Biography of The Beach Boys

The Beach Boys are the most successful and important American band of the rock music era. They were formed in 1961 in Hawthorne, CA, around the three Wilson brothers: Brian (b.Jun 20, 1942), Dennis (b.Dec 4, 1944 - d.Dec 28, 1983), and Carl (b.Dec 21, 1946). Additional members were Mike Love, the Wilsons' cousin (b.Mar 15, 1941), and Al Jardine (b.Sep 3, 1942). From the start, the focus of the group's music was Brian, who combined a fascination with vocal harmony in The Four Freshmen mold with a love of Chuck Berry-derived rock & roll. Added to that was the subject matter of middle-class teenage life in southern California -- surfing, cars, and girls.The result was massive popular success for the group, starting with their first chart entry, "Surfin'," in 1962. "Surfin' Safari" was their first Top 20 hit the same year, and "Surfin' USA" reached #3 in 1963, while the album of the same name became the first of eight straight gold albums for The Beach Boys over the next two years. Most of the music was written and produced by Brian, who retired from touring in 1964 to concentrate on this aspect of the band's career. After several replacements, the group settled on Bruce Johnston (b.Jun 24, 1944). This led to a dichotomy between Brian and the rest of The Beach Boys that continues to this day. Brian's music became progressively more sophisticated and less like the teen anthems of the first hits as the '60s wore on. On The Beach Boys' 1965 albums, he began to write about his own complex, romantic emotions, and less about frivolous good times. The Spectoresque production (often recorded by session players when The Beach Boys themselves were touring) grew increasingly lush, although the group continued to stay on top of the singles and album charts. In 1966, Wilson created his most personal and symphonic masterpiece, Pet Sounds. Hailed as a breakthrough in Britain on par with Revolver, it was a commercial disappointment in the United States (though it still reached the Top Ten). The group bounced back with the majestic #1 hit "Good Vibrations," which ranks as Wilson's most accomplished production. Yet Brian yearned for even broader pastures, hooking up with songwriter Van Dyke Parks to write ever-more oblique and ornate material for his projected masterwork, Smile. The album collapsed due to business and family pressures, as well as Brian's own increasingly eccentric behavior; the disappointing Smiley Smile was issued instead. The other members of the band came to assert more say in the recorded music from 1967 on, as their commercial fortunes declined. Their late '60s and early '70s albums actually did have quite a few fine moments, but did not approach the glowing timelessness of their earlier work, and Brian's own artistic aspirations seemed to have been painfully stunted and repressed. In 1974 they enjoyed a resurgence in popularity, topping the charts with Endless Summer, a compilation of their '60s hits, and in 1976 they scored with a new album, 15 Big Ones, again produced by Brian. Subsequent recordings have been more uneven, though The Beach Boys scored a #1 hit with "Kokomo" in 1988, the same year Brian Wilson launched a solo career. ~ William Ruhlmann & Richie Unterberger