The Beach Boys Celebrate Their 50th Anniversary

(L to R) Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Carl Wilson, Al Jardine and Dennis Wilson comprised the Beach Boys.

I love the Beach Boys.

Without question, they're one of the best vocal groups of all time and one of the best American bands.

While I've never actually made such a list, if I had a top ten songs of all-time grouping I would most certainly put "God Only Knows" and "Good Vibrations" high in the rankings.

This year marks the group's 50th anniversary. There will be special events and releases including the first tours to feature Brian Wilson in over twenty years.

The band already made their first "reunion" appearance on the Grammy awards where they were regrettably joined by Maroon 5 and Foster The People.

Brian Wilson has had an enormous resurgence in recent years, releasing several albums including Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin in 2010 and In The Key of Disney in 2011.

Wilson made two albums for Disney.

I'll continue to post about the band and Brian Wilson in particular in the coming weeks and months because it's awesome.

Here's a link to a live television performance of The Beach Boys playing "California Girls" in 1965. There's an extended bit with the band and comedians Jack Benny and Bob Hope. It's kind of funny.

Here's The Who messing around and playing "Barbara Ann". Keith Moon handles the high lead vocal admirably and Pete Townshend's distorted solos add a lot of kick ass to the song.

Song Of The Day - August 7, 2008

After a lengthy period of sporadic internet access (which may continue for some time as my computer appears to have died) I return today with a song of the day reaching back into the past over 40 years. In 1966, Brian Wilson who had stopped touring with The Beach Boys to focus more on writing and working in the studio, found an incredible challenge in The Beatles album Rubber Soul. "I really wasn't quite ready for the unity", Wilson said. "It felt like it all belonged together. Rubber Soul was a collection of songs ... that somehow went together like no album ever made before, and I was very impressed. I said, "That's it. I really am challenged to do a great album."

So Wilson went to work creating the songs that would make the track listing for Pet Sounds, one of the most critically acclaimed and influential records in pop music history. As The Beatles inspired Wilson, Paul McCartney would later say that Pet Sounds served as his inspiration in turn for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

McCartney has said of the album, "It was Pet Sounds that blew me out of the water. I love the album so much. I've just bought my kids each a copy of it for their education in life ... I figure no one is educated musically 'til they've heard that album ... I love the orchestra, the arrangements ... it may be going overboard to say it's the classic of the century ... but to me, it certainly is a total, classic record that is unbeatable in many ways ... I've often played Pet Sounds and cried."


Today's featured cut is "God Only Knows", one of the most beautiful pop tunes ever crafted. It shows Wilson's heavy use of orchestra, as that's pretty much where all the instrumentation comes from on the track. This video has some cool photos of Wilson at work in the studio with the band and the multitudes of session musicians used on the album (over 60).