Beach Boys

The Warmth of the Sun is designed to serve as a companion piece to 2003's Sounds of Summer: The Very Best of the Beach Boys, and as such, it is perfect. While that earlier volume contained most of the Beach Boys' biggest hits, the cornerstones of the catalog such as "I Get Around," "Surfer Girl," "California Girls," and "Fun, Fun, Fun," the follow-up is, in its own way, just as strong and just as enjoyable. In fact, while listening to it, a fan might wonder why the compilers in 2003 didn't just make Sounds of Summer a double album, include all of this material as well, and be done with it. Certainly, songs like "Catch a Wave," "409," "Surf's Up," "Wendy," and, of course, the title track are every bit as essential to a basic Beach Boys collection as any given track on the previous set. But The Warmth of the Sun not only stands tall by itself, some hardcore fans might prefer it, as some of the tunes on the first collection are so overexposed that there is little desire to ever hear them again. Gems included in this sequel, such as "You're So Good to Me," "Let Him Run Wild," "'Til I Die," "The Little Girl I Once Knew," and "Disney Girls (1957)" don't exactly have the high profile of "Help Me, Rhonda" or "Barbara Ann," but that's why it's so refreshing to listen to this set list: some of these great songs have been so neglected ("Friends," "Please Let Me Wonder," and "Kiss Me, Baby," for example) that they sound almost like lost hits in this context. Even the lack of material from Pet Sounds is a relief – while that album is indeed one of the greatest ever recorded by anyone, and while "Caroline, No" should have been included on one volume or the other (it's not), anyone who needs to experience the Pet Sounds material should just buy that album anyway. There are by now literally dozens of Beach Boys comps available in as many configurations, but The Warmth of the Sun is one of the most enjoyable pure listening experiences among them.

Beach Boys' Christmas Album features the Beach Boys performing a variety of holiday favorites. Most of the featured songs are well-known, some of the more popular being "Frosty the Snowman," "White Christmas," "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town," and "I'll Be Home for Christmas," among others. Furthermore, there are four songs composed by the Beach Boys — "Little Saint Nick," "Man With All the Toys," "Santa's Beard," and "Merry Christmas, Baby" — which begin the album. This mix of favorites and originals makes this a balanced holiday album that should please both Beach Boys admirers and those unfamiliar with the group. ~ Jason Birchmeier

The Beach Boys Beginning their career as the most popular surf band in the nation, the Beach Boys finally emerged by 1966 as America's preeminent pop group, the only act able to challenge (for a brief time) the overarching success of the Beatles with both mainstream listeners and the critical community. From their 1961 debut with the regional hit "Surfin'," the three Wilson brothers – Brian, Dennis, and Carl – plus cousin Mike Love and friend Al Jardine constructed the most intricate, gorgeous harmonies ever heard from a pop band.

The follow-up to 1974's incredibly popular Endless Summer – which gave the Beach Boys their highest chart placement for an album (at number one, no less) in a dog's age – Spirit of America was a similar attempt to mine the group's classic Capitol Records catalog, with odder and somewhat less satisfying results. But some of the less than wholly satisfying moments were more a reflection of the woeful state of Capitol's A&R department than they were any black mark against the Beach Boys' music. And the album did have its unexpected joys, as well as a few lessons to teach a lot of bands from the 1970s. Endless Summer had, indeed, mined the lion's share of big hits associated with the band, but Spirit of America, which was more hooked around the band's car song repertory than its surf music output, had its familiar moments – "409," "Dance, Dance, Dance," "Little Honda," "Do You Wanna Dance," and "Barbara Ann" were great selections (and perfect to reach out to a teenage/early-twenties listenership attuned to – if not always fully enamored of – oldies and early-'60s nostalgia), and most of what surrounded them was a good match. And there was a serious, unexpected twist in the range of the content going right into the second song on side one, the repertory making a sudden leap across five years to the end of the 1960s and the group's then all-but-forgotten late-era single "Break Away." The latter song, which probably came up too early on the album to generate its maximum impact, did fit with the rest of what's here and helped direct a few otherwise unsuspecting low-level fans toward the group's then-overlooked late-'60s psychedelic-era output. On the minus side, however, the overall sound was rather indifferent on the original double-LP edition, which contained only 23 songs.

Although somewhat unimaginatively titled, 1973's Beach Boys in Concert is significantly more than a hastily compiled live collection of hits. To the contrary, the set includes highlights from the band's earliest sides ("Surfer Girl") through to the groundbreaking Smile era ("Good Vibrations" and "Heroes and Villains") as well as more concurrent material ("Sail On Sailor" and "Marcella").

Beginning their career as the most popular surf band in the nation, the Beach Boys finally emerged by 1966 as America's preeminent pop group, the only act able to challenge (for a brief time) the overarching success of the Beatles with both mainstream listeners and the critical community. From their 1961 debut with the regional hit "Surfin'," the three Wilson brothers – Brian, Dennis, and Carl – plus cousin Mike Love and friend Al Jardine constructed the most intricate, gorgeous harmonies ever heard from a pop band.

The first of three albums the Beach Boys released in 1964, this was titled Volume 2 to avoid confusion with a hot rod-themed compilation called Shut Down that had come out several months earlier.

The Beach Boys Beginning their career as the most popular surf band in the nation, the Beach Boys finally emerged by 1966 as America's preeminent pop group, the only act able to challenge (for a brief time) the overarching success of the Beatles with both mainstream listeners and the critical community. From their 1961 debut with the regional hit "Surfin'," the three Wilson brothers – Brian, Dennis, and Carl – plus cousin Mike Love and friend Al Jardine constructed the most intricate, gorgeous harmonies ever heard from a pop band.

BEACH BOYS NASSAU COLISEUM 1974 - Classic Beach Boys Broadcast Recording Of A Show Hailed As Being Among Their Best Ever By 1974, due in part to the shrewd organisational skills of new-boys Ricky Fataar and Blondie Chaplin alongside those of BB evergreen Mike Love, the success of two Greatest Hits albums and the mega-selling 1973 In Concert album, The Beach Boys were being dubbed one of the best American live acts around, even rivalling the likes of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young for ticket sales. The band s renewed, positive profile was summed up best by Rolling Stone, who named them their Band Of The Year. The Beach Boys performed 100-plus shows across North America in 1974, and on 14th June they packed out the 14,500-capacity Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, NY, performing what is now hailed as one of the group s finest ever shows. The subject of a live FM radio broadcast transmitted across the United States, the group played an extraordinary setlist featuring cuts from across their career, including the best tracks from their more recent albums like Holland, Carl And The Passions and Surf s Up alongside their better known 1960s hits, giving this concert an eclectic edge, a dynamic feel, and a delightful ambience.

The Beach Boys with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra is a 2018 album of remixed Beach Boys recordings with new orchestral arrangements performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.