Sunflower is the 16th studio album by the American rock band the Beach Boys , released on August 31, 1970 by Reprise Records , their first for the label. It received favorable reviews, but sold poorly, reaching number 151 on the US record charts during a four-week stay and becoming the lowest-charting Beach Boys album to that point. " Add Some Music to Your Day " was the only single that charted in the US, peaking at number 64. In the UK, the album peaked at number 29.
246-508: The Beach Boys are an American rock band formed in Hawthorne, California , in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian , Dennis and Carl Wilson , their cousin Mike Love , and friend Al Jardine . Distinguished by its vocal harmonies , adolescent-oriented lyrics, and musical ingenuity, the band is one of the most influential acts of the rock era. The group drew on
492-453: A conscientious 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, Smile was shelved for personal, technical, and legal reasons. A February 1967 lawsuit seeking $ 255,000 (equivalent to $ 2.33 million in 2023) was launched against Capitol Records over neglected royalty payments. Within the lawsuit
738-473: A string of top-ten singles that reflected a southern California youth culture of surfing , cars, and romance, dubbed the " California sound ". It was one of the few American rock bands to sustain its commercial standing during the British Invasion . Starting with 1965's The Beach Boys Today! , the band abandoned beachgoing themes for more personal lyrics and ambitious orchestrations. In 1966,
984-476: A "legendary band" by this point, many other labels would approach them with contractual offers, but few did. Throughout June, the group met with the Berlin-based company Deutsche Grammophon , who were keen to sign the band, but Brian's remarks in the press ultimately thwarted the contract negotiations. Polydor , Deutsche's American affiliate, also refused to sign the group because the company did not like
1230-417: A Beach Boys LP for the 1965 Christmas season, Brian conceived Beach 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
1476-490: A Brian song that, according to band archivist Alan Boyd , resembles the Beatles ' " She's Leaving Home ". He said: "It's one of those times that the band's engineer Steve Desper recalls Brian simply getting an idea and he built this song from the ground up." In 2013, "Where Is She" was released on the box set Made In California . " Take a Load Off Your Feet (Pete) ", written by Brian and Jardine with schoolfriend Gary Winfrey,
1722-487: 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 Stone co-founder and editor Jann Wenner printed an influential article that denounced
1968-477: A breakthrough with Warner Bros. Records inspired "an immense sense of optimism" and a "remarkable amount of new material" recorded in November 1969. He stated that the group, "including a temporarily rejuvenated Brian", prepared material with "as many songwriting collaborators as possible" as they regarded "the forthcoming album as a make-or-break disc." On November 18, Warner executive Mo Ostin agreed to sign
2214-485: 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
2460-541: A cappella rendition of the scriptural song " The Lord's Prayer ". The A-side peaked at number 3 on the US Billboard Christmas 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 the British Invasion . Following a successful Australasian tour in January and February 1964,
2706-514: A certain degree doesn't care if it's popular. — Bill Wyman in Vulture (2016) The sound of rock is traditionally centered on the amplified electric guitar, which emerged in its modern form in the 1950s with the popularity of rock and roll. It was also greatly influenced by the sounds of electric blues guitarists. The sound of an electric guitar in rock music is typically supported by an electric bass guitar, which pioneered jazz music in
SECTION 10
#17327654567122952-399: A chant I wish we hadn't used. It fits all right, but there's just something I don't think is quite right with it." Around three dozen songs were left off Sunflower . Each member of the band, including Brian, wrote numerous songs for the album. Brian alone had about a full-length album's worth of material that he had written by himself or with collaborators. Among these, "Where Is She?" is
3198-602: A collaboration between Brian, Rick Henn (former leader of the Sunrays ) and veteran arranger/producer Don Ralke . " Lady " was written by Dennis and featured a string arrangement by keyboardist Daryl Dragon . The song was later considered for Surf's Up but passed for inclusion. Instead, in December 1970, Wilson released it as the B-side of the " Sound of Free " single, credited to "Dennis Wilson & Rumbo". " Good Time "
3444-418: A concert in December 1970, "I must admit, it went down a storm, as the song benefited from the simple piano-voice presentation. But if you'd seen the expressions and heard the mutterings of the others in the group as they were ordered off-stage, it looked decidedly as though Bruce could find himself in the doghouse!" " All I Wanna Do " is a reverb-heavy B. Wilson–Love song that was originally attempted during
3690-476: A cover of the 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
3936-414: 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 album 20/20 mixed new material with outtakes and leftovers from recent albums; Brian produced virtually none of
4182-519: A fondness for a good beat, a meaningful lyric with some wit, and the theme of youth, which holds an "eternal attraction" so objective "that all youth music partakes of sociology and the field report ." Writing in Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s (1990), he said this sensibility is evident in the music of folk singer-songwriter Michelle Shocked , rapper LL Cool J , and synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys —"all kids working out their identities"—as much as it
4428-481: A foundation of simple syncopated rhythms in a 4 meter , with a repetitive snare drum back beat on beats two and four. Melodies often originate from older musical modes such as the Dorian and Mixolydian , as well as major and minor modes. Harmonies range from the common triad to parallel perfect fourths and fifths and dissonant harmonic progressions. Since the late 1950s, and particularly from
4674-520: A four-week stay. Its failure was attributed partly to the fact that FM rock radio DJs considered the songs too conventional for their playlists. Biographer David Leaf wrote that the sales numbers were greatly disappointing for the Beach Boys, and that Brian was especially affected: "That, on top of the old, unhealed scars, was a hurt he didn't really begin to get over until 1976." In the UK, Sunflower
4920-628: A frequent addition to the established rock format of guitars, bass, and drums in subsequent progressive rock. Instrumentals were common, while songs with lyrics were sometimes conceptual, abstract, or based in fantasy and science fiction. The Pretty Things ' SF Sorrow (1968), the Kinks' Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire) (1969), and the Who 's Tommy (1969) introduced
5166-455: 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 album Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!) and eventually charted at number 3 in
SECTION 20
#17327654567125412-627: 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 national Billboard Hot 100 chart. 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 the Ritchie Valens Memorial Dance in Long Beach . In their early public appearances,
5658-575: A key feature of psychedelia. Psychedelic rock reached its apogee in the last years of the decade. 1967 saw the Beatles release their definitive psychedelic statement in Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band , including the controversial track " Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds ", the Rolling Stones responded later that year with Their Satanic Majesties Request , and Pink Floyd debuted with The Piper at
5904-463: A keyboard-only version of the Beatles' " You Never Give Me Your Money ". The latter two recordings were released on the 2021 box set Feel Flows . The picture of the band on the front sleeve, featuring all six group members, was taken on the golf course at Dean Martin 's Hidden Valley Ranch near Thousand Oaks in Ventura County , California. His son Ricci Martin, a friend of the band, took
6150-414: A live album recorded in December 1968, was released in several 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 ,
6396-573: A loud amplified sound, often centered on the electric guitar, based on the Chicago blues , particularly after the tour of Britain by Muddy Waters in 1958, which prompted Cyril Davies and guitarist Alexis Korner to form the band Blues Incorporated . The band involved and inspired many of the figures of the subsequent British blues boom, including members of the Rolling Stones and Cream , combining blues standards and forms with rock instrumentation and emphasis. The other key focus for British blues
6642-587: A mainstream audience with hits including " Blowin' in the Wind " (1963) and " Masters of War " (1963), which brought " protest songs " to a wider public, but, although beginning to influence each other, rock and folk music had remained largely separate genres, often with mutually exclusive audiences. Early attempts to combine elements of folk and rock included the Animals' " House of the Rising Sun " (1964), which
6888-495: A major element of progressive rock. From about 1967 bands like Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience had moved away from purely blues-based music into psychedelia . By the 1970s, blues rock had become heavier and more riff-based, exemplified by the work of Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple , and the lines between blues rock and hard rock "were barely visible", as bands began recording rock-style albums. The genre
7134-429: A major influence on subsequent electronic rock . With the advent of punk rock and technological changes in the late 1970s, progressive rock was increasingly dismissed as pretentious and overblown. Many bands broke up, but some, including Genesis, ELP, Yes, and Pink Floyd, regularly scored top ten albums with successful accompanying worldwide tours. Some bands which emerged in the aftermath of punk, such as Siouxsie and
7380-486: A multibillion-dollar industry and doubling its market while, as Christgau noted, suffering a significant "loss of cultural prestige". "Maybe the Bee Gees became more popular than the Beatles, but they were never more popular than Jesus ", he said. "Insofar as the music retained any mythic power, the myth was self-referential – there were lots of songs about the rock and roll life but very few about how rock could change
7626-437: 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 Beach Boys - Misplaced Pages Continue
7872-589: A national phenomenon. It is often argued that the surf music craze and the careers of almost all surf acts was effectively ended by the arrival of the British Invasion from 1964, because most surf music hits were recorded and released between 1960 and 1965. By the end of 1962, what would become the British rock scene had started with beat groups like the Beatles , Gerry & the Pacemakers and
8118-408: A new album, now titled Sun Flower , and assembled a provisional 14-song acetate for the label. This collection was rejected. Warner Bros. executive Dave Berson remembered: "It seemed like an amazing thing to do, to say to the Beach Boys, 'This is not the kind of an album we want to pay for.' Contractually, we didn't have any right to reject albums." The project was then renamed Add Some Music with
8364-462: A plainspoken lyric". "Got to Know the Woman" is an R&B song by Dennis that featured backing vocals from female session singers. White noted it was "one of the few Beach Boys songs that could honestly be called funky, its tinkly Dixieland piano a perfect foil for the coarse frivolity of the verses, which contain a boorish come-on to the object of one's lowest bump-and-grind fantasies. " Deirdre "
8610-418: A politically unconscious youth culture. Although Smile had 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
8856-459: A preacher, prosecutions of Jerry Lee Lewis and Chuck Berry and the breaking of the payola scandal (which implicated major figures, including Alan Freed, in bribery and corruption in promoting individual acts or songs), gave a sense that the rock and roll era established at that point had come to an end. Rock quickly spread out from its origins in the US, associated with the rapid Americanization that
9102-444: A prog rock influence and while ranking among the most commercially successful acts of the 1970s, heralding the era of pomp or arena rock , which would last until the costs of complex shows (often with theatrical staging and special effects), would be replaced by more economical rock festivals as major live venues in the 1990s. The instrumental strand of the genre resulted in albums like Mike Oldfield 's Tubular Bells (1973),
9348-478: A recognized art form and influenced the development of music genres and movements such as psychedelia , power pop , progressive rock , punk , alternative , and lo-fi . Between the 1960s and 2020s, the group had 37 songs reach the U.S. Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 (the most by an American band), with four topping the chart. In 2004, the group was ranked number 12 on Rolling Stone ' s list of
9594-435: A record rather than just a song." Surfer Girl marked the first time the group used outside musicians on a substantial portion of an LP. Many of them were the musicians Spector used for his Wall of Sound productions. Only a month after Surfer Girl' s release the group's fourth album Little Deuce Coupe was issued. To close 1963, the band released a standalone Christmas-themed single " Little Saint Nick ", backed with an
9840-446: A rigidly delineated musical definition." In the opinion of music journalist Robert Christgau , "the best rock jolts folk-art virtues—directness, utility, natural audience—into the present with shots of modern technology and modernist dissociation ". Rock and roll was conceived as an outlet for adolescent yearnings ... To make rock and roll is also an ideal way to explore intersections of sex, love, violence, and fun, to broadcast
10086-625: A rock-informed album era in the music industry for the next several decades. By the late 1960s " classic rock " period, a few distinct rock music subgenres had emerged, including hybrids like blues rock , folk rock , country rock , Southern rock , raga rock , and jazz rock , which contributed to the development of psychedelic rock , influenced by the countercultural psychedelic and hippie scene . New genres that emerged included progressive rock , which extended artistic elements, heavy metal , which emphasized an aggressive thick sound, and glam rock , which highlighted showmanship and visual style. In
The Beach Boys - Misplaced Pages Continue
10332-543: A set list of previously recorded songs and covers that they had not yet recorded. In June 1964, Brian recorded the bulk of The Beach Boys' Christmas Album with a forty-one-piece studio orchestra in collaboration with Four Freshmen arranger Dick Reynolds . The album was a response to Phil Spector's A 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
10578-478: A shit about it." Following Miller's review, several other American magazines published favorable assessments, but as Badman writes, "The damage done by their non-appearance at [the] Monterey [Pop Festival] in 1967 seem[ed] irreversible among rock's opinion-formers." The Village Voice ' s Robert Christgau said that as a coming-of-age record from the Beach Boys, Sunflower is "far more satisfying, I suspect, than Smile ever would have been". He added that
10824-481: A slogan one only began to hear in 1972 or so, mobilized all those eager to believe that idealism had become passe, and once they were mobilized, it had. In popular music, embracing the '70s meant both an elitist withdrawal from the messy concert and counterculture scene and a profiteering pursuit of the lowest common denominator in FM radio and album rock . Rock saw greater commodification during this decade, turning into
11070-533: A song that originated from the band's Smile sessions. Fans generally consider Sunflower to be among the Beach Boys' finest post- Pet Sounds albums. It has appeared in several critics' and listeners' polls for the best albums of all time, including Rolling Stone's 2003 list of the " 500 Greatest Albums of All Time ". The track " All I Wanna Do " was later cited as one of the earliest examples of dream pop . Many Sunflower outtakes and leftover songs later appeared on subsequent Beach Boys releases, including
11316-477: 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 friend Gary Usher . Another unusual feature of the Beach Boys was that, although they were marketed as "surf music", their repertoire bore little resemblance to
11562-635: A time. That same month, Carl, Dennis, Mike Love , and Jardine sought a permanent replacement for Johnston. They approached Carl's brother-in-law Billy Hinsche , who declined the offer to focus on his college studies. In late 1969 (either reported as occurring in August or November), Murry Wilson sold the Sea of Tunes publishing company (including the rights to the majority of Brian's songs) to A&M Records ' publishing division for $ 700,000 ($ 5.82 million in 2023). According to music historian Keith Badman,
11808-537: A transitional phase in an effort to win the pop terrain that had been thrown up for grabs". Wilson collaborated with jingle writer Tony Asher for several of the songs on the album Pet Sounds , a refinement of the themes and ideas that were introduced in Today! . 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
12054-464: A variety of directions, including Dylan and the Byrds, who began to develop country rock . However, the hybridization of folk and rock has been seen as having a major influence on the development of rock music, bringing in elements of psychedelia, and helping to develop the ideas of the singer-songwriter, the protest song, and concepts of "authenticity". Psychedelic music's LSD -inspired vibe began in
12300-529: A variety of sources such as the Tin Pan Alley pop tradition, folk music , and rhythm and blues . Christgau characterizes rock lyrics as a "cool medium" with simple diction and repeated refrains, and asserts that rock's primary "function" "pertains to music, or, more generally, noise ." The predominance of white, male, and often middle class musicians in rock music has often been noted, and rock has been seen as an appropriation of Black musical forms for
12546-614: A year-long search for a new record contract, completed in July 1970. In contrast to 20/20 , the record featured a strong group presence with significant writing contributions from all band members. About four dozen songs were written for the album, and the label rejected numerous revisions of its track listing before the band presented enough formidable material deemed satisfactory for release. It includes " This Whole World ", one of Brian Wilson 's most complex songs, " Forever ", regarded as among Dennis Wilson 's finest, and " Cool, Cool Water ",
SECTION 50
#173276545671212792-501: A young, white and largely male audience. As a result, it has also been seen to articulate the concerns of this group in both style and lyrics. Christgau, writing in 1972, said in spite of some exceptions, "rock and roll usually implies an identification of male sexuality and aggression". Since the term "rock" started being used in preference to "rock and roll" from the late-1960s, it has usually been contrasted with pop music, with which it has shared many characteristics, but from which it
13038-447: Is a song with lyrics that are a celebration of music and its ubiquitous presence in daily life. It was written by Brian, Mike Love, and their friend Joe Knott, who was not a professional songwriter. Biographer Peter Ames Carlin wrote that the song was a "pop-folk tune" that "seemed like a perfect statement of purpose to lead off the band's second decade, given the tune's shared, round-robin style lead vocal, full background harmonies, and
13284-423: Is centered on the electric guitar , usually as part of a rock group with electric bass guitar , drums , and one or more singers. Usually, rock is song-based music with a 4 time signature using a verse–chorus form , but the genre has become extremely diverse. Like pop music , lyrics often stress romantic love but also address a wide variety of other themes that are frequently social or political. Rock
13530-540: Is credited with first using the phrase "rock and roll" to describe the music. Four years later, Bill Haley 's " Rock Around the Clock " (1954) became the first rock and roll song to top Billboard magazine's main sales and airplay charts, and opened the door worldwide for this new wave of popular culture. Other artists with early rock and roll hits included Chuck Berry , Bo Diddley , Fats Domino , Little Richard , Jerry Lee Lewis , and Gene Vincent . Soon rock and roll
13776-406: Is generally agreed that garage rock peaked both commercially and artistically around 1966. By 1968 the style largely disappeared from the national charts and at the local level as amateur musicians faced college, work or the draft . New styles had evolved to replace garage rock. Although the first impact of the British Invasion on American popular music was through beat and R&B based acts,
14022-618: Is in the music of Chuck Berry , the Ramones , and the Replacements . The foundations of rock music are in rock and roll, which originated in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, and quickly spread to much of the rest of the world. Its immediate origins lay in a melding of various black musical genres of the time, including rhythm and blues and gospel music , with country and western . Debate surrounds
14268-411: Is often distanced by an emphasis on musicianship, live performance, and a focus on serious and progressive themes as part of an ideology of authenticity that is frequently combined with an awareness of the genre's history and development. According to Simon Frith , rock was "something more than pop, something more than rock and roll" and "[r]ock musicians combined an emphasis on skill and technique with
14514-399: Is termed as a rock band or a rock group. Furthermore, it typically consists of between three (the power trio ) and five members. Classically, a rock band takes the form of a quartet whose members cover one or more roles, including vocalist, lead guitarist, rhythm guitarist, bass guitarist, drummer, and often keyboard player or another instrumentalist. Rock music is traditionally built on
14760-528: Is that Jardine left to focus on dental 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 by Dot and Liberty , the Beach Boys signed a seven-year contract with Capitol Records . This was at the urging of Capitol executive and staff producer Nick Venet who signed
15006-635: 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. As authenticity became 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
SECTION 60
#173276545671215252-474: The Billboard Hot 100 . The British Invasion greatly influenced garage bands, providing them with a national audience, leading many (often surf or hot rod groups) to adopt a British influence, and encouraging many more groups to form. Thousands of garage bands were extant in the United States and Canada during the era and hundreds produced regional hits. Despite scores of bands being signed to major or large regional labels, most were commercial failures. It
15498-533: The Pet Sounds album 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 in popular music history. After scrapping the Smile album in 1967, Brian gradually ceded control of the group to his bandmates, though he still continued to contribute. In the late 1960s, the group's commercial momentum faltered in
15744-524: The American folk music revival had grown to a major movement, using traditional music and new compositions in a traditional style, usually on acoustic instruments. In America the genre was pioneered by figures such as Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger and often identified with progressive or labor politics . In the early sixties figures such as Joan Baez and Bob Dylan had come to the fore in this movement as singer-songwriters. Dylan had begun to reach
15990-692: The Radiant Radish , a health food store in West Hollywood. From May 30 to June 30, the Beach Boys toured with Paul Revere & the Raiders and Joe Hicks . Their Capitol contract expired on June 30 with one more album still due, after which the label deleted the Beach Boys' catalog from print, effectively cutting off their royalty flow. Studio recording resumed sporadically from July to October amid numerous promotional appearances. The Beach Boys expected that, since they were considered
16236-519: The Tate–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
16482-601: The Transcendental Meditation the Maharishi taught. In support of Friends , Love arranged for the Beach Boys to tour 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
16728-422: The garage rock / post-punk revival in the 2000s. Since the 2010s, rock has lost its position as the pre-eminent popular music genre in world culture, but remains commercially successful. The increased influence of hip-hop and electronic dance music can be seen in rock music, notably in the techno-pop scene of the early 2010s and the pop-punk-hip-hop revival of the 2020s. Rock has also embodied and served as
16974-507: The greatest artists of all time . Many critics' polls have ranked Today! (1965), Pet Sounds (1966), Smiley Smile (1967), Sunflower (1970), Surf's Up (1971), and The Smile Sessions (2011) among the finest albums in history. The founding members were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988. Other members during the band's history have been David Marks , Bruce Johnston , Blondie Chaplin , and Ricky Fataar . At
17220-417: The protest song , rock music has been associated with political activism , as well as changes in social attitudes to race, sex, and drug use, and is often seen as an expression of youth revolt against adult consumerism and conformity . At the same time, it has been commercially highly successful, leading to accusations of selling out . A good definition of rock, in fact, is that it's popular music that to
17466-542: The "same medium-honest sensibility" and Southern California ethos of their 1960s music remains, "only now they sing about broken marriages and the pleasure of life. Still a lot of fun too." In the English music press, the album was favorably compared by many critics to the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band . Fans generally regard Sunflower as the Beach Boys' finest post- Pet Sounds album. Pitchfork ' s Hefner Macauley deemed Sunflower "perhaps
17712-454: The 1950s saw the growth in popularity of the electric guitar, and the development of a specifically rock and roll style of playing through such exponents as Chuck Berry, Link Wray , and Scotty Moore . The use of distortion , pioneered by Western swing guitarists such as Junior Barnard and Eldon Shamblin was popularized by Chuck Berry in the mid-1950s. The use of power chords , pioneered by Francisco Tárrega and Heitor Villa-Lobos in
17958-465: The 1970s, he considered it to be the last true Beach Boys album because it was the last to feature Brian's input and active involvement. He nonetheless regretted the inclusion of his two songs, saying that "Tears in the Morning" was "too pop" and that "I wish I hadn't recorded ['Deirdre'] with the group." Conversely, Brian said that "Deirdre" was "one of my very favorites" and that "Tears in the Morning"
18204-611: The 1980 album Keepin' the Summer Alive ), "Games Two Can Play" (released on the 1993 box set Good Vibrations: Thirty Years of the Beach Boys ), " Back Home " (a version different from the one released on 15 Big Ones ), a rehearsal of the Wild Honey song " Let the Wind Blow " (a song that was added to the band's setlists in this era), a solo piano demo of " Til I Die " with no vocals (later completed for Surf's Up ), and
18450-467: The 19th century and later on by Willie Johnson and Pat Hare in the early 1950s, was popularized by Link Wray in the late 1950s. Commentators have traditionally perceived a decline of rock and roll in the late 1950s and early 1960s. By 1959, the death of Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens in a plane crash, the departure of Elvis for the army, the retirement of Little Richard to become
18696-421: The 64th-greatest album of all time. When we did Wild Honey , Brian asked me to get more involved in the recording end. He wanted a break [because he] had been doing it all too long. —Carl Wilson The Beach Boys immediately recorded a new album, Wild Honey , an excursion into soul music , and a self-conscious attempt to "regroup" themselves as a rock band in opposition to their more orchestral affairs of
18942-477: The Banshees , Ultravox , and Simple Minds , showed the influence of progressive rock, as well as their more usually recognized punk influences. In the late 1960s, jazz-rock emerged as a distinct subgenre out of the blues-rock, psychedelic, and progressive rock scenes, mixing the power of rock with the musical complexity and improvisational elements of jazz. AllMusic states that the term jazz-rock "may refer to
19188-618: The Beach Boys . "I'm Going Your Way" is a Dennis song about picking up hitchhikers and the sexual intercourse that might follow while " Carnival " (aka "Over the Waves") is a wordless vocal rendition of the standard " When You Are in Love (It's the Loveliest Night of the Year) ". Both songs were released on the 2021 box set Feel Flows. Also recorded was "When Girls Get Together" (released on
19434-483: 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 fans and 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
19680-407: The Beach Boys collectively and by Brian Wilson and Carl Wilson , Bruce Johnston , Al Jardine , and Dennis Wilson individually. Throughout the year, they recorded about four dozen studio tracks, with working titles for the new album including Reverberation , Sun Flower , and Add Some Music . On April 12, the Beach Boys filed suit against Capitol for unpaid royalties and production duties in
19926-515: The Beach Boys had built their commercial standing. Within two months, the label capitulated by releasing the group's first greatest hits compilation album, Best of the Beach Boys , which was quickly certified gold by the RIAA . By contrast, Pet Sounds met a highly favorable critical response in Britain, where it reached number 2 and remained among the top-ten positions for six months. Responding to
20172-404: 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 since Surfin' Safari not to reach the US top-ten. This caused Murry to fight for
20418-527: 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-law Billy Hinsche , who declined
20664-458: The Beach Boys' vocal approach to the genre, not the original instrumental style pioneered by Dick 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
20910-628: The Beatles, demonstrating "to the rock generation in general that an album could be a major standalone statement without hit singles", such as on The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963). Folk rock particularly took off in California, where it led acts like the Mamas & the Papas and Crosby, Stills, and Nash to move to electric instrumentation, and in New York, where it spawned performers including
21156-554: The Byrds ' shift from folk to folk rock from 1965. The psychedelic lifestyle, which revolved around hallucinogenic drugs, had already developed in San Francisco and particularly prominent products of the scene were Big Brother and the Holding Company , the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane . The Jimi Hendrix Experience 's lead guitarist, Jimi Hendrix did extended distorted, feedback-filled jams which became
21402-431: The Byrds adopted rock instrumentation, including drums and 12-string Rickenbacker guitars, which became a major element in the sound of the genre. Later that year Dylan adopted electric instruments, much to the outrage of many folk purists, with his " Like a Rolling Stone " becoming a US hit single. According to Ritchie Unterberger , Dylan (even before his adoption of electric instruments) influenced rock musicians like
21648-594: The Dominos , followed by an extensive solo career that helped bring blues rock into the mainstream. Green, along with the Bluesbreaker's rhythm section Mick Fleetwood and John McVie , formed Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac , who enjoyed some of the greatest commercial success in the genre. In the late 1960s Jeff Beck , also an alumnus of the Yardbirds, moved blues rock in the direction of heavy rock with his band,
21894-507: The Gates of Dawn . Key recordings included Jefferson Airplane's Surrealistic Pillow and the Doors ' self-titled debut album . These trends peaked in the 1969 Woodstock festival , which saw performances by most of the major psychedelic acts. Sgt. Pepper was later regarded as the greatest album of all time and a starting point for the album era , during which rock music transitioned from
22140-471: The Jeff Beck Group . The last Yardbirds guitarist was Jimmy Page , who went on to form The New Yardbirds which rapidly became Led Zeppelin . Many of the songs on their first three albums, and occasionally later in their careers, were expansions on traditional blues songs. In America, blues rock had been pioneered in the early 1960s by guitarist Lonnie Mack , but the genre began to take off in
22386-506: The Joint " (1949), also covered by Bill Haley & His Comets in 1952; and " Rocket 88 " by Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats (in fact, Ike Turner and his band the Kings of Rhythm ), recorded by Sam Phillips for Chess Records in 1951. In 1951, Cleveland, Ohio disc jockey Alan Freed began playing rhythm and blues music (then termed " race music ") for a multi-racial audience, and
22632-503: The Lovin' Spoonful and Simon and Garfunkel , with the latter's acoustic " The Sounds of Silence " (1965) being remixed with rock instruments to be the first of many hits. These acts directly influenced British performers like Donovan and Fairport Convention . In 1969 Fairport Convention abandoned their mixture of American covers and Dylan-influenced songs to play traditional English folk music on electric instruments. This British folk-rock
22878-476: The Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds , were much more directly influenced by rhythm and blues and later blues music. Soon these groups were composing their own material, combining US forms of music and infusing it with a high energy beat. Beat bands tended towards "bouncy, irresistible melodies", while early British blues acts tended towards less sexually innocent, more aggressive songs, often adopting an anti-establishment stance. There was, however, particularly in
23124-467: The 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
23370-588: The Searchers from Liverpool and Freddie and the Dreamers , Herman's Hermits and the Hollies from Manchester. They drew on a wide range of American influences including 1950s rock and roll, soul, rhythm and blues, and surf music, initially reinterpreting standard American tunes and playing for dancers. Bands like the Animals from Newcastle and Them from Belfast , and particularly those from London like
23616-672: The Seeds ) to near-studio musician quality (including the Knickerbockers , the Remains , and the Fifth Estate ). There were also regional variations in many parts of the country with flourishing scenes particularly in California and Texas. The Pacific Northwest states of Washington and Oregon had perhaps the most defined regional sound. The style had been evolving from regional scenes as early as 1958. "Tall Cool One" (1959) by
23862-500: The Tate–LaBianca murders, and the family's former connections with Dennis and the Beach Boys became the subject of media attention. In February 1970, the band submitted a version of Add Some Music , but were once again rejected. The company felt that the proposed LP was not strong enough, although they decided to issue two of its tracks as a single, and asked the band to write and record a new batch of songs. From February to June,
24108-437: The U.S., and it was widely dismissed by the early rock music press before undergoing a rebranding in the early 1970s. Carl took over as de facto leader until the mid-1970s, when the band responded to the growing success of its live shows and greatest hits compilations by transitioning into an oldies act. Dennis drowned in 1983, and Brian soon became estranged from the group. Following Carl's death from lung cancer in 1998,
24354-442: The US as the second single from the album, while the album itself went to number 2. The first single from Summer Days had 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
24600-676: The US was becoming dominated by lightweight pop and ballads, British rock groups at clubs and local dances were developing a style more strongly influenced by blues-rock pioneers, and were starting to play with an intensity and drive seldom found in white American acts; this influence would go on to shape the future of rock music through the British Invasion . The first four years of the 1960s has traditionally been seen as an era of hiatus for rock and roll. More recently some authors have emphasised important innovations and trends in this period without which future developments would not have been possible. While early rock and roll, particularly through
24846-473: 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 the Monterey 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
25092-434: The US. All Summer Long introduced exotic textures to the Beach Boys' sound exemplified by the piccolos and xylophones of its 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
25338-515: 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 befriended Charles 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
25584-619: The USSR and South Africa from 1955 to 1957, influencing the globalisation of rock. Johnny O'Keefe 's 1958 record " Wild One " was one of the earliest Australian rock and roll hits. By the late 1950s, as well as in the American-influenced Western world, rock was popular in communist states such as Yugoslavia, and the USSR, as well as in regions such as South America. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, American blues music and blues rock artists, who had been surpassed by
25830-696: The Wailers and " Louie Louie " by the Kingsmen (1963) are mainstream examples of the genre in its formative stages. By 1963, garage band singles were creeping into the national charts in greater numbers, including Paul Revere and the Raiders (Boise), the Trashmen (Minneapolis) and the Rivieras (South Bend, Indiana). Other influential garage bands, such as the Sonics (Tacoma, Washington), never reached
26076-527: The advent of rockabilly, saw the greatest commercial success for male and white performers, in this era, the genre was dominated by black and female artists. Rock and roll had not disappeared entirely from music at the end of the 1950s and some of its energy can be seen in the various dance crazes of the early 1960s, started by Chubby Checker 's record " The Twist " (1960). Some music historians have also pointed to important and innovative technical developments that built on rock and roll in this period, including
26322-420: The amount of $ 2 million (equivalent to $ 16.6 million in 2023). In a press statement for this news, they also announced that they would be reviving their Brother Records imprint. On April 16, Capitol A&R director Karl Engemaan drafted a letter to band manager Nick Grillo indicating that the group and label were still interested in renewing their contract. Engemaan asked the group to be ready to deliver
26568-438: The autobiographical; journalist Nick Kent wrote 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 book Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Story of Modern Pop , Bob Stanley remarked that "Brian
26814-424: The background harmonies. For his birthday that year, Brian received a reel-to-reel tape recorder . He learned how to overdub , using his vocals and those of Carl and their mother. Brian played piano, while Carl and David Marks , an eleven-year-old longtime neighbor, played guitars that each had received as Christmas presents. Soon Brian and Carl were avidly listening to Johnny Otis ' KFOX radio show. Inspired by
27060-441: The background; their voices were double-tracked , as was common practice for many of their recordings. Brian's wife Marilyn and her sister Diane Rovell also contributed backing vocals. Brian later produced a version of the song for their group American Spring on the 1972 album Spring . As a solo artist, he returned to the song again for the album I Just Wasn't Made for These Times (1995). " Add Some Music to Your Day "
27306-435: 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
27552-485: The band granted Love legal rights to tour under the group's name . In the early 2010s, the original members briefly reunited for the band's 50th anniversary tour . As of 2024, Brian and Al 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 and commercially successful bands of all time, selling over 100 million records worldwide. They helped legitimize popular music as
27798-440: The band to their subsidiary Reprise Records . This deal was brokered by Van Dyke Parks , a former collaborator of Brian's who was then employed as a multimedia executive at Warner Music Group . The contract dealt by Reprise stipulated Brian's proactive involvement with the band in all albums. Another part of the deal was to revive Brother Records. Shortly before signing with Reprise, the group accumulated enough material for
28044-507: The band wore heavy wool jacket-like shirts that local surfers favored before switching to their trademark striped shirts and white pants (a look that was taken directly from the Kingston 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
28290-492: The band's music or the members personally. CBS and MGM also rejected the band. In August, the Manson Family committed the Tate–LaBianca murders . According to Jon Parks, the band's tour manager, it was widely suspected in the Hollywood community that Charles 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
28536-759: 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." We needed to grow. Up to this point we had milked every idea dry [and did] every possible angle about surfing and [cars]. But we needed to grow artistically. — Brian Wilson Released in March 1965, The Beach Boys Today! marked
28782-471: 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
29028-454: The best songs penned by Brian. The A.V. Club ' s Noel Murray wrote that the album could be interpreted as the band's response to "the wave of ' sunshine pop ' and ' bubblegum ' acts that had emerged over the previous couple of years, showing that no one could write and record slick, melodic, harmony-drenched songs quite like The Beach Boys." Among the band members, Bruce Johnston later named Sunflower his favorite Beach Boys album. In
29274-585: The biggest selling rock band of all time and they were followed into the US charts by numerous British bands. During the next two years British acts dominated their own and the US charts with Peter and Gordon , the Animals, Manfred Mann , Petula Clark , Freddie and the Dreamers, Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders , Herman's Hermits, the Rolling Stones, the Troggs , and Donovan all having one or more number one singles. Other major acts that were part of
29520-466: The chart dominance of British acts. In 1971, Cue magazine 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 the Billboard Hot 100 in December, and became their first number 1 in Britain. That month,
29766-461: The chart. Their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show on 9 February 1964, drawing an estimated 73 million viewers (at the time a record for an American television program) is considered a milestone in American pop culture. During the week of 4 April 1964, the Beatles held 12 positions on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, including the entire top five. The Beatles went on to become
30012-424: The delights and limitations of the regional , and to deal with the depredations and benefits of mass culture itself. — Robert Christgau in Christgau's Record Guide (1981) Unlike many earlier styles of popular music, rock lyrics have dealt with a wide range of themes, including romantic love, sex, rebellion against " The Establishment ", social concerns, and life styles. These themes were inherited from
30258-455: The early 1970s among existing blues-rock and psychedelic bands, as well as newly formed acts. The vibrant Canterbury scene saw acts following Soft Machine from psychedelia, through jazz influences, toward more expansive hard rock, including Caravan , Hatfield and the North , Gong , and National Health . The French group Magma around drummer Christian Vander almost single-handedly created
30504-460: The early 1970s, Robert Christgau wrote in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981): The decade is, of course, an arbitrary schema itself—time doesn't just execute a neat turn toward the future every ten years. But like a lot of artificial concepts—money, say—the category does take on a reality of its own once people figure out how to put it to work. "The '60s are over,"
30750-407: The early stages, considerable musical crossover between the two tendencies. By 1963, led by the Beatles, beat groups had begun to achieve national success in Britain, soon to be followed into the charts by the more rhythm and blues focused acts. " I Want to Hold Your Hand " was the Beatles' first number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 , spending seven weeks at the top and a total of 15 weeks on
30996-782: The electronic treatment of sound by such innovators as Joe Meek , and the elaborate production methods of the Wall of Sound pursued by Phil Spector . In the United States, rock festivals were staged in northern California on consecutive weekends in the summer of 1967: the KFRC Fantasy Fair & Magic Mountain Music Festival on Mount Tamalpais (10–11 June) and the Monterey International Pop Festival (16–17 June). Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock , which
31242-501: 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 a panic 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 artist Glen Campbell agreed to temporarily serve as Brian's replacement in concert. Carl took over as
31488-471: The end of an experimental songwriting and production epoch for the group, one that had begun with 1967's Smiley Smile . In his 2016 memoir, Love acknowledged that Sunflower was "damn good ... I also know that we have fans who cherish that album like none other." Wilson biographer Christian Matijas-Mecca stated that the album was the band's best effort since Pet Sounds and said that it "demonstrated, more than any other Beach Boys album before or since, that
31734-522: The example set by the Beatles ' 1965 LP Rubber Soul in particular, other British rock acts released rock albums intended as artistic statements in 1966, including the Rolling Stones ' Aftermath , the Beatles' own Revolver , and the Who 's A Quick One , as well as American acts in the Beach Boys ( Pet Sounds ) and Bob Dylan ( Blonde on Blonde ). Garage rock was a raw form of rock music, particularly prevalent in North America in
31980-467: 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 the Billboard Hot 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
32226-401: The finest holiday albums of the rock era. One single from the album, " The Man with All the Toys ", was released, peaking at number 6 on the US Billboard Christmas chart. On October 29, the Beach Boys performed for The 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
32472-498: The first record, and worldwide hit, for the Virgin Records label, which became a mainstay of the genre. Instrumental rock was particularly significant in continental Europe, allowing bands like Kraftwerk , Tangerine Dream , Can , Focus (band) and Faust to circumvent the language barrier. Their synthesiser-heavy " krautrock ", along with the work of Brian Eno (for a time the keyboard player with Roxy Music ), would be
32718-404: 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 the rock album format being used to make a cohesive artistic statement. Brian also established his new lyrical approach toward
32964-485: 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 in Southern California . Brian finished the song, titled " Surfin ' ", and with Mike Love, wrote " Surfin' Safari ". Murry Wilson, who
33210-455: The folk scene. The first group to advertise themselves as psychedelic rock were the 13th Floor Elevators from Texas. The Beatles introduced many of the major elements of the psychedelic sound to audiences in this period, such as guitar feedback , the Indian sitar and backmasking sound effects . Psychedelic rock particularly took off in California's emerging music scene as groups followed
33456-429: The follow-up Surf's Up (1971) and the compilation Feel Flows (2021). Sunflower is the truest group effort we'd ever had. Each of us was deeply involved in the creation of almost all the cuts. Someone would come down to the studio early and put down a basic track, and then someone else would arrive and think of a good line or overdub. — Carl Wilson , 1970 The Beach Boys were at their lowest popularity in
33702-513: The format of rock operas and opened the door to concept albums , often telling an epic story or tackling a grand overarching theme. King Crimson 's 1969 début album, In the Court of the Crimson King , which mixed powerful guitar riffs and mellotron , with jazz and symphonic music , is often taken as the key recording in progressive rock, helping the widespread adoption of the genre in
33948-615: 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 album All Summer Long , released in July 1964 and reaching number 4 in
34194-403: The group embarked on a four-week tour of the UK and Europe, Brian told the music press that the group's funds were depleted to the point that they were considering filing for bankruptcy at the end of the year, which Disc & Music Echo called "stunning news" and a "tremendous shock on the American pop scene". In response, Grillo told reporters that Brian's comments were untrue and that he
34440-527: The group for this tour. Australian magazine Go Set reported that the band's next album was titled Cool Water and that Emerald Films would be creating a color film documentary of the tour, produced by the BBC 's Steve Turner . None of the album's other singles charted in the US or UK. Due to the poor response to the lead single, Warner suggested that the band refrain from calling the new album Add Some Music . In late June, Brian told Melody Maker that he
34686-458: The group worked on overdubbing and rerecording some of their new material. Another revision was rejected in late May. The album's last two songs were finished in July: " Cool, Cool Water " and " It's About Time ". After a July 21 overdubbing session for "Cool, Cool Water" with synthesizer player Bernie Krause , the third and final master of Sunflower was delivered to Warner. " Slip On Through "
34932-439: The group, as he remembered, "Brian was notorious at that point" and label executives found the band too risky to sign. Since the Beach Boys' remained highly popular in the UK, Grillo attempted to secure a foreign, worldwide contract with a European company. During the first half of 1969, the Beach Boys continued to tour and increasingly engaged in benefit concerts held at hospitals and penitentiaries. On May 27, three days before
35178-403: 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 of Billboard , 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,
35424-585: The hype, Melody Maker ran a feature in which many pop musicians were asked whether they believed that the album was truly revolutionary and progressive , 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
35670-458: The impetus was soon taken up by a second wave of bands that drew their inspiration more directly from American blues , including the Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds . British blues musicians of the late 1950s and early 1960s had been inspired by the acoustic playing of figures such as Lead Belly , who was a major influence on the Skiffle craze, and Robert Johnson . Increasingly they adopted
35916-427: The impression that it had no filler 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 officer Derek Taylor , who
36162-467: The invasion included the Kinks and the Dave Clark Five . The British Invasion helped internationalize the production of rock and roll, opening the door for subsequent British (and Irish) performers to achieve international success. In America it arguably spelled the end of instrumental surf music, vocal girl groups and (for a time) the teen idols , that had dominated the American charts in
36408-517: The label were R&B oriented white rock bands that made use of jazzy horn sections, like Electric Flag , Blood, Sweat & Tears and Chicago , to become some of the most commercially successful acts of the later 1960s and the early 1970s. British acts to emerge in the same period from the blues scene, to make use of the tonal and improvisational aspects of jazz, included Nucleus and the Graham Bond and John Mayall spin-off Colosseum . From
36654-449: The label. Throughout 1966, EMI flooded the UK market with Beach Boys albums not yet released there, including Beach Boys' Party! , The Beach Boys Today! and Summer Days (and Summer Nights!!) , while Best of the Beach Boys was 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
36900-446: The late 1950s and 1960s. It dented the careers of established R&B acts like Fats Domino and Chubby Checker and even temporarily derailed the chart success of surviving rock and roll acts, including Elvis. The British Invasion also played a major part in the rise of a distinct genre of rock music, and cemented the primacy of the rock group, based on guitars and drums and producing their own material as singer-songwriters. Following
37146-500: The late 1960s, and their cultural standing was especially worsened by their public image, which remained incongruous with the "heavier" music of their peers. Released by Capitol Records in February 1969, the band's newest album 20/20 sold better than their previous, Friends (1968). However, they remained encumbered by an enormous debt that had been partly the result of two disastrous tours in 1968. Recording sessions for their next album began in January 1969 and were produced by
37392-410: The loudest, wildest, most electrified fusion bands from the jazz camp, but most often it describes performers coming from the rock side of the equation." Jazz-rock "...generally grew out of the most artistically ambitious rock subgenres of the late '60s and early '70s", including the singer-songwriter movement. Many early US rock and roll musicians had begun in jazz and carried some of these elements into
37638-480: The lyrics. Dennis and Carl did the track." White describes the song as a "commentary on rock indulgence and self-redemption, it was also a wishful scenario regarding both Brian and Dennis Wilson's sporadic personal troubles." " Tears in the Morning ", written by Johnston, is a melodramatic song with strings, horns, and accordions. He performed the song during the group's live performances without accompaniment from his bandmates. A Disc & Echo writer reviewed of
37884-590: 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, classical tone poems , cartoon sound effects, musique concrète , and yodeling. Saturday Evening Post writer Jules Siegel recalled that, on one October evening, Brian announced to his wife and friends that he
38130-476: The many recordings which have been suggested as "the first rock and roll record ". Contenders include " Strange Things Happening Every Day " by Sister Rosetta Tharpe (1944); " That's All Right " by Arthur Crudup (1946), which was later covered by Elvis Presley in 1954; " The House of Blue Lights " by Ella Mae Morse and Freddie Slack (1946); Wynonie Harris ' " Good Rocking Tonight " (1948); Goree Carter 's "Rock Awhile" (1949); Jimmy Preston 's " Rock
38376-512: 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
38622-419: The method of tape 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
38868-674: The mid-1950s by white singers such as Carl Perkins , Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly and with the greatest commercial success, Elvis Presley . Hispanic and Latino American movements in rock and roll, which would eventually lead to the success of Latin rock and Chicano rock within the US, began to rise in the Southwest ; with rock and roll standard musician Ritchie Valens and even those within other heritage genres, such as Al Hurricane along with his brothers Tiny Morrie and Baby Gaby as they began combining rock and roll with country- western within traditional New Mexico music . In addition,
39114-609: The mid-1960s the Left Banke , the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and the Beach Boys, had pioneered the inclusion of harpsichords , wind , and string sections on their recordings to produce a form of Baroque rock and can be heard in singles like Procol Harum 's " A Whiter Shade of Pale " (1967), with its Bach -inspired introduction. The Moody Blues used a full orchestra on their album Days of Future Passed (1967) and subsequently created orchestral sounds with synthesizers. Classical orchestration, keyboards, and synthesizers were
39360-479: The mid-1960s and so called because of the perception that it was rehearsed in the suburban family garage. Garage rock songs often revolved around the traumas of high school life, with songs about "lying girls" and unfair social circumstances being particularly common. The lyrics and delivery tended to be more aggressive than was common at the time, often with growled or shouted vocals that dissolved into incoherent screaming. They ranged from crude one-chord music (like
39606-435: The mid-1960s as acts developed a sound similar to British blues musicians. Key acts included Paul Butterfield (whose band acted like Mayall's Bluesbreakers in Britain as a starting point for many successful musicians), Canned Heat , the early Jefferson Airplane , Janis Joplin , Johnny Winter , the J. Geils Band and Jimi Hendrix with his power trios , the Jimi Hendrix Experience (which included two British members, and
39852-401: The mid-1960s onwards, rock music often used the verse–chorus structure derived from blues and folk music, but there has been considerable variation from this model. Critics have stressed the eclecticism and stylistic diversity of rock. Because of its complex history and its tendency to borrow from other musical and cultural forms, it has been argued that "it is impossible to bind rock music to
40098-405: 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 formative psychedelic 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
40344-455: The music of older pop vocal groups , 1950s rock and roll , and black R&B to create its unique sound. Under Brian's direction, it often incorporated classical or jazz elements and unconventional recording techniques in innovative ways. The Beach Boys formed as a garage band centered on Brian's songwriting and managed by the Wilsons' father, Murry . In 1963, the band enjoyed its first national hit with " Surfin' U.S.A. ", beginning
40590-433: The music of other surf bands, which was mainly instrumental and incorporated heavy use of spring 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
40836-424: The new album (then known under the working titles The Fading Rock Group Revival or Reverberation ) by May 1. Only seven of the ten tracks were completed by the deadline, and so the album was not delivered. In 1969, Brian was increasingly known for his reclusiveness and eccentric behavior, which affected his reputation within the music industry. Grillo struggled to find another major label interested in signing
41082-465: The new music genre zeuhl with their first albums in the early 1970s. Greater commercial success was enjoyed by Pink Floyd, who also moved away from psychedelia after the departure of Syd Barrett in 1968, with The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), seen as a masterpiece of the genre, becoming one of the best-selling albums of all time. There was an emphasis on instrumental virtuosity, with Yes showcasing
41328-608: The new music. In Britain the subgenre of blues rock, and many of its leading figures, like Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce of the Eric Clapton -fronted band Cream , had emerged from the British jazz scene. Often highlighted as the first true jazz-rock recording is the only album by the relatively obscure New York–based the Free Spirits with Out of Sight and Sound (1966). The first group of bands to self-consciously use
41574-468: 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 on 20/20 . As his cult of followers took 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
41820-650: The next few years, Brian produced a variety of singles for outside artists. Among these were the Honeys , a surfer trio that comprised sisters Diane and Marilyn Rovell with 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 of Phil Spector 's sessions at Gold Star Studios . His creative and songwriting interests were revamped upon hearing
42066-685: The offer to focus on his college studies. Rock music Rock is a broad genre of popular music that originated as " rock and roll " in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of different styles from the mid-1960s, particularly in the United States and the United Kingdom. It has its roots in rock and roll, a style that drew directly from the genres of blues , rhythm and blues , and country music . Rock also drew strongly from genres such as electric blues and folk , and incorporated influences from jazz and other musical styles. For instrumentation, rock
42312-399: The orchestrations, at times, echo the quirkiness of ' exotica ' bandleader Les Baxter , or the 'cool' of Burt Bacharach , more so than Spector's teen fanfares". For Pet Sounds , Brian desired to make "a complete statement", similar to what he believed the Beatles had done with their newest album Rubber Soul , released in December 1965. Brian was immediately enamored with the album, given
42558-400: 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 that Wild Honey was "completely out of the mainstream for what was going on at that time ... and that was the idea". Wild Honey
42804-489: The photograph, also featuring Brian's daughter Wendy , Al's first son Matthew, Mike's children Hayleigh and Christian, and Carl's son Jonah. The inner gatefold spread on the original vinyl LP featured a series of photographs taken by designer/photographer Ed Thrasher at the Warner Bros. studio backlot. On February 23, 1970, "Add Some Music to Your Day" (B-side "Susie Cincinnati") was issued as lead single. Reprise
43050-399: The pitfalls of stardom and fame. It was primarily written by Dennis and outside writer Bob Burchman (a close friend of Dennis's second wife, Barbara), with co-writers Carl and Jardine adding various refinements during the recording process. Jardine said: "'It's About Time'" was Carl, Dennis and I [ sic ]. That's a good one. I like that production. That was mostly Dennis, and I just helped with
43296-445: The point marking the band's artistic decline. Smiley Smile was 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. While Smile may have divided the Beach Boys' fans had it been released, Smiley Smile merely baffled them." The group
43542-471: The psychedelic rock and the Canterbury scenes came Soft Machine, who, it has been suggested, produced one of the artistically successfully fusions of the two genres. Perhaps the most critically acclaimed fusion came from the jazz side of the equation, with Miles Davis , particularly influenced by the work of Hendrix, incorporating rock instrumentation into his sound for the album Bitches Brew (1970). It
43788-596: 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 meeting Maharishi Mahesh Yogi at a UNICEF Variety Gala in Paris, Love and other high-profile celebrities such as the Beatles and Donovan traveled to Rishikesh , India, in February–March 1968. The following Beach Boys album, Friends , had songs influenced by
44034-740: The rainbow of personalities still folded together into a sound that was sweet, surprisingly sexy, and, as ever, musically inventive. Sunflower was voted number 380 in Rolling Stone's " 500 Greatest Albums of All Time " (2003), number 66 in The Guardian ' s "100 Best Albums Ever" (1997), and number 449 in Colin Larkin 's All Time Top 1000 Albums (2000). In his review of the album's 2000 remaster, Keith Phipps from The A.V. Club said that Sunflower "features one of The Beach Boys' most coherent and lovely selections of music", with
44280-578: The record was their first single certified gold by the RIAA . 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 the NME ' s annual readers' poll, ahead of the Beatles, the Walker Brothers , the Rolling Stones , and the Four Tops . Throughout the first half of 1967, the album's release date
44526-653: The regional hit " Let's Go Trippin ' " in 1961 and launched the surf music craze, following up with songs like " Misirlou " (1962). Like Dale and his Del-Tones , most early surf bands were formed in Southern California, including the Bel-Airs , the Challengers , and Eddie & the Showmen . The Chantays scored a top ten national hit with " Pipeline " in 1963 and probably the best-known surf tune
44772-400: The rise of rock and roll in the US, found new popularity in the UK, visiting with successful tours. Lonnie Donegan 's 1955 hit " Rock Island Line " was a major influence and helped to develop the trend of skiffle music groups throughout the country, many of which, including John Lennon 's Quarrymen (later the Beatles ), moved on to play rock and roll. While former rock and roll market in
45018-475: The romantic concept of art as artistic expression, original and sincere". In the new millennium, the term rock has occasionally been used as a blanket term including forms like pop music, reggae music , soul music , and even hip hop , which it has been influenced with but often contrasted through much of its history. Christgau has used the term broadly to refer to popular and semipopular music that caters to his sensibility as "a rock-and-roller", including
45264-522: The same era, and by percussion produced from a drum kit that combines drums and cymbals. This trio of instruments has often been complemented by the inclusion of other instruments, particularly keyboards such as the piano, the Hammond organ , and the synthesizer. The basic rock instrumentation was derived from the basic blues band instrumentation (prominent lead guitar, second chordal instrument, bass, and drums). A group of musicians performing rock music
45510-555: The second half of the 1970s, punk rock reacted by producing stripped-down, energetic social and political critiques. Punk was an influence in the 1980s on new wave , post-punk and eventually alternative rock . From the 1990s, alternative rock began to dominate rock music and break into the mainstream in the form of grunge , Britpop , and indie rock . Further fusion subgenres have since emerged, including pop-punk , electronic rock , rap rock , and rap metal . Some movements were conscious attempts to revisit rock's history, including
45756-414: The sessions for Friends . Retrospective commentators note the song as one of the earliest examples of chillwave , a microgenre that emerged in the 2000s. Discussing the song in 1995, Brian expressed: "That was one of those songs that had a nice chord pattern, but I think it was a boring song, and I thought it wasn't done right. I thought it should have been softer, with boxed guitars ." " Forever "
46002-488: The simple structure and vocals of the rhythm and blues songs he heard, Brian changed his piano-playing style and started writing songs. Family gatherings brought the Wilsons in contact with cousin Mike Love . Brian taught Love's sister Maureen and a friend harmonies. Later, Brian, Love and two friends performed at Hawthorne High School . Brian also knew Al Jardine , a high school classmate. Brian suggested to Jardine that they team up with his cousin and brother Carl. Love gave
46248-546: The singles format to albums and achieved cultural legitimacy in the mainstream. Led by the Beatles in the mid-1960s, rock musicians advanced the LP as the dominant form of recorded music expression and consumption, initiating a rock-informed album era in the music industry for the next several decades. Progressive rock, a term sometimes used interchangeably with art rock , moved beyond established musical formulas by experimenting with different instruments, song types, and forms. From
46494-408: The six members could work democratically and deliver songs of real depth." Writing in The Beach Boys and the California Myth (1978), David Leaf summarized the work as "the first album that could come close to Pet Sounds on a production level, partly the result of studio engineer Steve Desper's fine work. The Beach Boys' harmonies were present in a way they hadn't been since Summer Days... and it
46740-413: The skills of both guitarist Steve Howe and keyboard player Rick Wakeman , while Emerson, Lake & Palmer were a supergroup who produced some of the genre's most technically demanding work. Jethro Tull and Genesis both pursued very different, but distinctly English, brands of music. Renaissance , formed in 1969 by ex-Yardbirds Jim McCarty and Keith Relf, evolved into a high-concept band featuring
46986-467: The song on the radio. According to band promoter Fred Vail, WFIL program director Jay Cook refused to play the song even after "telling me how great the Beach Boys are and how great Brian is." On April 17, the regular touring band, with Love, embarked on their first major tour of the year: a four-week trek of New Zealand and Australia. Supporting musicians for this tour included bassist Ed Carter and keyboardist Daryl Dragon. Murry Wilson also accompanied
47232-416: The song: "'Our Sweet Love' was one we finished with Brian. He just didn't want to finish it. So we kind of helped. We became completers of ideas." "At My Window" is a song by Brian and Jardine about the birds in Brian's backyard. It evolved from a rendition of "Raspberry, Strawberries", a Wilt Holt composition that was recorded by the Kingston Trio . The lyrics were written by Jardine. He commented: "That
47478-427: The strongest album they released post- Pet Sounds ", while Chris Holmes of Popdose declared that "it stands as the definitive post- Pet Sounds Beach Boys album". Paste ' s Brian Chidester wrote that the album "was, in many respects, their Abbey Road —a lush production that signaled an end to the 1960s, the decade that gave them creative flight." Music theorist Daniel Harrison referred to Sunflower as
47724-413: The subheading An Album Offering from the Beach Boys . From November 25 to December 7, the band embarked on their seventh and final annual Thanksgiving tour of the US. Badman called it "a dismal farewell" to the decade, "with audience members struggling to reach even a couple of hundred at some shows", forcing most of the dates to be cancelled. In November, the Manson family were apprehended by police for
47970-418: The subject of intense speculation and mystique and 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, Uncut magazine staff voted Smile the "greatest bootleg recording of all time". From 1965 to 1967, the Beach Boys had developed
48216-558: The three-octave voice of Annie Haslam . Most British bands depended on a relatively small cult following, but a handful, including Pink Floyd, Genesis, and Jethro Tull, managed to produce top ten singles at home and break the American market. The American brand of progressive rock varied from the eclectic and innovative Frank Zappa , Captain Beefheart and Blood, Sweat & Tears , to more pop rock orientated bands like Boston , Foreigner , Kansas , Journey , and Styx . These, beside British bands Supertramp and ELO , all demonstrated
48462-436: The time of his 16th birthday on June 20, 1958, Brian Wilson shared a bedroom with his brothers, Dennis and Carl —aged 13 and 11, respectively—in their family home in Hawthorne . He had watched his father Murry Wilson play piano, and had listened intently to the harmonies of vocal groups such as the Four Freshmen . After dissecting songs such as " Ivory Tower " and " Good News ", Brian would teach family members how to sing
48708-401: The unfinished tape, and convinced Wilson to finish the track for Sunflower . Waronker was so impressed with the song's inspired simplicity, that he noted, "If I ever get the opportunity to produce Brian, I'd encourage him to do something that combined the vividness of ' Good Vibrations ' with the non-commercial gentleness of 'Cool, Cool Water.'" Wilson later said: "In 'Cool, Cool Water' there's
48954-409: The vehicle for cultural and social movements, leading to major subcultures including mods and rockers in the U.K., the hippie movement and the wider Western counterculture movement that spread out from San Francisco in the U.S. in the 1960s, the latter of which continues to this day. Similarly, 1970s punk culture spawned the goth , punk, and emo subcultures. Inheriting the folk tradition of
49200-418: The work of the Beach Boys , formed in 1961 in Southern California. Their early albums included both instrumental surf rock (among them covers of music by Dick Dale) and vocal songs, drawing on rock and roll and doo wop and the close harmonies of vocal pop acts like the Four Freshmen . The Beach Boys first chart hit, " Surfin ' " in 1961 reached the Billboard top 100 and helped make the surf music craze
49446-493: The world, except as a new brand of painkiller ... In the '70s the powerful took over, as rock industrialists capitalized on the national mood to reduce potent music to an often reactionary species of entertainment—and to transmute rock's popular base from the audience to market." Sunflower (The Beach Boys album) Working titles for the album included Reverberation , Add Some Music , and The Fading Rock Group Revival . The recording sessions began in January 1969, and, after
49692-544: The year, which Disc & Music Echo called "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 with Deutsche Grammophon . The group's Capitol contract expired two weeks later with one more album still due. Live in London ,
49938-420: Was Smiley Smile ." Sessions for the new album lasted from June to July 1967 at Brian'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 "
50184-462: Was John Mayall ; his band, the Bluesbreakers , included Eric Clapton (after Clapton's departure from the Yardbirds) and later Peter Green . Particularly significant was the release of Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton (Beano) album (1966), considered one of the seminal British blues recordings and the sound of which was much emulated in both Britain and the United States. Eric Clapton went on to form supergroups Cream, Blind Faith , and Derek and
50430-417: Was "just putting you on". Brian said he hoped that the success of a forthcoming single, " Break Away ", would mend the band's financial issues. He wrote the song with his father and ex-band manager Murry Wilson . It was released on June 16 with the B-side "Celebrate the News", a Dennis song, and peaked at number 63 in the US and number 6 in the UK. During that summer, Brian focused his attention on launching
50676-412: Was "lovely". For the album's 2000 liner notes, it was written that he "attributes the staying power of Sunflower ... to the 'spiritual love' of the music". Notes Midway through the recording of Sunflower , the band assembled an album for Capitol with some tracks that were later placed on Sunflower . It had the working title of Reverberation . Although a master tape (dated June 19, 1970) of songs
50922-562: Was "writing a teenage symphony to God". Recording for Smile lasted 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 biographer Steven Gaines , Wilson employed his newfound "best friend" David Anderle as head of
51168-460: Was 1963's " Wipe Out ", by the Surfaris , which hit number 2 and number 10 on the Billboard charts in 1965. Surf rock was also popular in Europe during this time, with the British group the Shadows scoring hits in the early 1960s with instrumentals such as " Apache " and " Kon-Tiki ", while Swedish surf group the Spotnicks saw success in both Sweden and Britain. Surf music achieved its greatest commercial success as vocal pop music, particularly
51414-439: Was a collaboration between Brian and Jardine. In 1972, American Spring recorded versions of "Lady" (with the new title "Fallin' in Love") and "Good Time", the latter with new vocals overdubbed onto the Beach Boys' original backing track, for their album Spring . In 1977, the original Sunflower version of "Good Time" was placed on The Beach Boys Love You . In 1981, "San Miguel", a collaboration between Dennis and Gregg Jakobson,
51660-473: Was a major influence on subsequent rock-influenced jazz artists, including Herbie Hancock , Chick Corea and Weather Report . The genre began to fade in the late 1970s, as a mellower form of fusion began to take its audience, but acts like Steely Dan , Frank Zappa and Joni Mitchell recorded significant jazz-influenced albums in this period, and it has continued to be a major influence on rock music. Reflecting on developments that occurred in rock music in
51906-410: Was aiming for Johnny Mercer but coming up proto-indie ." In 2012, the album was voted 271 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time . In April 1965, Campbell's own career success pulled him from touring with the group. Columbia Records staff producer Bruce Johnston was asked to locate a replacement for Campbell; having failed to find one, Johnston himself became
52152-454: 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 songwriter Van Dyke Parks to collaborate as lyricist for the Beach Boys' next album project, soon titled Smile . Parks agreed. Wilson and Parks intended Smile to be a continuous suite of songs linked both thematically and musically, with
52398-444: 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 following Smile ' s non-release, it became
52644-446: 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
52890-424: Was continued in the 1970s by figures such as George Thorogood and Pat Travers , but, particularly on the British scene (except perhaps for the advent of groups such as Status Quo and Foghat who moved towards a form of high energy and repetitive boogie rock ), bands became focused on heavy metal innovation, and blues rock began to slip out of the mainstream. By the 1960s, the scene that had developed out of
53136-426: Was credited to Bruce Johnston and Brian. Although Johnston has said that Brian only offered minor lyrical contributions and that he gave him a 50% share in the song as a favor, music historians Andrew G. Doe and John Tobler wrote in 2004 that the song had been "developed from a musical theme first used in ' We're Together Again ,'" a 1968 composition credited to Brian Wilson and singer Ron Wilson (no relation). The song
53382-415: Was during the sessions for this single that Brian made the production decision from that point on to use double tracking on the group's vocals, resulting in a deeper and more resonant sound. The album of the same name followed in March and reached number 2 on the Billboard charts. Its success propelled the group into a nationwide spotlight, and was vital to launching surf music as a national craze, albeit
53628-449: Was founded in Britain), and Band of Gypsys , whose guitar virtuosity and showmanship would be among the most emulated of the decade. Blues rock bands from the southern states, like the Allman Brothers Band , Lynyrd Skynyrd , and ZZ Top , incorporated country elements into their style to produce the distinctive genre Southern rock . Early blues rock bands often emulated jazz, playing long, involved improvisations, which would later be
53874-457: Was held from August 15 to 18, 1969 on Max Yasgur 's dairy farm in Bethel, New York , was one of the largest music festivals in history and became synonymous with the counterculture of the 1960s . The instrumental rock and roll of performers such as Duane Eddy , Link Wray and the Ventures was further developed by Dick Dale , who added distinctive "wet" reverb , rapid alternate picking, and Middle Eastern and Mexican influences. He produced
54120-420: Was included on the band's next album Surf's Up (1971). " Loop de Loop ", written by Brian, Carl, and Jardine, was the latter's rearrangement of "Sail Plane Song", a 20/20 Brian/Carl outtake. In 1998, Jardine completed the song for the Endless Harmony Soundtrack with the original 1969 mix seeing release on the 2021 box set Feel Flows . The former compilation also included " Soulful Old Man Sunshine ",
54366-449: 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 the NME , Jimi Hendrix famously dismissed it as a "psychedelic barbershop quartet". By then, the group's lawsuit with Capitol was resolved, and it was agreed that Smile would not be the band's next album. In August, the group embarked on a two-date tour of Hawaii. The shows saw Brian make
54612-403: Was later convicted for several counts of murder and conspiracy to 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
54858-424: Was more like music you could make love to". In The Journal on the Art of Record Production , Marshall Heiser writes that Pet 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
55104-423: Was named after the sister of one of Johnston's ex-girlfriends and was described by White as "a stroll-tempo devotional to an idealized, red-haired goddess; its stippled use of flutes plus the spacey filtering and compression techniques in the vocal mixes giving the track a celestial grandeur." In 1994, the song was sampled in the video game EarthBound . " It's About Time " is an autobiographical rock song about
55350-424: Was not present at the session as he was in school that day. Murry brought the demos to Herb Newman, owner of Candix Records and Era 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 until Russ Regan , a young promoter with Era Records, noted that there already existed
55596-515: Was probably one of my first efforts at involving the other guys. ... I have this dim recollection of writing it and Bruce singing it and Brian trying to speak French in it. It had a nice tone to it. We had an accordion player come in and play some beautiful things on it." " Cool, Cool Water " evolved from the Smile track " Love to Say Dada " and was initially attempted during the 1967 sessions for Smiley Smile and Wild Honey . Lenny Waronker , then an A&R executive at Warner Music Group, heard
55842-419: Was probably the truest group effort ever in that it was a showcase for all the individuals in the band." Peter Ames Carlin summarized: Despite the fact that they were emerging from the darkest years of their commercial and personal lives, the group had produced a collection of songs that projected their utopian fantasies into a modern, adult context. The band's individual voices were more distinct than ever, but
56088-417: Was released for the compilation Ten Years of Harmony . Jardine's " Susie Cincinnati " was released as the B-side of the "Add Some Music to Your Day" single and as a track on the 1976 album 15 Big Ones . " I Just Got My Pay " is a song that contains a reworked melody from the 1964 outtake " All Dressed Up for School ", with both songs being released on the 1993 box set Good Vibrations: Thirty Years of
56334-411: Was released in November 1970 as their only UK single. Despite its poor sales, Sunflower received considerable critical acclaim in the US and the UK. In his review for Rolling Stone , Jim Miller called it "without doubt the best Beach Boys album in recent memory, a stylistically coherent tour de force ", but mused: "It makes one wonder though whether anyone still listens to their music, or could give
56580-497: Was released in November 1970, on Stateside Records , and peaked at number 29. A British trade magazine reported: "The album has been out less than one week, and it already is indicated to be their most popular recording in history, according to EMI Records ." However, the album continued to sell poorly. Two more US singles, "Tears in the Morning" (B-side "It's About Time") and "Cool, Cool Water" (B-side "Forever"), followed on October 21, 1970, and March 1971, respectively. The former
56826-401: Was released in the US by Brother/Reprise. At the time, Brian told Rolling Stone : "I think we threw away at least one good song on [ Sunflower ]. Overall the record is good but it doesn't please me as much as I wish. ... But all in all, with some good airplay, the record should do very well." The album became the Beach Boys' worst-selling to date, reaching number 151 on US record charts during
57072-461: Was released on December 18, 1967, in competition with the Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour and the Rolling Stones' Their Satanic Majesties Request . It had a higher chart placing than Smiley Smile , but still failed to make the top-twenty and remained on the charts for only 15 weeks. As with Smiley Smile , contemporary critics viewed it as inconsequential, and it alienated fans whose expectations had been raised by Smile . That month, Mike Love told
57318-452: Was repeatedly postponed as Brian tinkered with the recordings, experimenting with different takes and mixes, unable or unwilling to supply a final version. Meanwhile, he suffered 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
57564-437: Was sick, I went with the group up to Seattle and Vancouver and the Northwest for some appearances. I was scared for a few minutes in the first show—it had been a while since I was in front of so many people. But after it started to cook I really got with it. It was the best three days of my life, I guess." In April, "Add Some Music to Your Day" peaked at number 64 in the US during a five-week stay. DJs generally refused to play
57810-452: Was so excited about the record that they convinced retailers to carry more copies of it than that of any other artist on their roster ever. This made it the fastest-selling 45rpm record in the label's history. In March, Love was hospitalized after a three-week fast in which he ate only water, fruit juice, and yogurt – per the teachings of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi . Brian replaced Love on the road during this period. He remembered: "When Mike Love
58056-449: 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 Sounds
58302-411: Was taken up by bands including Pentangle , Steeleye Span and the Albion Band , which in turn prompted Irish groups like Horslips and Scottish acts like the JSD Band , Spencer's Feat and later Five Hand Reel , to use their traditional music to create a brand of Celtic rock in the early 1970s. Folk-rock reached its peak of commercial popularity in the period 1967–68, before many acts moved off in
58548-548: Was taking place globally in the aftermath of the Second World War . Cliff Richard is credited with one of the first rock and roll hits outside of North America with " Move It " (1959), effectively ushering in the sound of British rock . Several artists, most prominently Tommy Steele from the UK, found success with covers of major American rock and roll hits before the recordings could spread internationally, often translating them into local languages where appropriate. Steele in particular toured Britain, Scandinavia, Australia,
58794-439: Was the first commercially successful folk song to be recorded with rock and roll instrumentation and the Beatles " I'm a Loser " (1964), arguably the first Beatles song to be influenced directly by Dylan. The folk rock movement is usually thought to have taken off with the Byrds ' recording of Dylan's " Mr. Tambourine Man " which topped the charts in 1965. With members who had been part of the café-based folk scene in Los Angeles,
59040-430: Was the major force in American record sales and crooners , such as Eddie Fisher , Perry Como , and Patti Page , who had dominated the previous decade of popular music, found their access to the pop charts significantly curtailed. Rock and roll has been seen as leading to a number of distinct subgenres, including rockabilly, combining rock and roll with "hillbilly" country music, which was usually played and recorded in
59286-400: Was the most popular genre of music in the U.S. and much of the Western world from the 1950s to the 2010s. Rock musicians in the mid-1960s began to advance the album ahead of the single as the dominant form of recorded music expression and consumption, with the Beatles at the forefront of this development. Their contributions lent the genre a cultural legitimacy in the mainstream and initiated
59532-424: Was thinking about composing the soundtrack to an Andy Warhol film about a "gay surfer". On June 29, the second single "Slip On Through" (B-side "This Whole World") was issued in the US. Love wrote in his 2016 memoir that "Warner/Reprise was adrift on how to position Sunflower " and that the band had "thought about shortening [our] name to 'Beach' but concluded that was even worse." On August 31, 1970, Sunflower
59778-406: 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 LSD comedown . In 1974, NME voted it
60024-426: Was 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 considered Pet Sounds a risk, appealing more to an older demographic than the younger, female audience upon which
60270-406: Was written and sung by Dennis. Brian recalled, "It was a really dynamic song. Dennis, I was very proud of, because he really rocked and rolled on that one. Dennis did really interesting energetic things on that." " This Whole World " was written by Brian, who said it was "inspired by my love of the world, how I love people, and how people should be free." Carl sings lead vocals while Brian sings in
60516-556: Was written by Dennis and his friend Gregg Jakobson . Brian praised the song as "the most harmonically beautiful thing I've ever heard. It's a rock and roll prayer." Love wrote that it "was Dennis's most acclaimed ballad, as it captured the raw emotion and bluesy sensibility that he brought to his vocals." " Our Sweet Love " is a reworking of a Friends outtake, "Our New Home". Brian commented: "I wrote that for Carl. After I wrote it I said, 'Hey, he could sing this good' so I gave it to Carl." According to Jardine, Brian refused to complete
#711288