The Beach Boys

 

Formation

Formed in Hawthorne, California in 1961, the group consisted of brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, cousin Mike Love and friend Al Jardine managed by the Wilson father Murray they signed to Capitol records in 1962. Brian Wilson was a particularly gifted songwriter penning and producing what would later be known as surf rock and/or surf pop music which was a hitmaker late in 1962 to about 1966 in the psychedelic phase.

The Beach Boys became very popular across America very quickly due to their good looks, clever pop, their R&B inspired close vocal harmonies, fast tempo beats and lyrics reflecting southern California and suburbia youth culture about fast cars, women and oh yes also, surfing dude. The Beach Boys were considered an all “America’s Band” as being one of the biggest acts in 1964 to give the Beatles competition.

Brian Wilson’s early influences were the Four Freshmen with songs like ‘Ivory Tower’ and ‘Good News’. The Wilson family were very musical and would often all sing along playing piano and guitar and avidly listening to the radio. When Brain was 16 he got a reel to reel tape recorder for his birthday and learned how to record and overdub.

Soon Brian and Carl were listening to Johnny Otis (the Godfather of Rhythm & Blues), who discovered Little Esther, Big Mama Thornton, Jackie Wilson and Hank Ballard on KFOX. This influenced Brian Wilson into writing his own songs and practicing harmonies with Carl Wilson, Mike Love and Al Jardine with Dennis Wilson around even though he didn’t play an instrument at the time.

 

Mike Love sand lead and named their group The Pendeltones after the woolen shirt “Pendelton’s” favored by the surfers of the day in South Bay. Al Jardine was a big fan of folk music, Carl Wilson a fan of the current songs of rock & roll and Dennis was the only surfer of the group who inspired Brian Wilson to write songs about surfing as well as the teenage southern California lifestyle.

One day Al Jardine and friend Gary Winfrey went to the Wilson home to ask Brian’s help on a folk song they wanted to record called ‘Sloop John B’. Brian was not home, but they spoke to Brian’s father Murray who had some modest success in the music industry. Murray arranged for the Pendeltones to meet publisher Hite Morgan. The group didn’t impress Morgan until Dennis suggested the Brian penned unfinished original ‘Surfin’. Love and Brian finished composing the song and the group rented guitars, amps, mikes, and drums and practiced several days for the recording.

 

First Recordings

In October of 1961, the Pendeltones did twelve takes of ‘Surfin’ and a small number of copies were pressed on the Candix Records label. Unbeknownst to the group a promoter named Russ Regan changed the band’s name to the Beach Boys to capitalize on the new surf rock trend in vogue in southern California at the time. By December 1961, ‘Surfin’ was a hit in Los Angeles on KFWB and KRLA going to #3 locally and to #75 on the US Billboard charts.

Murray Wilson now the Beach Boys full-time manager got the band a gig New Years Eve for a Ritchie Valens memorial dance in Long Beach headlined by Ike & Tina Turner. To Brian’s surprise, the Beach Boys stuck out awkwardly as a group of innocent white boys in a black R&B hall, Brian described the gig as an “education” and inspired Brian Wilson to create songs with an R&B and rock & Roll style.

Early in 1962, Al Jardine temporarily left the band and was replaced by another childhood friend David Marks. On April 19th the band recorded at Western Studios in Los Angeles the songs ‘Lonely Sea’, ‘409’ and ‘Surfin’ Safari’, on June 9th they released ‘Surfin’ Safari’ reaching # 14 on the charts backed by ‘409’. The single attracted national  Billboard coverage attention where the magazine praised Mike Love as the lead singer.

 

First Album

After being turned down by record labels Dot and Liberty, the Beach Boys were signed to Capitol Records. With Carl Wilson on lead guitar, Al Jardine on acoustic and rhythm guitars, David Marks replacing Jardine on rhythm guitar, Brian Wilson on bass, Dennis Wilson on drums and Mike Love as the front man lead singer and all of them singing harmony vocals, they recorded their first album.

The bulk of the songs were written by Brian Wilson with Gary Usher and Mike Love. Gary Usher was a rock & roll writer-producer who co-wrote the early hits with Brian for the Beach Boys and other surf rock bands including Dick Dale & the Del-Tones, Sagittarius and Gary Puckett & the Union Gap. He also produced albums for the Hondells, the Surfaris, the Byrds, Chad & Jeremy among others.

 

On October 1st, 1962 the Beach Boys released the album ‘Surfin’ Safari’ which reached #32 on a 37 week run on the American Billboard charts. The album brought 12 songs to the attention of America and was considered a success even though many local surfers had criticized the album for not representing the surf music sounds of other surf bands like Dick Dale & the Del-Tones and the Surfaris. This would change on their next album ‘Surfin’ U.S.A.’

Next, the Beach Boys released ‘Ten Little Indians‘ backed with ‘County Fair’ on November 26, 1962 charting at #49 which was more popular in the Midwest reaching #9 in Minneapolis ,#21 in Atlantic City/Philadelphia, the top 30 locally in cities such as Chicago, Dallas, Pittsburgh and #6 in Sweden.

 

The Beach Boys

 

The Beach Boys Rise

On October 1st, 1962 the Beach Boys released the album “Surfin’ Safari” which reached #32 on a 37 week run on the American Billboard charts. The Beach Boys were on the rise in early 1963, thanks to a good review in Billboard magazine in late 1962. However, many of the local surfers dismissed the Beach Boys’ first album as not being in line with the surf rock sound, so Brian Wilson and the band made an effort to change their sound to be more consistent with the genre.

 

Surfin U.S.A.

The Single

“Surfin U.S.A.” was released as a single on March 4th, 1963 backed with the hot rod song ‘Shut Down‘. It featured lyrics by Brian Wilson set to the music of Chuck Berry’s “Sweet Little Sixteen”, with Mike Love on lead vocals. The song “Surfin U.S.A.” made it to #2 on the American Billboard charts as did the b-side “Shut Down” at #23, it was debuted on the Steve Allen show on television, lip-synched by the group. It became one of the most well-known songs by the Beach Boys.

Following the leads of all the surfer bands popping up in southwestern California, Brian Wilson wrote about all the great surfing spots that the surfers frequented after compiling a list from his then girlfriend’s brother Jimmy Bowles. Most of the spots mentioned were in California (Del Mar, Ventura County, Santa Cruz, Manhattan Beach, Haggerty’s, Swami, Sunset Beach to name a few) although Hawaii (Waimea Bay) and Australia (Australia’s Narrabeen) had also been mentioned.

Now, the Beach Boys gained “surf cred” and became accepted and lauded as the most popular surf music band by surfers and the general public in 1963 with only Dick Dale or the Surfaris as surf competition. The song borrows a technique used by Bobby Rydell’s 1959 hit ‘Kissing Time’ which lists several cities across America.

When the single was first released, the credits listed Brian Wilson as a sole composer but the song was published by Chuck Berry’s publisher Arc Music. This caused a bit of controversy as did with many other artists who borrowed music or a lyric line (John Lennon for one), so starting in 1966 the credits listed either Chuck Berry as a composer or both Chuck Berry and Brian Wilson. The copyright to the music and the lyrics continued to go to Arc Music, to avoid any additional legal wrangling.

The Album

On March 25, 1963, The Beach Boys released their second album “Surfin U.S.A.” three months after releasing their debut “Surfin Safari”. The album went gold and shot up to the #2 spot on the American charts. “Surfin U.S.A.” lasted 78 weeks on the US charts and also went to #17 in the UK charts. This album and single established the Beach Boys as an American phenomenon with their own unique sound.

The vocals were double-tracked giving a fuller, richer sound. Even though the credits list Nick Venet as the producer, it is generally known that the true production of the album was directed by Brian Wilson with his keen ear to the sound of the music and the close vocal harmonies.

Five of the twelve tracks are instrumentals, living up to the surf rock genre. The rest were surf pop songs with a hot rod song making the Beach Boys true to all sides of surf music. They pay homage to Dick Dale & the Del-Tones with “Let’s Go Trippin” and “Misirlou”. Also on the album are two instrumental originals songs, one by Brian’s Wilson with “Stoked” and one by Carl Wilson “Surf Jam”.

Other notable songs were the falsetto Brian Wilson, “Farmer’s Daughter” later covered by Fleetwood Mac; “Lonely Sea” a soft sad ballad included on their first demo, “Lana” and “Finders Keepers” reminiscent of the Four Seasons.

 

 

The Beach Boys

 

‘Surfer Girl’

The single – Released July 22, 1963, “Surfer Girl”, reaching #7 on the US Billboard charts, #18 on the R&B charts, #8 on the Australian charts, was the first song “officially” credited as produced, as well as written by Brian Wilson. Brian Wilson later claimed that the song was inspired by Dion & the Belmonts version of “When You Wish Upon a Star”. The song is reportedly the first song that Brian Wilson wrote when he was 19.

“Surfer Girl” was backed by a new hot rod song “Little Deuce Coup” reaching #15 on the US Billboard charts. The song was co-written by Brian Wilson and Roger Christian, a radio personality and lyricist friendly with Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys who specialized in hot rod car songs.

 

The Album – Surfer Girl

The third Beach Boy album “Surfer Girl”, released September 16, 1963, which went gold, peaked at #7 on the US Billboard charts and #17 on the UK charts. All the songs on the album were either, written, co-written or arranged by Brian Wilson.

 

Mike Love co-wrote four of the songs (“Catch A Wave”, “Hawaii”, “Surfer’s Rule” and “Our Car Club”) and writing credits went to Carl Wilson and Al Jardine for lyrics and music by Stephen Foster on “South Bay Surfer (The Old Folks At Home)”.  Gary Usher co-wrote “In My Room” with Brian Wilson.  Bob Norberg  a recording engineer, who worked with Les Paul, Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra also co-wrote “Your Summer Dream”.

 

As with their debut, the Beach Boys played all the instruments on the album with Mike Love as the lead singer, Carl Wilson on lead guitar, David Marks on rhythm guitar, Al Jardine now on bass having returned in a limited capacity, Dennis Wilson on drums and Brian Wilson producing and playing bass, piano and organ.  All six Beach Boys provide the vocal harmonies.

 

Brian Wilson sings lead on “Surfer Girl”, “The Surfer Moon” which features a string accompaniment, “in My Room” and “Your Summer Dream” while co-singing with Mike Love on “Catch a Wave”, “South Bay Surfer”, “Hawaii” and “Our Car Club”. Dennis co-sings with Brian on “Surfer’s Rule”. Additional musicians were the session drummer Hal Blaine on “Our Car Club” and “Hawaii”, tenor saxophonist Steve Douglas. Notable on the album, Maureen Love, Mike Love’s sister plays harp on the song “Catch A Wave”.

 

 

‘Little Deuce Coupe’

The Album

“Little Deuce Coupe” was released October 7, 1963, and peaked at #4 as a platinum album for a 46 week run in 1963 and early 1964. This album was put together, quite hastily, in response to an unauthorized album compilation of hot rod car songs called “Shut Down”.

 

Even though this album was released a month after “Surfer Girl” Which could have over saturated the market with Beach Boy songs, (a practice which proved to have negative results ), the album still sold well, even outdoing the other albums on chart position and sales. There are many re-releases of songs that appear on the other previous albums like “Shut Down”, “409”, “Little Deuce Coupe” and “Our Car Club”.

 

After a dispute with manager Murray Wilson, Dave Marks left the band in early October, making the Beach Boys a quintet. He went on to have moderate success with a band called “The Marksmen”.