Beach Boys Albums (CD-Now) completed 7/5/98

Formed in Hawthorne, California, 1961. 
Al Jardine - guitar, vocals
Mike Love - vocals
Brian Wilson - bass, keyboards, vocals
Carl Wilson - guitar, vocals
Dennis Wilson - drums, vocals
Glen Campbell - guitar, vocals, 1964
Bruce Johnston - bass, keyboards, vocals, 1965-.
Ricky Fataar - vocals, 1972
Blondie Chaplin - drums, vocals, 1972.

A bunch of kids from the L.A. suburbs try their hand at pop music in the guise of Kenny And The Cadets, Carl And The Passions and The Pendletones but make the big time when they focus on cars, girls and surfing and call themselves The Beach Boys. The band recorded "Surfin" in 1961 at the suggestion of Dennis (the only one who surfed) but it took three years before they topped the charts with "I Get Around". By then they had established a mix of good-time beach anthems and poignant teen romance fantasies, penned in the main by Brian Wilson. By 1964, Brian had turned more to writing and producing and stopped touring with the band. He chose to remain in the studio with a piano in a sand-box, while his place was taken by Glan Campbell. Brian's bare-feet in the sand approach to recording may well have inspired his beach anthems but little could prepare him for The Beatles and what he saw as a revolutionary sound. His mental health was suffering but while the band was on tour, he single- handedly crafted his response to the Liverpool Sound. "Pet Sounds" was a labour of love which left lasting scars on its writer but has proved to be one of the finest albums of the last four decades. The album's success prompted Brian to become even more experimental and he shut himself away with co-writer Van Dyke Parks to produce "Smile". Intended more as a symphonic work, it had movements based around the elements but it became obvious during the recording that Brian's drug use and failing mental condition were taking their toll. He had started to take weeks on trying to perfect the sound of fire for the record, overlooking the actual lyrical content. It became obvious a breakdown was looming. The rest of the band had become used to working without Brian and seemed to blossom over the following years. By the end of the sixties, they were the biggest band in America. It was a position they were able to hold until 1972 but then a slide set in and by 1974, they had all but disappeared. Some clever marketing of a greatest hits package in 1976 restarted their career which has continued with occasional albums and tours ever since.