had it been released, it would have altered the group's direction and cemented them at the vanguard of rock innovators.In 2011,Uncutmagazine staff votedSmilethe "greatestbootleg recordingof all time".
From 1965 to 1967, the Beach Boys had developed a musical and lyrical sophistication that contrasted their work from before and after. This divide was further solidified by the difference in sound between their albums and their stage performances.This resulted in a split fanbase corresponding to two distinct musical markets. One group enjoys the band's early work as a wholesome representation of American popular culture from before the political and social movements brought on in the mid-1960s. The other group also appreciates the early songs for their energy and complexity, but not as much as the band's ambitious work that was created during the formativepsychedelic era.At the time, rock music journalists typically valued the Beach Boys' early records over their experimental work.
In May 1967, the Beach Boys attempted to tour Europe with four extra musicians brought from the US, but were stopped by the British musicians' union. The tour went on without the extra support, and critics described their performances as "amateurish" and "floundering".At the last minute, the Beach Boys declined to headline theMonterey Pop Festival, an event held in June. According to David Leaf, "Monterey was a gathering place for the 'far out' sounds of the 'new' rock ... and it is thought that [their] non-appearance was what really turned the 'underground' tide against them."Fan magazines speculated that the group was on the verge of breaking up.Detractors called the band the "Bleach Boys" and "the California Hypes" as media focus shifted from Los Angeles to the happenings in San Francisco.Asauthenticitybecame a higher concern among critics, the group's legitimacy in rock music became an oft-repeated criticism, especially since their early songs appeared to celebrate a politically unconscious youth culture.
AlthoughSmilehad been cancelled, the Beach Boys were still under pressure and a contractual obligation to record and present an album to Capitol.Carl remembered: "Brian just said, 'I can't do this. We're going to make a homespun version of [Smile] instead. We're just going to take it easy. I'll get in the pool and sing. Or let's go in the gym and do our parts.' That wasSmiley Smile."Sessions for the new album lasted from June to July 1967 atBrian's new makeshift home studio. Most of the album featured the Beach Boys playing their own instruments, rather than the session musicians employed in much of their previous work.It was the first album for which production was credited to the entire group instead of Brian alone.
In July 1967, lead single "Heroes and Villains" was issued, arriving after months of public anticipation, and reached number 12 in US. It was met with general confusion and underwhelming reviews, and in theNME,Jimi Hendrixfamously dismissed it as a "psychedelic barbershop quartet". By then, the group's lawsuit with Capitol was resolved, and it was agreed thatSmilewould not be the band's next album.In August, the group embarked on a two-date tour of Hawaii.The shows saw Brian make a brief return to live performance, as Bruce Johnston chose to take a temporary break from the band during the summer of 1967, feeling that the atmosphere within the band "had all got too weird".The performances were filmed and recorded with the intention of releasing a live album,Lei'd in Hawaii, which was also left unfinished and unreleased.The general record-buying public came to view the music made after this time as the point marking the band's artistic decline.
Smiley Smilewas released on September 18, 1967,and peaked at number 41 in the US,making it their worst-selling album to that date.Critics and fans were generally underwhelmed by the album.According to Scott Schinder, the album was released to "general incomprehension. WhileSmilemay have divided the Beach Boys' fans had it been released,Smiley Smilemerely baffled them."The group was virtually blacklisted by the music press, to the extent that reviews of the group's records were either withheld from publication or published long after the release dates.When released in the UK in November, it performed better, reaching number 9.Over the years, the album gathered a reputation as one of the best "chill-out" albums to listen to during an LSDcomedown.In 1974,NMEvoted it the 64th-greatest album of all time.
The Beach Boys immediately recorded a new album,Wild Honey, an excursion intosoul music, and a self-conscious attempt to "regroup" themselves as a rock band in opposition to their more orchestral affairs of the past.Its music differs in many ways from previous Beach Boys records: it contains very little group singing compared to previous albums, and mainly features Brian singing at his piano. Again, the Beach Boys recorded mostly at his home studio.Love reflected thatWild Honeywas "completely out of the mainstream for what was going on at that time ... and that was the idea".
Wild Honeywas released on December 18, 1967, in competition with the Beatles'Magical Mystery Tourand the Rolling Stones'Their Satanic Majesties Request.It had a higher chart placing thanSmiley Smile, but still failed to make the top-twenty and remained on the charts for only 15 weeks.As withSmiley Smile, contemporary critics viewed it as inconsequential,and it alienated fans whose expectations had been raised bySmile.That month, Mike Love told a British journalist: "Brian has been rethinking our recording program and in any case we all have a much greater say nowadays in what we turn out in the studio."
The Beach Boys were at their lowest popularity in the late 1960s, and their cultural standing was especially worsened by their public image, which remained incongruous with their peers' "heavier" music.At the end of 1967,Rolling Stoneco-founder and editorJann Wennerprinted an influential article that denounced the Beach Boys as "just one prominent example of a group that has gotten hung up on trying to catch The Beatles. It's a pointless pursuit."The article had the effect of excluding the group among serious rock fansand such controversy followed them into the next year.Capitol continued to bill them as "America's Top Surfin' Group!" and expected Brian to write more beachgoing songs for the yearly summer markets.From 1968 onward, his songwriting output declined substantially, but the public narrative of "Brian as leader" continued.The group also stopped wearing their longtime striped-shirt stage uniforms in favor of matching white, polyester suits that resembled a Las Vegas show band's.
After meetingMaharishi Mahesh Yogiat aUNICEFVariety Gala in Paris, Love and other high-profile celebrities such as the Beatles andDonovantraveled toRishikesh, India, in February–March 1968. The following Beach Boys album,Friends, had songs influenced by theTranscendental Meditationthe Maharishi taught. In support ofFriends, Love arranged for the Beach Boys totour with the Maharishi in the US. Starting on May 3, 1968, the tour lasted five shows and was canceled when the Maharishi withdrew to fulfill film contracts. Because of disappointing audience numbers and the Maharishi's withdrawal, 24 tour dates were canceled at a cost estimated at $250,000.Friends, released on June 24, peaked at number 126 in the US.In August, Capitol issued an album of Beach Boys backing tracks,Stack-o-Tracks. It was the first Beach Boys LP that failed to chart in the US and UK.
In June 1968, Dennis befriendedCharles Manson, an aspiring singer-songwriter, and their relationship lasted for several months. Dennis bought him time at Brian's home studio, where recording sessions were attempted while Brian stayed in his room.Dennis then proposed that Manson be signed to Brother Records. Brian reportedly disliked Manson, and a deal was never made.In July 1968, the group released the single "Do It Again", which lyrically harkened back to their earlier surf songs. Around this time, Brian admitted himself to a psychiatric hospital; his bandmates wrote and produced material in his absence.Released in January 1969, the album20/20mixed new material with outtakes and leftovers from recent albums; Brian produced virtually none of the newer recordings.
The Beach Boys recorded one song by Manson without his involvement: "Cease to Exist", rewritten as "Never Learn Not to Love", which was included on20/20.  Ashis cult of followerstook over Dennis's home, Dennis gradually distanced himself from Manson.According to Leaf, "The entire Wilson family reportedly feared for their lives."
In August, the Manson Family committed theTate–LaBianca murders. According to Jon Parks, the band's tour manager, it was widely suspected in the Hollywood community that Manson was responsible for the murders, and it had been known that Manson had been involved with the Beach Boys, causing the band to be viewed as pariahs for a time.In November, police apprehended Manson, and his connection with the Beach Boys received media attention. He was later convicted for several counts of murder andconspiracyto murder.
In April 1969, the band revisited its 1967 lawsuit against Capitol after it alleged an audit revealed the band was owed over $2 million for unpaid royalties and production duties.In May, Brian told the music press that the group's funds were depleted to the point that it was considering filing for bankruptcy at the end of the year, whichDisc & Music Echocalled "stunning news" and a "tremendous shock on the American pop scene". Brian hoped that the success of a forthcoming single, "Break Away", would mend the financial issues.The song, written and produced by Brian and Murry, reached number 63 in the US and number 6 in the UK,and Brian's remarks to the press ultimately thwarted long-simmering contract negotiations withDeutsche Grammophon.The group's Capitol contract expired two weeks later with one more album still due.Live in London, a live album recorded in December 1968, was released in the UK and a few other countries in 1970 to fulfil the contract, although it would not see US release until 1976.After the contract was completed Capitol deleted the Beach Boys' catalog from print, effectively cutting off their royalty flow.The lawsuit was later settled in their favor and they acquired the rights to their post-1965 catalog.
In August,Sea of Tunes, the Beach Boys' catalog, was sold to Irving Almo Music for $700,000 (equivalent to $5.82 million in 2023).According to his wife,Marilyn Wilson, Brian was devastated by the sale.Over the years, the catalog generated more than $100 million in publishing royalties, none of which Murry or the band members ever received.That same month, Carl, Dennis, Love, and Jardine sought a permanent replacement for Johnston, with Johnston unaware of this search. They approached Carl's brother-in-lawBilly Hinsche, who declined the offer to focus on his college studies.
The group was signed toReprise Recordsin 1970.Scott Schinder described the label as "probably the hippest and most artist-friendly major label of the time".The deal was brokered by Van Dyke Parks, who was then employed as a multimedia executive atWarner Music Group. Reprise's contract stipulated Brian's proactive involvement with the band in all albums.By the time the Beach Boys' tenure ended with Capitol in 1969, they had sold 65 million records worldwide, closing the decade as the most commercially successful American group in popular music.
After recording over 30 different songs and going through several album titles, their first LP for Reprise,Sunflower, was released on August 31, 1970.Sunflowerfeatured a strong group presence with significant writing contributions from all six band members.Brian was active during this period, writing or co-writing seven ofSunflower's 12 songs and performing at half of the band's domestic concerts in 1970.The album received critical acclaim in both the US and the UK.This was offset by the album reaching only number 151 on US record charts during a four-week stay,becoming one of the worst-selling of the Beach Boys' albums at that point.Fans generally regard the LP as the Beach Boys' finest post-Pet Soundsalbum.In 2003, it placed at number 380 onRolling Stone's "Greatest Albums of All Time" list.
In mid-1970, the Beach Boys hired radio presenterJack Rieleyas their manager. One of his initiatives was to encourage the band to record songs featuring more socially conscious lyrics.He also requested the completion ofSmiletrack "Surf's Up" and arranged a guest appearance at aGrateful Deadconcert atBill Graham'sFillmore Eastin April 1971 to foreground the Beach Boys' transition into the counterculture.During this time, the group ceased wearing matching uniforms on stage,while Dennis took time to star alongsideJames Taylor,Laurie Bird, andWarren Oatesin the cult filmTwo-Lane Blacktop, released in 1971. Later in 1971, Dennis injured his hand, leaving him temporarily unable to play the drums.He continued in the band, singing and occasionally playing keyboards, whileRicky Fataar, formally ofthe Flames, took over on drums.In July, the American music press rated the Beach Boys "the hottest grossing act" in the country, alongsideGrand Funk Railroad.The band filmed a concert forABC-TVinCentral Park, which aired asGood Vibrations from Central Parkon August 19.
On August 30, the band releasedSurf's Up, which was moderately successful, reaching the US top-thirty, a marked improvement over their recent releases.While the record charted, the Beach Boys added to their renewed fame by performing a near-sellout set atCarnegie Hall; their live shows during this era included reworked arrangements of many of their previous songs,with theirset listsculling fromPet SoundsandSmile.On October 28, the Beach Boys were the featured cover story on that date's issue ofRolling Stone. It included the first part of a lengthy two-part interview, titled "The Beach Boys: A California Saga", conducted byTom Nolanand David Felton.
Bruce Johnston left the Beach Boys in early 1972, with Fataar and another ex-Flames member, singer and guitaristBlondie Chaplin, becoming official members of the band. The new line-up releasedCarl and the Passions – "So Tough"in May 1972. The original US release was a double album, the second disc being a reissue ofPet Sounds.After the upswing ofSurf's Up,Carl and the Passionswas relatively unsuccessful in the US, charting at number 50. It was more successful in the UK, where it was issued as a single album withoutPet Sounds, peaking at number 25. The next album,Holland, was released in January 1973. Reprise initially rejected the album, feeling it lacked a strong single. Following the intervention of Van Dyke Parks, this resulted in the inclusion of "Sail On, Sailor".Reprise approved, and the resulting album peaked at number 37. Brian's musical children's story,Mount Vernon and Fairway, was included with the album as a bonusEP.
AfterHolland, the group maintained a touring regimen, captured on the double live albumThe Beach Boys in Concertreleased in November 1973, but recorded very little in the studio through 1975.Several months earlier, they had announced that they would completeSmile, but this never came to fruition, and plans for its release were once again abandoned.Following Murry's death in June 1973, Brian retreated into his bedroom and withdrew further into drug abuse, alcoholism,chain smoking, and overeating.In October, the band fired Rieley.Rieley's position was succeeded by Mike Love's brother, Stephen, andChicagomanagerJames William Guercio.Chaplin and Fataar left the band in December 1973 and November 1974, respectively, with Dennis returning to drums following Fataar's departure.
The Beach Boys' greatest hits compilation albumEndless Summerwas released in June 1974 to unexpected success, becoming the band's second number 1 US album in October.The LP had a 155-week chart run, selling over 3 million copies.The Beach Boys became the number-one act in the US,propelling themselves from opening forCrosby, Stills, Nash and Youngin the summer of 1974 to headliners selling out basketball arenas in a matter of weeks.Guercio prevailed upon the group to swap out newer songs with older material in their concert setlists,partly to accommodate their growing audience and the demand for their early hits.Later in the year, members of the band appeared as guests on Chicago's hit "Wishing You Were Here".At the end of 1974,Rolling Stoneproclaimed the Beach Boys "Band of the Year" based on the strength of their live performances.
To capitalize on their sudden resurgence in popularity, the Beach Boys accepted Guercio's invitation to record their next Reprise album at hisCaribou Ranchstudio, located around the mountains ofNederland, Colorado.These October 1974 sessions marked the group's return to the studio after a 21-month period of virtual inactivity, but the proceedings were cut short after Brian had insisted on returning to his home in Los Angeles.With the project put on hold, the Beach Boys spent most of the next year on the road playing college football stadiums and basketball arenas.The only Beach Boys recording of 1974 to see release at the time was the Christmas single "Child of Winter", recorded upon the group's return to Los Angeles in November and released the following month.
Over the summer of 1975, the touring group played a co-headlining series of concert dates with Chicago, a pairing that was nicknamed "Beachago".The tour was massively successful and restored the Beach Boys' profitability to what it had been in the mid-1960s.Although another joint tour with Chicago had been planned for the summer of 1976,the Beach Boys' association with Guercio and his Caribou Management company ended in early 1976.Stephen Love subsequently took over as the band'sde factobusiness manager.
Early in 1975, Brian signed a production deal withCalifornia Music, a Los Angeles collective that included Bruce Johnston and Gary Usher, but was drawn away by the Beach Boys' pressing demands for a new album.In October, Marilyn persuaded Brian to admit himself to the care of psychologistEugene Landy, who kept him from indulging in substance abuse with constant supervision.Brian was kept in the program until December 1976.
At the end of January 1976, the Beach Boys returned to the studio with Brian producing once again.Brian decided the band should do an album of rock and roll anddoo wopstandards. Carl and Dennis disagreed, feeling that an album of originals was far more ideal, while Love and Jardine wanted the album out as quickly as possible.To highlight Brian's recovery and his return to writing and producing, Stephen devised a promotional campaign with the tagline "Brian Is Back!", and paid theRogers & Cowanpublicity agency $3,500 per month to implement it.The band also commissioned anNBC-TV special, later known asThe Beach Boys: It's OK!, that was produced bySaturday Night LivecreatorLorne Michaels.
Released on July 5, 1976,15 Big Oneswas generally disliked by fans and critics, as well as Carl and Dennis, who disparaged the album to the press.The album peaked at number 8 in the US, becoming their first top-ten album of new material sincePet Sounds, and their highest-charting studio album sinceSummer Days (And Summer Nights!!).Lead single "Rock and Roll Music" peaked at number 5 – their highest chart ranking since "Good Vibrations".
From late-1976 to early-1977, Brian made sporadic public appearances and produced the band's next album,The Beach Boys Love You.He regarded it as a spiritual successor toPet Sounds, namely because of the autobiographical lyrics.Released on April 11, 1977,Love Youpeaked at number 53 in the US and number 28 in the UK.Critically, it was met with polarized reactions from the public.Numerous esteemed critics penned favorable reviews, but casual listeners generally found the album's idiosyncratic sound to be a detriment.
Adult/Child, the intended follow-up toLove You, was completed, but the release was vetoed by Love and Jardine.According to Stan Love, when his brother Mike heard the album, Mike turned to Brian and asked: "What the fuck are you doing?"Some of the unreleased songs onAdult/Childlater saw individual release on subsequent Beach Boys albums and compilations.Following this period, his concert appearances with the band gradually diminished and their performances were occasionally erratic.
At the beginning of 1977, the Beach Boys had enjoyed their most lucrative concert tours ever, with the band playing in packed stadiums and earning up to $150,000 per show.Concurrently, the band was the subject of a record company bidding war, as their contract with Warner Bros. had been set to expire soon.Stephen Love arranged for the Beach Boys to sign an $8 million deal withCBS Recordson March 1.Numerous stipulations were given in the CBS contract, including that Brian was required to write at least four songs per album, co-write at least 70% of all the tracks, and produce or co-produce alongside his brothers.Another part of the deal required the group to play thirty concerts a year in the U.S., in addition to one tour in Australia and Japan, and two tours in Europe.
Within weeks of the CBS contract, Stephen was effectively fired by the band, with one of the alleged reasons being that Mike had not permitted Stephen to sign on his behalf while at a TM retreat in Switzerland.For Stephen's replacement, the group hired Carl's friend Henry Lazarus, an entertainment business owner that had no prior experience in the music industry.Lazarus arranged a major European tour for the Beach Boys, starting in late July, with stops in Germany, Switzerland, and France.Due to poor planning, the tour was cancelled shortly before it began, as Lazarus had failed to complete the necessary paperwork.The group subsequently fired Lazarus and were sued by many of the concert promoters, with losses of $200,000 in preliminary expenses and $550,000 in potential revenue.
In July, the Beach Boys played a concert atWembley Stadiumthat was notable for the fact that, during the show, Mike attacked Brian with a piano bench onstage in front of over 15,000 attendees.In August, Mike and Jardine persuaded Stephen to return as the group's manager,a decision that Carl and Dennis had strongly opposed.By this point, the band had effectively split into two camps; Dennis and Carl on one side, Mike and Jardine on the other, with Brian remaining neutral.These two opposing contingents within the group – known among their associates as the "free-livers" and the "meditators" – were traveling in different planes, using different hotels, and rarely speaking to each other.According to Love, "the terms 'smokers' and 'nonsmokers' were also used".
On September 3, after completing the final date of a northeastern US tour, the internal wrangling came to a head. Following a confrontation on an airport apron – a spectacle that a bystandingRolling Stonejournalist compared to the ending ofCasablanca– Dennis declared that he had left the band.The group was broken up until a meeting at Brian's house on September 17.In light of the lucrative CBS contract, the parties negotiated a settlement resulting in Love gaining control of Brian's vote in the group, allowing Love and Jardine to outvote Carl and Dennis on any matter.
The group had still owed one more album for Reprise. Released in September 1978,M.I.U. Albumwas recorded atMaharishi International Universityin Iowa at the suggestion of Love.The band originally attempted to record a Christmas album, to be titledMerry Christmas from the Beach Boys, but this idea was rejected by Reprise. These Christmas recordings would eventually be released in 1998 as part of theUltimate Christmascompilation album. Dennis and Carl made limited contributions toM.I.U. Album; the album was produced by Jardine andRon Altbach, with Brian credited as "executive producer".Dennis started to withdraw from the group to focus on his second solo album,Bambu, which was shelved just as alcoholism and marital problems overcame all three Wilson brothers.Carl appeared intoxicated during concerts (especially at appearances for their 1978 Australia tour) and Brian gradually slid back into addiction and an unhealthy lifestyle.Stephen was fired shortly after the Australia tour partly due to an incident in which Brian's bodyguards,Rocky PamplinandStan Love, physically assaulted Dennis.
The group's first two albums for CBS, 1979'sL.A. (Light Album)and 1980'sKeepin' the Summer Alive, struggled in the US, charting at 100 and 75 respectively, though the band did manage a top-forty single fromL.A.with "Good Timin'". The recording of these albums saw Bruce Johnston return to the band, initially solely as a producer and eventually as a full-time band member. In-between the two albums, the group contributed the song "It's a Beautiful Day" to the soundtrack of the filmAmericathon.  In an April 1980 interview, Carl reflected that "the last two years have been the most important and difficult time of our career. We were at the ultimate crossroads. We had to decide whether what we had been involved in since we were teenagers had lost its meaning. We asked ourselves and each other the difficult questions we'd often avoided in the past."By the next year, he left the touring group because of unhappiness with the band's nostalgia format and lackluster live performances, subsequently pursuing a solo career.He stated: "I haven't quit the Beach Boys but I do not plan on touring with them until they decide that 1981 means as much to them as 1961."Carl returned in May 1982, after approximately 14 months of being away, on the condition that the group reconsider their rehearsal and touring policies and refrain from "Las Vegas-type" engagements.
On June 21, 1980, the Beach Boys performed a concert atKnebworth, England, which featured a slightly intoxicated Dennis. The concert would later be released as a live album titledGood Timin': Live at Knebworth England 1980in 2002. In 1981, the band scored a surprise US top-twenty hit when their cover ofthe Del-Vikings' "Come Go with Me" from the three year oldM.I.U. Albumwas released as a single.
In late 1982, Eugene Landy was once more employed as Brian's therapist, and a more radical program was undertaken to try to restore Brian to health.This involved removing him from the group on November 5, 1982, at the behest of Carl, Love, and Jardine,in addition to putting him on a rigorous diet and health regimen.Coupled with long, extreme counseling sessions, this therapy was successful in bringing Brian back to physical health, slimming down from 311 pounds (141 kg) to 185 pounds (84 kg).
By the late 1970s and early 1980s, Dennis had been embroiled in successive failed romantic relationships, including a tense and short-lived relationship withFleetwood Mac'sChristine McVie, and found himself in severe economic trouble resulting in the sale ofBrother Studios, established by the Wilson brothers in 1974 and wherePacific Ocean Bluewas produced, and the forfeiture of his beloved yacht. To cope with the combination of devastating losses, Dennis heavily abused alcohol, cocaine, and heroin and was, by 1983, homeless and lived a nomadic lifestyle. He was often seen spending much of his time wandering the Los Angeles coast and often missed Beach Boys performances. By this point, he had lost his voice and much of his ability to play drums.
In 1983, tensions between Dennis and Love escalated to the point that each obtained a restraining order against the other.Following Brian's readmission for Landy's treatment, Dennis was given an ultimatum after his last performance in November 1983 to check into rehab for his alcohol problems or be banned from performing live with the band again. Dennis checked into rehab for his chance to get sober, but on December 28, he drowned at the age of 39 inMarina del Reywhile diving from a friend's boat trying to recover items that he had previously thrown overboard in a fit of rage.
The Beach Boys spent the next several years touring, often playing in front of large audiences, and recording songs for film soundtracks and various artists compilations.One new studio album, the self-titledThe Beach Boys, appeared in 1985 and proved a modest success, becoming their highest-charting album in the US since15 Big Ones.The Beach Boyswas the group's final album for CBS. The following year they returned to Capitol with a 25th anniversary greatest hits albumMade in U.S.A, which featured two new tracks, "Rock 'n' Roll to the Rescue" and a cover ofthe Mamas and the Papas' "California Dreamin'", with the latter featuringRoger McGuinnofthe Byrdson lead guitar.Made in U.S.Aeventually went double platinum.
Commenting on his relationship to the band in 1988, Brian said that he avoided his family at Landy's suggestion, adding that "Although we stay together as a group, as people we're a far cry from friends."Mike denied the accusation that he and the band were keeping Brian from participating with the group.In 1987 the band scored a top-twenty single in collaboration with rap groupthe Fat Boys, on their cover ofthe Surfaris' "Wipeout!". The following year, the Beach Boys unexpectedly claimed their first US number 1 single in 22 years with "Kokomo", which topped the chart for one week.The track was featured in the filmCocktail. Both "Wipeout!" and "Kokomo" were included on the band's next album, 1989'sStill Cruisin', which went platinum in the US.
During 1990 and 1991, the group's original Capitol-era albums (Surfin' SafarithroughLive in London) were released on CD for the first time, withThe Beach Boys' Christmas AlbumandPet Soundsbeing individual titles, and the remaining albums issued as two-fers (two albums on one CD). The Reprise and CBS albums (SunflowerthroughThe Beach Boys) would eventually receive the same treatment in 2000. In 1991 the band contributed a cover of "Crocodile Rock" to theElton JohnandBernie Taupintribute albumTwo Rooms.
Carlin summarized: "Once surfin' pin-ups, they remade themselves asavant-garde popartists, then psychedelic oracles. After that they were down-home hippies, then retro-hip icons. Eventually they devolved into none of the above: a kind of perpetual-motion nostalgia machine."Music journalist Erik Davis wrote in 1990: "the Beach Boys are either dead, deranged, or dinosaurs; their records are Eurocentric, square, unsampled; they've made too much money to merit hip revisionism".In 1992, critic Jim Miller wrote: "They have become a figment of their own past, prisoners of their unflagging popularity—incongruous emblems of a sunny myth of eternal youth belied by much of their own best music. ... The group is still largely identified with its hits from the early Sixties."
Love filed a defamation lawsuit against Brian due to how he was presented in Brian's 1992 memoirWouldn't It Be Nice: My Own Story. Its publisherHarperCollinssettled the suit for $1.5 million. He said that the suit allowed his lawyer "to gain access to the transcripts of Brian's interviews with his [book] collaborator, Todd Gold. Those interviews affirmed—according to Brian—that I had been the inspiration of the group and that I had written many of the songs that [would soon be] in dispute."Other defamation lawsuits were filed by Carl, Brother Records, and the Wilsons' mother Audree.With Love and Brian unable to determine exactly what Love was properly owed in royalties,Love sued Brian in 1992, winning $13 million in 1994 for lost royalties.35 of the group's songs were then amended to credit Love.He later called it "almost certainly the largest case of fraud in music history".
The day after California courts issued a restraining order between Brian and Landy, Brian phonedSire Recordsstaff producerAndy Paleyto collaborate on new material tentatively for the Beach Boys.After losing the songwriting credits lawsuit with Love, Brian toldMOJOin February 1995: "Mike and I are just cool. There's a lot of shit Andy and I got written for him. I just had to get through that goddamn trial!"In April, it was unclear whether the project would turn into a Wilson solo album, a Beach Boys album, or a combination of the two.The project ultimately disintegrated.Instead, Brian and his bandmates recordedStars and Stripes Vol. 1, an album ofcountry musicstars covering Beach Boys songs, with co-production helmed byRiver North RecordsownerJoe Thomas.Afterward, the group discussed finishing the albumSmile, but Carl rejected the idea, fearing that it would cause Brian another nervous breakdown.
1997 saw the release of the critically-acclaimed 4-CD box setThe Pet Sounds Sessions. A further archival release,Ultimate Christmas, followed in 1998.
Early in 1997, Carl was diagnosed with lung and brain cancer after years of heavy smoking. Despite his terminal condition, Carl continued to perform with the band on its 1997 summer tour (a double-bill with the band Chicago) while undergoing chemotherapy. During performances, he sat on a stool and needed oxygen after every song.Carl died on February 6, 1998, at the age of 51, two months after the death of the Wilsons' mother, Audree.
After Carl's death, Jardine left the touring line-up and began to perform regularly with his band "Beach Boys: Family & Friends" until he ran into legal issues for using the name without license. Meanwhile, Jardine sued Love, claiming that he had been excluded from their concerts,BRI, through its longtime attorney, Ed McPherson, sued Jardine in Federal Court. Jardine, in turn, counter-claimed against BRI for wrongful termination.Courts ruled in Love's favor, denying Jardine the use of the Beach Boys name in any fashion. However, Jardine proceeded to appeal this decision in addition to seeking $4 million in damages. TheCalifornia Court of Appealproceeded to rule that "Love acted wrongfully in freezing Jardine out of touring under the Beach Boys name", allowing Jardine to continue with his lawsuit.The case ended up being settled outside of court with the terms not disclosed.BRI ultimately prevailed.
Jardine's final appearance with the band for more than a decade occurred on May 9, 1998, which was the final official Beach Boys show performed before the license dispute.During the license dispute, Love (with Marks) toured as "The California Beach Band"; it was previously believed he did so "America's Band", but this has since been disproven.Love then continued touring with Johnston (and David Marks, until he left the band again in 1999, due to health issues when he was diagnosed withhepatitis C), after securing a license from BRI, with the first performance of the 'reorganized' Love and Johnston-led touring band on July 4, 1998.
In 2000, ABC-TV premiered a two-part television miniseries,The Beach Boys: An American Family, that dramatized the Beach Boys' story. It was produced byFull HouseactorJohn Stamos, and was criticized by numerous parties, including Brian Wilson, for historical inaccuracies.
Sounds of Summer: The Very Best of the Beach Boys, a greatest hits compilation, was released in 2003, eventually going multi-platinum. In 2004, Wilson recorded and released his solo albumBrian Wilson Presents Smile, a reinterpretation of the unfinishedSmileproject. That September, Wilson issued a free CD through theMail On Sundaythat included Beach Boys songs he had recently rerecorded, five of which he co-authored with Love. The 10 track compilation had 2.6 million copies distributed and prompted Love to file a lawsuit in November 2005; he claimed the promotion hurt the sales of the original recordings and that his image was used for the CD.Wilson's wifeMelindaalleged that, during the deposition, Love turned to Wilson and remarked: "you better start writing a real big hit because you're going to have to write me a real big check".Love's suit was dismissed in 2007 when a judge determined that there were no triable issues and that the case was without merit.
In 2006, Brian Wilson, Love, Jardine, Marks, and Johnston participated in a non-performing reunion on the rooftop of the Capitol Records building in Los Angeles to celebrate thatSounds of Summerhad been certified double-platinum.Later that year, Jardine joined Brian Wilson and his band for a short tour celebrating the 40th anniversary ofPet Sounds.
In 2008, Marks briefly reunited with Love and Johnston's touring band for a tour of Europe.
In 2010, Jardine releasedA Postcard from California, his solo debut, in June 2010 (re-released with two extra tracks on April 3, 2012). The album features contributions from Beach Boys Brian Wilson, Carl Wilson (posthumously), Bruce Johnston, David Marks, and Mike Love.  Other guests with Beach Boys connections included Glen Campbell,Scott Mathews,Stephen Kalinich, andGerry BeckleyandDewey BunnellofAmerica.Also in 2010, Brian Wilson and Jardine sang on "We Are the World 25: for Haiti", a new recording of "We Are the World" (with partially revised lyrics), which was released as a charity single to benefit the population of Haiti.
Jardine made his first appearance with the Beach Boys touring band in more than 10 years in 2011 at a tribute concert forRonald Reagan's 100th birthday;at this concert, he sang lead on "Help Me, Rhonda" and "Sloop John B". He made a handful of other appearances with Love and Johnston's touring band in preparation for a reunion.
On October 31, 2011, Capitol released a double album and box set dedicated to theSmilerecordings in the form ofThe Smile Sessions. The album garnered universal critical acclaim and charted in both the USBillboardand UK top-thirty. It went on to winBest Historical Albumat the2013 Grammy Awards.
On December 16, 2011, it was announced that Wilson, Love, Jardine, Johnston, and David Marks would reunite for a new album and50th anniversary tour.On February 12, 2012, the Beach Boys performed at the2012 Grammy Awards, in what was billed as a "special performance" by organizers. It marked the group's first live performance to include Wilson since 1996, Jardine since 1998, and Marks since 1999.Released on June 5,That's Why God Made the Radiodebuted at number 3 on the US charts, expanding the group's span ofBillboard200 top-ten albums across 49 years and one week, passing the Beatles with 47 years of top-ten albums.Critics generally regarded the album as an "uneven" collection, with most of the praise centered on its closing musical suite.
During the tour, in May 2012, when asked about the future held for the band and its reunion after the scheduled end of the tour in September, Love stated that "We're looking at our present and future. I think we're going to be doing this again with Brian for a long time." Wilson said that he had begun planning for another Beach Boys album for the band would record after the tour.On June 1, 2012, Love received an e-mail from Ledbetter stating "no more shows for Wilson". Love then began accepting invitations for when the reunion was over.Johnston told reporter Mark Dillon in mid-June that the current tour was "a one-time event. You're not going to see this next year. I'm busy next year doing my thing with Mike."On June 25, Ledbetter sent another e-mail asking to disregard her last message, but by then, Love claimed that "it was too late. We had booked other concerts, and promoters had begun selling tickets."
Despite this, in July, Love stated: "There's talk of us going and doing a return to the Grammys next year, and there's talk about doing another album together. There's nothing in stone, but there's a lot of ideas being floated around. So after this year, after completing the 50th anniversary reunion, we'll entertain doing some more studio work and see what we can come up with and can do in the future." Love said that Wilson and producer Joe Thomas had over 80 hours of material recorded, much of it culled from material they were working on around the time of Wilson's 1998Imaginationalbum that "were always songs he had earmarked for the Beach Boys" and that their label Capitol Records was excited by the band's reunion and was encouraging the band for more new music and more tour dates.
Ultimately, the reunion tour ended in September 2012 as planned, after a final show on September 28, but amid erroneous rumors that Love had dismissed Wilson from the Beach Boys.At this time, Love and Johnston had announced via a press release that following the end of the reunion tour the Beach Boys would revert to the pre-reunion tour Love/Johnston lineup, without Brian, Jardine, or Marks, all of whom expressed surprise. Although such dates were noted in a late June issue ofRolling Stone, it was widely reported that the three had been "fired".Love later wrote that the end of the reunion came partly as a result of 'interference' from Brian's wife and manager Melinda Ledbetter-Wilson and that he (Love) "had wanted to send out a joint press release, between Brian and me, formally announcing the end of the reunion tour on September 28. But I couldn't get Brian's management team on board..."
On October 5, Love responded in a self-written press release to theLos Angeles Timesstating he "did not fire Brian Wilson from the Beach Boys. I cannot fire Brian Wilson from the Beach Boys ... I do not have such authority. And even if I did, I would never fire Brian Wilson from the Beach Boys." He claimed that nobody in the band "wanted to do a 50th anniversary tour that lasted 10 years" and that its limited run "was long agreed upon".On October 9, Wilson and Jardine submitted a written response to the rumors stating: "I was completely blindsided by his press release ... We hadn't even discussed as a band what we were going to do with all the offers that were coming in for more 50th shows."
From late September, Love and Johnston continued to perform under the Beach Boys name, while Wilson, Jardine, and Marks toured as a trio in 2013,and a subsequent tour with guitaristJeff Beckalso included Blondie Chaplin at select dates.Wilson and Jardine continued to tour together in 2014 and following years, often joined by Chaplin; Marks declined to join them after 2013.
Responding to a new European Union copyright law that extended copyright to 70 years for recordings that were published within 50 years after they were made, Capitol began issuing annual 50-year anniversary "copyright extension" releases of Beach Boys recordings, starting withThe Big Beat 1963(2013).
In June 2013, Wilson's website announced that he was recording and self-producing new material with Jardine, Marks, Chaplin, Don Was, and Jeff Beck.It stated that the material might be split into three albums: one of new pop songs, another of mostly instrumental tracks with Beck, and another of interwoven tracks dubbed "the suite" which initially began form as the closing four tracks ofThat's Why God Made the Radio.In January 2014, Wilson declared in an interview that the Beck collaborations would not be released.Released in April 2015,No Pier Pressuremarked another collaboration between Wilson and Joe Thomas, featuring guest appearances from Jardine, Marks, Chaplin, and others.
Jardine, Marks, Johnston and Love appeared together at the 2014 Ella Awards Ceremony, where Love was honored for his work as a singer.In 2015,Soundstageaired an episode featuring Wilson performing with Jardine, Chaplin, and Ricky Fataar atThe VenetianinLas Vegas.In April, when asked if he was interested in making music with Love again, Wilson replied: "I don't think so, no",adding in July that he "doesn't talk to the Beach Boys [or] Mike Love".
In 2016, Wilson and Jardine embarked on thePet Sounds 50th Anniversary World Tour, promoted as Wilson's final performances of the album,with Chaplin appearing as a special guest at all dates on select songs.  That same year, Love and Wilson each published memoirs,Good Vibrations: My Life as a Beach BoyandI Am Brian Wilson, respectively. Asked about negative comments that Wilson made about him in the book, Love challenged the legitimacy of statements attributed to Wilson in the book and in the press.In an interview withRolling Stoneconducted in June 2016, Wilson said he would like to try to repair his relationship with Love and collaborate with him again.In January 2017, Love said: "If it were possible to make it just Brian and I, and have it under control and done better than what happened in 2012, then yeah, I'd be open to something."
In July 2018, Wilson, Jardine, Love, Johnston, and Marks reunited for a one-off Q&A session moderated by directorRob Reinerat the Capitol Records Tower in Los Angeles. It was the first time the band had appeared together in public since their 2012 tour.That December, Love described his new holiday album,Reason for the Season, as a "message to Brian" and said that he "would love nothing more than to get together with Brian and do some music".
In 2019, Wilson and Jardine (with Chaplin) embarked on a co-headlining tour withthe Zombies, performing selections fromFriendsandSurf's Up.
In February 2020, Wilson and Jardine's official social media pages encouraged fans to boycott the band's music after it was announced that Love's Beach Boys would perform at the Safari Club International Convention inReno, Nevadaon animal rights grounds. The concert proceeded despite online protests, as Love issued a statement that said his group has always supported "freedom of thought and expression as a fundamental tenet of our rights as Americans".In October, Love and Johnston's Beach Boys performed at a fundraiser for Donald Trump's presidential re-election campaign; Wilson and Jardine again issued a statement that they had not been informed about this performance and did not support it.
In March 2020, Jardine was asked about a possible reunion and responded that the band would reunite for a string of live performances in 2021, although he believed a new album was unlikely.In response to reunion rumors, Love said in May that he was open to a 60th anniversary tour, although Wilson has "some serious health issues", while Wilson's manager Jean Sievers commented that no one had spoken to Wilson about such a tour.In February 2021, it was announced that Brian Wilson, Love, Jardine, and the estate of Carl Wilson had sold a majority stake in the band's intellectual property toIrving Azoffand his new company Iconic Artists Group; rumors of a 60th anniversary reunion were again discussed.
In April 2021,Omnivore RecordingsreleasedCalifornia Music Presents Add Some Music, an album featuring Love, Jardine, Marks, Johnston, and several children of the original Beach Boys (most notably on a re-recording of The Beach Boys' "Add Some Music to Your Day" from 1970'sSunflower).In August, Capitol released the box setFeel Flows: The Sunflower & Surf's Up Sessions 1969–1971.In 2022, the group was expected to participate in a "60th anniversary celebration". Azoff stated in an interview from May 2021: "We're going to announce a major deal with a streamer for the definitive documentary on The Beach Boys and a 60th anniversary celebration. We're planning a tribute concert affiliated with the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame andSiriusXM, with amazing acts. That's adding value, and that's why I invested in The Beach Boys."
On Mike Love's 81st birthday, Jardine once again hinted at a possible reunion on his Facebook page by stating that he was "looking forward" to seeing Love at the "reunion".However, while a reunion ultimately did not occur in 2022, Capitol released theSail On Sailor – 1972box set in December; following on from theFeel Flowsbox set, which focused onSunflowerandSurf's Up,Sail On Sailorfocused onCarl and the PassionsandHolland.
In January 2023, the tribute concert mentioned by Azoff in 2021 was announced as being part of the "GrammysSalute" series of televised tribute concerts.On February 8—three days after the 2023 Grammy award ceremonies,A Grammy Salute to the Beach Boyswas recorded at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California and subsequently aired as a two-hour special on CBS on April 9. Present for the taping were Wilson, Jardine, Marks, Johnston, and Love—this time not as performers but as featured guests, seated in a luxury box at the theatre, overlooking tribute performances covering the gamut of their catalog by mostly contemporary artists. According toBillboard, the program had 5.18 million viewers.
In July 2023, the Beach Boys announced a limited edition to their book,The Beach Boys by The Beach Boys, set to be released in 2024. It will feature exclusive interviews, archived photos, live shots, as well as archived texts from late members Carl and Dennis Wilson.
In March 2024, the band announced the release of aself-titled documentarywhich would be released by streaming serviceDisney+, which includes new and archived interviews from various members of the band and their inner circle, including Brian Wilson, Love, Jardine, Marks, Johnston, Carl Wilson, Dennis Wilson, Chaplin, Fataar, Brian Wilson's ex-wife Marilyn, and Don Was, among others.  The documentary was directed byFrank MarshallandThom Zimnyand was released on May 24, 2024.The documentary included some footage from a private reunion of Brian Wilson, Love, Jardine, Marks, and Johnston at Paradise Cove, where theSurfin' Safarialbum cover photo was taken in 1962.Brian Wilson, Love, Jardine, Marks, Johnston, and Blondie Chaplin also participated in a non-performing reunion at the documentary's premiere on May 24, 2024.
By their 2024 tour, the Beach Boys had played nearly 7,300 concerts.
InUnderstanding Rock: Essays in Musical Analysis, musicologist Daniel Harrison writes:
The Beach Boys began as agarage bandplaying 1950s stylerock and roll,reassembling styles of music such as surf to includevocal jazzharmony, which created their unique sound.In addition, they introduced their signature approach to common genres such as thepop balladby applying harmonic or formal twists not native to rock and roll.Among the distinct elements of the Beach Boys' style were the nasal quality of their singing voices, their use of a falsetto harmony over a driving, locomotive-like melody, and the sudden chiming in of the whole group on a key line.Brian Wilson handled most stages of the group's recording process from the beginning, even though he was not properly credited on most of the early recordings.
Early on, Mike Love sang lead vocals in the rock-oriented songs, while Carl contributed guitar lines on the group's ballads.Jim Miller commented: "On straight rockers they sang tight harmonies behind Love's lead ... on ballads, Brian played hisfalsettooff against lush,jazz-tinged voicings, often using (for rock) unorthodox harmonic structures."Harrison adds that "even the least distinguished of the Beach Boys' early uptempo rock 'n' roll songs show traces of structural complexity at some level; Brian was simply too curious and experimental to leave convention alone".Although Brian was often dubbed a perfectionist, he was an inexperienced musician, and his understanding of music was mostly self-taught.At the lyric stage, he usually worked with Love,whose assertive persona provided youthful swagger that contrasted Brian's explorations in romanticism and sensitivity.Luis Sanchez noted a pattern where Brian would spare surfing imagery when working with collaborators outside of his band's circle, in the examples "Lonely Sea" and "In My Room".
Brian's bandmates resented the notion that he was the sole creative force in the group.In a 1966 article that asked if "the Beach Boys rely too much on sound genius Brian", Carl said that although Brian was the most responsible for their music, every member of the group contributed ideas.Mike Love wrote: "As far as I was concerned, Brianwasa genius, deserving of that recognition. But the rest of us were seen as nameless components in Brian's music machine ... It didn't feel to us as if we were just riding on Brian's coattails."Conversely, Dennis defended Brian's stature in the band, stating: "Brian Wilsonisthe Beach Boys. He is the band. We're his fucking messengers. He is all of it. Period. We're nothing. He's everything."
The band's earliest influences came primarily from the work of Chuck Berry and the Four Freshmen.Performed by the Four Freshmen, "Their Hearts Were Full of Spring" (1961) was a particular favorite of the group.By analyzing their arrangements ofpop standards, Brian educated himself onjazz harmony.Bearing this in mind, Philip Lambert noted: "IfBob Flaniganhelped teach Brian how to sing, thenGershwin,Kern,Porter, and the other members of this pantheon helped him learn how to craft a song."Other general influences on the group includedthe Hi-Los,the Penguins,the Robins,Bill Haley & His Comets,Otis Williams,the Cadets,the Everly Brothers,the Shirelles,the Regents, andthe Crystals.
The eclectic mix of white and black vocal group influences – ranging from the rock and roll of Berry, the jazz harmonies of the Four Freshmen, the pop ofthe Four Preps, the folk ofthe Kingston Trio, the R&B of groups likethe Coastersandthe Five Satins, and the doo wop ofDion and the Belmonts– helped contribute to the Beach Boys' uniqueness in American popular music.Carl remembered that Love was "really immersed in doo-wop" and likely "influenced Brian to listen to it", adding that the "black artists were so much better in terms of rock records in those days that the white records almost sounded like put-ons".
Another significant influence on Brian's work wasBurt Bacharach.He said in the 1960s: "Burt Bacharach andHal Davidare more like me. They're also the best pop team – per se – today. As a producer, Bacharach has a very fresh, new approach."Regarding surf rock pioneerDick Dale, Brian said that his influence on the group was limited to Carl and his style of guitar playing.Carl credited Chuck Berry,the Ventures, andJohn Walkerwith shaping his guitar style, and that the Beach Boys had learned to play all of the Ventures' songs by ear early in their career.
In 1967,Lou Reedwrote inAspenthat the Beach Boys created a "hybrid sound" out of old rock and the Four Freshmen, explaining that such songs as "Let Him Run Wild", "Don't Worry Baby", "I Get Around", and "Fun, Fun, Fun" were not unlike "Peppermint Stick" by the Elchords.Similarly,John Sebastianofthe Lovin' Spoonfulnoted: "Brian had control of this vocal palette of which we had no idea. We had never paid attention to the Four Freshmen or doo-wop combos likethe Crew Cuts. Look what gold he mined out of that."
Brian identified each member individually for theirvocal range, once detailing the ranges for Carl, Dennis, Jardine ("[they] progress upwards through G, A, and B"), Love ("can go from bass to the E above middle C"), and himself ("I can take the second D in thetreble clef").He declared in 1966 that his greatest interest was to expand modern vocal harmony, owing to his fascination with a voice to the Four Freshmen, which he considered a "groovy sectional sound".He added: "The harmonies that we are able to produce give us a uniqueness which is really the only important thing you can put into records – some quality that no one else has got. I love peaks in a song – and enhancing them on the control panel. Most of all, I love the human voice for its own sake."For a period, Brian avoided singing falsetto for the group, saying: "I thought people thought I was afairy... the band told me, 'If that's the way you sing, don't worry about it.'"
In the group's early recordings, from lowestintervalsto highest, the group's vocal harmony stack usually began with Love or Dennis, followed by Jardine or Carl, and finally Brian on top, according to Jardine,while Carl said that the blend was Love on bottom, Carl above, followed by Dennis or Jardine, and then Brian on top.Jardine explains: "We always sang the same vocal intervals. ... As soon as we heard the chords on the piano we'd figure it out pretty easily. If there was a vocal move [Brian] envisioned, he'd show that particular singer that move. We had somewhat photographic memory as far as the vocal parts were concerned so that [was] never a problem for us."Striving for perfection, Brian insured that his intricate vocal arrangements exercised the group's calculated blend ofintonation,attack,phrasing, andexpression.Sometimes, he would sing each vocal harmony part alone through multi-track tape.
On the group's blend, Carl said: "[Love] has a beautifully rich, very full-sounding bass voice. Yet his lead singing is real nasal, real punk. [Jardine]'s voice has a bright timbre to it; it really cuts. My voice has a kind of calm sound. We're big oooh-ers; we love to oooh. It's a big, full sound, that's very pleasing to us; it opens up the heart."Rock criticErik Daviswrote: "The 'purity' of tone and genetic proximity that smoothed their voices was almost creepy, pseudo-castrato, [and] a 'barbershop' sound."Jimmy Webbsaid: "They used very littlevibratoand sing in very straight tones. The voices all lie down beside each other very easily – there's no bumping between them because the pitch is very precise."According to Brian, "Jack Goodonce told us, 'You sing likeeunuchsin aSistine Chapel', which was a pretty good quote."WriterRichard Goldsteinreported that, according to a fellow journalist who asked Brian about the black roots of his music, Brian's response was: "We're white and we sing white." Goldstein added that when he asked where his approach to vocal harmonies had derived from, Wilson answered: 'Barbershop'."
Biographer James Murphy said: "By most contemporary accounts, they were not a very good live band when they started. ... The Beach Boys learned to play as a band in front of live audiences", eventually to become "one of the best and enduring live bands".With only a few exceptions, the Beach Boys played every instrument heard on their first four albums and first five singles.It is the belief ofRichie Unterbergerthat "Before session musicians took over most of the parts, the Beach Boys could play respectably gutsy surf rock as a self-contained unit."
As Wilson's arrangements increased in complexity, he began employing a group of professional studio musicians, later known as "the Wrecking Crew", to assist with recording the instrumentation on select tracks.According to some reports, these musicians then completely replaced the Beach Boys on the backing tracks to their records.Much of the relevant documentation, while accounting for the attendance of unionized session players, had failed to record the presence of the Beach Boys themselves.These documents, along with the full unedited studio session tapes, were not available for public scrutiny until the 1990s.
Wilson started occasionally employing members of the Wrecking Crew for certain Beach Boys tracks during the 1963Surfer Girlsessions – specifically, on two songs, "Hawaii" and "Our Car Club".The 1964 albumsShut Down Volume 2andAll Summer Longfeatured the Beach Boys themselves playing the vast majority of the instruments while occasionally being augmented by outside musicians.It is commonly misreported that Dennis in particular was replaced byHal Blaineon drums.Dennis's drumming is documented on a number of the group's singles, including 1964's "I Get Around", "Fun, Fun, Fun", and "Don't Worry Baby".Starting with the 1965 albumsToday!andSummer Days, Brian used the Wrecking Crew with greater frequency, "but still", Stebbins writes, "the Beach Boys continued to play the instruments on many of the key tracks and single releases".
Overall, the Beach Boys played the instruments on the majority of their recordings from the decade,with 1966 and 1967 being the only years when Wilson used the Wrecking Crew almost exclusively.Pet SoundsandSmileare their only albums in which the backing tracks were largely played by studio musicians.After 1967, the band's use of studio musicians was considerably reduced.Wrecking Crew biographerKent Hartmansupported inhis 2012 book about the musicians: "Though [Brian Wilson] had for several months brought in various session players on a sporadic, potluck basis to supplement things, the other Beach Boys generally played on the earliest songs, too."
The source of the longstanding controversy regarding the Beach Boys' use of studio musicians largely derives from a misinterpreted statement in David Leaf's 1978 biographyThe Beach Boys and the California Myth, later bolstered by erroneous recollections from participants of the recording sessions.Starting in the 1990s, unedited studio session tapes, along withAmerican Federation of Musicians(AFM) sheets and tape logs, were leaked to the public. Music historian Craig Slowinski, who contributes musician credits to the liner notes of the band's reissues and compilations, wrote in 2006: "[O]nce the vaults were opened up and the tapes were studied, the true situation became clear: the Boys themselves playedmostof the instruments on their records until theBeach Boys Today!album in early 1965."Slowinski goes on to note: "when painting a picture of a Beach Boys recording session, it's important to examineboththe AFM contracts and the session tapes, either of which may be incomplete on their own".
During the period when Brian relied heavily on studio musicians, Carl was an exception among the Beach Boys in that he played alongside the studio musicians whenever he was available to attend sessions.In Slowinski's view, "One should not sell short Carl's own contributions; the youngest Wilson had developed as a musician sufficiently to play alongside the horde of high-dollar session pros that big brother was now bringing into the studio. Carl's guitar playing [was] a key ingredient."
The band members often reflected on the spiritual nature of their music (and music in general), particularly for the recording ofPet SoundsandSmile.Even though the Wilsons did not grow up in a particularly religious household,Carl was described as "the most truly religious person I know" by Brian, and Carl was forthcoming about the group's spiritual beliefs stating: "We believe in God as a kind ofuniversal consciousness. God is love. God is you. God is me. God is everything right here in this room. It's a spiritual concept which inspires a great deal of our music."Carl toldRavemagazine in 1967 that the group's influences are of a "religious nature", but not any religion in specific, only "an idea based upon that of Universal Consciousness. ... The spiritual concept of happiness and doing good to others is extremely important to the lyric of our songs, and the religious element of some of the betterchurch musicis also contained within some of our new work."
Brian is quoted during theSmileera: "I'm very religious. Not in the sense of churches, going to church; but like the essence ofallreligion."During the recording ofPet Sounds, Brian heldprayer meetings, later reflecting that "God was with us the whole time we were doing this record ... I could feel that feeling in my brain."In 1966, he explained that he wanted to move into awhite spiritual sound, and predicted that the rest of the music industry would follow suit.In 2011, Brian maintained the spirituality was important to his music, and that he did not follow any particular religion.
Carl said thatSmilewas chosen as an album title because of its connection to the group's spiritual beliefs.Brian referred toSmileas his "teenage symphony to God",composing ahymn, "Our Prayer", as the album's opening spiritual invocation.Experimentation withpsychotropicsubstances also proved pivotal to the group's development as artists.He spoke of his LSD trips as a "religious experience", and during a session for "Our Prayer", Brian can be heard asking the other Beach Boys: "Do you guys feel any acid yet?".In 1968, the group's interest intranscendental meditationled them to record the original song, "Transcendental Meditation".
The Beach Boys are one of the most critically acclaimed,commercially successful,and influential bands of all time.They have sold over 100 million records worldwide.The group's early songs made them major pop stars in the US, the UK, Australia and other countries, having seven top 10 singles between April 1963 and November 1964.They were one of the first American groups to exhibit the definitive traits of a self-contained rock band, playing their own instruments and writing their own songs,and they were one of the few American bands formed prior to the 1964 British Invasion to continue their success.Among artists of the 1960s, they are one of the central figures in the histories of rock.Between the 1960s and 2020s, they had 37 songs reach the USTop 40(the most by an American group) with four topping theBillboardHot 100; they also holdNielsen SoundScan's record as the top-selling American band for albums and singles.
Brian Wilson's artistic control over the Beach Boys' records was unprecedented for the time.Carl Wilson elaborated: "Record companies were used to having absolute control over their artists. It was especially nervy, because Brian was a 21-year-old kid with just two albums. It was unheard of. But what could they say? Brian made good records."This made the Beach Boys one of the first rock groups to exert studio control.Music producers after the mid-1960s would draw on Brian's influence, setting a precedent that allowed bands and artists to enter a recording studio and act as producers, either autonomously, or in conjunction with other like minds.
In 1988, the original five members (the Wilson brothers, Love, and Jardine) were inducted into theRock and Roll Hall of Fame.Ten years later, they were selected for theVocal Group Hall of Fame.In 2004,Pet Soundswas preserved in theNational Recording Registryby theLibrary of Congressfor being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".Their recordings of "In My Room", "Good Vibrations", "California Girls" and the entirePet Soundsalbum have been inducted into theGrammy Hall of Fame.
The Beach Boys are one of the most influential acts of the rock era.In 2017, a study ofAllMusic's catalog indicated the Beach Boys as the 6th most frequently cited artist influence in its database.In 2021, the staff ofUltimate Classic Rockranked the Beach Boys as the top American band of all time; the publication's editor wrote in the group's entry that "few bands ... have had a greater impact on popular music".
Professor of cultural studies James M. Curtis wrote in 1987: "We can say that the Beach Boys represent the outlook and values ofwhite Protestant Anglo-Saxonteenagers in the early sixties. Having said that, we immediately realize that they must mean much more than this. Their stability, their staying power, and their ability to attract new fans prove as much."Cultural historianKevin Starrexplains that the group first connected with young Americans specifically for their lyrical interpretation of a mythologized landscape: "Cars and the beach, surfing, the California Girl, all this fused in the alembic of youth: Here was a way of life, an iconography, already half-released into the chords and multiple tracks of a new sound."In music criticRobert Christgau's opinion, "the Beach Boys were a touchstone for real rock and rollers, all of whom understood that the music had its most essential roots in an innocently hedonistic materialism".
The group's "California sound" grew to national prominence through the success of their 1963 albumSurfin' U.S.A.,which helped turn the surfing subculture into a mainstream youth-targeted advertising image widely exploited by the film, television, and food industry.The group's surf music was not entirely of their own invention, being preceded by artists such as Dick Dale.However, previous surf musicians did not project a world view as the Beach Boys did.The band's earlier surf music helped raise the profile of the state of California, creating its first major regional style with national significance, and establishing a musical identity forSouthern California, as opposed toHollywood.California ultimately supplanted New York as the center of popular music thanks to the success of Brian's productions.
A 1966 article discussing new trends in rock music writes that the Beach Boys popularized a type of drum beat heard inJan and Dean's "Surf City", which sounds like "a locomotive getting up speed", in addition to the method of "suddenly stopping in between the chorus and verse".Pete Townshendof the Who is credited with coining the term "power pop", which he defined as "what we play—what theSmall Facesused to play, and the kind of pop the Beach Boys played in the days of 'Fun, Fun, Fun' which I preferred".
The California sound gradually evolved to reflect a more musically ambitious and mature worldview, becoming less to do with surfing and cars and more about social consciousness and political awareness.Between 1964 and 1969, it fueled innovation and transition, inspiring artists to tackle largely unmentioned themes such assexual freedom,black pride,drugs,oppositional politics, othercounterculturalmotifs, andwar.Soft pop(later known as "sunshine pop") derived in part from this movement.Sunshine pop producers widely imitated the orchestral style ofPet Sounds; however, the Beach Boys themselves were rarely representative of the genre, which was rooted ineasy-listeningandadvertising jingles.
By the end of the 1960s, the California sound declined due to a combination of the West Coast's cultural shifts, Wilson's professional and psychological downturn, and the Manson murders, with David Howard calling it the "sunset of the original California Sunshine Sound ... [the] sweetness advocated by the California Myth had led to chilling darkness and unsightly rot".Drawing from the Beach Boys' associations with Manson and former California governorRonald Reagan, Erik Davis remarked: "The Beach Boys may be the only bridge between those deranged poles. There is a wider range of political and aesthetic sentiments in their records than in any other band in those heady times—like the state [of California], they expand and bloat and contradict themselves."
During the 1970s, advertising jingles and imagery were predominately based on the Beach Boys' early music and image.The group also inspired the development of the West Coast style later dubbed "yacht rock". According toJacobin's Dan O'Sullivan, the band's aesthetic was the first to be "scavenged" by yacht rock acts likeRupert Holmes. O'Sullivan also cites the Beach Boys' recording of "Sloop John B" as the origin of yacht rock's preoccupation with the "sailors and beachgoers" aesthetic that was "lifted by everyone, fromChristopher CrosstoEric Carmen, from 'Buffalo Springfield' folksters likeJim Messinato 'Philly Sound' rockers likeHall & Oates".
Pet Soundscame to inform the developments of genres such as pop, rock, jazz,electronic,experimental,punk, andhip hop.Similar to subsequentexperimental rockLPs byFrank Zappa, the Beatles, andthe Who,Pet Soundsfeatured countertextural aspects that called attention to the very recordedness of the album.Professor of American historyJohn Robert Greenestated that the album broke new ground and took rock music away from its casual lyrics and melodic structures into what was then uncharted territory. He furthermore called it one factor which spawned the majority of trends in post-1965 rock music, the only others beingRubber Soul, the Beatles'Revolver, and the contemporary folk movement.The album was the first piece in popular music to incorporate theElectro-Theremin, an easier-to-play version of thetheremin, as well as the first in rock music to feature a theremin-like instrument.WithPet Sounds, they were also the first group to make an entire album that departed from the usual small-ensemble electric rock band format.
According to David Leaf in 1978,Pet SoundsandGood Vibrations"established the group as the leaders of a new type of pop music,Art Rock".AcademicBill Martinstates that the band opened a path in rock music "that went fromSgt. Pepper'stoClose to the Edgeand beyond". He argues that the advancing technology ofmultitrack recordingandmixing boardswere more influential to experimental rock thanelectronic instrumentssuch as thesynthesizer, allowing the Beatles and the Beach Boys to become the first crop of non-classically trainedmusicians to create extended and complex compositions.InStrange Sounds: Offbeat Instruments and Sonic Experiments in Pop, Mark Brend writes:
The making of "Good Vibrations", according to Domenic Priore, was "unlike anything previous in the realms of classical, jazz, international, soundtrack, or any other kind of recording",while biographerPeter Ames Carlinwrote that it "sounded like nothing that had ever been played on the radio before".It contained previously untried mixes of instruments, and was the first successful pop song to have cellos in a juddering rhythm.MusicologistCharlie Gillettcalled it "one of the first records to flaunt studio production as a quality in its own right, rather than as a means of presenting a performance".Again, Brian employed the use of Electro-Theremin for the track. Upon release, the single prompted an unexpected revival in theremins while increasing awareness ofanalog synthesizers, leadingMoog Musicto produce their own brand ofribbon-controlledinstruments.In a 1968 editorial forJazz & Pop, Gene Sculatti predicted that the song "may yet prove to be the most significantly revolutionary piece of the current rock renaissance ... In no minor way, 'Good Vibrations' is a primary influential piece for all producing rock artists; everyone has felt its import to some degree".
DiscussingSmiley Smile, Daniel Harrison argues that the album could "almost" be considered art music in the Western classical tradition, and that the group's innovations in the musical language of rock can be compared to those that introducedatonaland other nontraditional techniques into that classical tradition. He explains: "The spirit of experimentation is just as palpable ... as it is in, say,Schoenberg'sop. 11 piano pieces."However, such notions were not widely acknowledged by rock audiences nor by the classically minded at the time.Harrison concludes: "What influences could these innovations then have? The short answer is, not much.Smiley Smile,Wild Honey,Friends, and20/20sound like few other rock albums; they aresui generis. ... It must be remembered that the commercial failure of the Beach Boys' experiments was hardly motivation for imitation."MusicologistDavid Toop, who included theSmiley Smiletrack "Fall Breaks and Back to Winter" on a companion CD for his bookOcean of Sound, placed the Beach Boys' effect on sound pioneering in league withLes Baxter,Aphex Twin,Herbie Hancock,King Tubby, andMy Bloody Valentine.
Sunflowermarked an end to the experimental songwriting and production phase initiated bySmiley Smile.AfterSurf's Up, Harrison wrote, their albums "contain a mixture of middle-of-the-road music entirely consonant with pop style during the early 1970s with a few oddities that proved that the desire to push beyond conventional boundaries was not dead", until 1974, "the year in which the Beach Boys ceased to be a rock 'n' roll act and became an oldies act".
In the 1970s, the Beach Boys served a "totemic influence" onpunk rockthat later gave way toindie rock. Brad Shoup ofStereogumsurmised that, thanks to theRamones' praise for the group, many punk,pop punk, or "punk-adjacent" artists showed influence from the Beach Boys, noting cover versions of the band's songs recorded bySlickee Boys,Agent Orange,Bad Religion,Shonen Knife,the Queers,Hi-Standard,the Descendents,the Donnas,M.O.D., andthe Vandals.The Beach Boys Love Youis sometimes considered the group's "punk album",andPet Soundsis sometimes advanced as the firstemoalbum.
In the 1990s, the Beach Boys experienced a resurgence of popularity with thealternative rockgeneration.According toSean O'Hagan, leader ofthe High Llamasand former member ofStereolab, a younger generation of record-buyers "stopped listening to indie records" in favor of the Beach Boys.Bands who advocated for the Beach Boys included founding members ofthe Elephant 6 Collective(Neutral Milk Hotel,the Olivia Tremor Control,the Apples in Stereo, andof Montreal). United by a shared love of the group's music, they namedPet Sounds Studioin honor of the band.Rolling Stonewriter Barry Walters wrote in 2000 that albums such asSurf's UpandLove You"are becoming sonic blueprints, akin to what early Velvet Underground LPs meant to the previous indie peer group".The High Llamas,Eric MatthewsandSaint Etienneare among the "alt heroes" who contributed cover versions of "unreleased, overlooked or underappreciated Wilson/Beach Boys obscurities" on the tribute albumCaroline Now!(2000).
The Beach Boys remained among the most significant influences on indie rock into the late 2000s.Smilebecame a touchstone for many bands who were labelled "chamber pop",a term used for artists influenced by the lush orchestrations of Brian Wilson,Lee Hazlewood, and Burt Bacharach.Pitchforkwriter Mark Richardson citedSmiley Smileas the origin point of "the kind oflo-fibedroom popthat would later propelSebadoh,Animal Collective, and other characters".TheSunflowertrack "All I Wanna Do" is also cited as one of the earliest precursors tochillwave, amicrogenrethat emerged in 2009.
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