Beach Boys Recording

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Beach Boys Performances

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The Beach Boys sang about an idealized version of California where the waves were perfect, the girls were pretty, the cars were fast and the sun was always shining. Tunes such as "Surfin' U.S.A.," "California Girls," "I Get Around" and "Fun, Fun, Fun" exuded a version of pop inspired by '50s vocal groups and surf-rock. Yet as the '60s wore on, the Beach Boys—like the Beatles—grew into a band that favored a different kind of perfection based around intricate pop symphonies with complicated, unorthodox orchestration.

The Beach Boys formed in 1961 in Hawthorne, California, around the core of Brian Wilson and his two younger brothers, Carl and Dennis. The Wilson brothers' cousin, Mike Love, and classmate Al Jardine also joined the band. Brian Wilson was the group's musical mastermind. He wrote, arranged, and produced all of the band’s early material. Group members traded off lead vocals and Mike Love occasionally contributed lyrics.

Thanks to the quality of their harmonies, the Beach Boys' music felt like an endless summer. The group's first single, "Surfin'," earned them a major label deal with Capitol Records, and from there the Beach Boys charted over 20 songs in the Top 40 between 1962 and 1966.

During of this run of hits, Brian Wilson decided to stop touring with the group to focus on writing songs and producing music. The results of his focus sprang up on 1966's legendary Pet Sounds, which is considered one of the greatest albums of all time.

The Beach Boys kept going with the singles "Good Vibrations" and "Heroes & Villains," while Brian Wilson worked on a pop album with Van Dyke Parks that was to be called Smile. Because of a variety of factors—including creative pressures and his own internal anxieties—the record never came out, and Brian Wilson began retreating from the spotlight almost entirely.

The band kept going, but their albums included more non-Brian Wilson songwriting and production credits. This led to occasional chart hits, such as the rustic rock of 1968's "Do It Again," 1969's lush "I Can Hear Music" and 1973's "Sail On, Sailor"—although the Beach Boys' earliest music remained more popular. In 1974, the new Capitol Records greatest hits album Endless Summer hit No. 1, which kicked off a new wave of nostalgia for the band.

The upswing continued after Brian Wilson returned to the writing and producing for the 1976 studio album 15 Big Ones. Still, the reunion was short-lived. Although 1977's synthesizer-heavy, offbeat Love You has become an admired cult classic, it wasn't a commercial success at the time, and he faded away once again from the band.

In the early '80s the Beach Boys suffered a major setback with the 1983 drowning death of co-founder Dennis Wilson. Still, the band continued on, and in 1988, reached an entirely new audience of fans thanks to the No. 1 hit "Kokomo" and their association with the television show Full House.

The since that time, the band has faced years of problems: Co-founder Carl Wilson died from lung cancer in 1998, while the surviving band members have fought over the Beach Boys name and other business matters.

Despite the unrest, the Beach Boys still tour today. Brian Wilson does as well, although separately from the rest of the band. In 2012, they set aside their differences for 50th anniversary celebrations. Wilson, Love, Jardine and long-time touring and recording members Bruce Johnston and David Marks went on a successful tour and released a warmly embraced new studio album, That's Why God Made The Radio.

In spite of any problems they may have faced, the Beach Boys remain one of America's greatest, most influential bands.