The Beach Boys: 20 Golden Greats
The Beach Boys, like their sixties counterparts the Beatles, were very much a group of distinct phases. Like The Beatles, they began with several years of joyful, unashamed teen pop before noticeably "going weird" at the same time.
This is the very first Beach Boys compilation I bought, in the boiling hot UK summer of 1976. It was totally ideal for such a summer. I almost felt I was catching a wave in California even though I was in Buckinghamshire.
"If everybody had an ocean" - indeed.
The collection takes us to the end of the sixties, missing out the Surf's Up and Holland albums, both of which are good, and the occasional later classic such as Lady Lynda, from 1980. No matter, though, because these years were The Beach Boys' best, for sure.
We start off with some glorious sun, sea and sand fun, fun, fun. Surfin' USA begins with a killer of a riff and an absolute huge wave full of summer atmosphere. Even all the years later it makes me incredibly happy every time I hear it - transported instantly to Redondo Beach L.A.
So, to the girl who "walks, looks and drives like an ace now...". Fun, Fun, Fun is possibly the best of The Beach Boys' "surfing, girls and cars" songs. It is an enjoyable romp inspired by Dennis Wilson's girlfriend at the time taking her daddy's car and cruisin' to the hamburger stand (now). Personally I think Fun, Fun, Fun is a great little song - funny, and character driven in a way that say She Loves You and I Wanna Hold Your Hand just are not. I have always been able to visualise the girl in her California sun and she knocks spots off the girl from She Loves You who I always imagined waiting in the rain outside the Gaumont in her Mac.
You could take the album off now and I'd be completely satisfied.
Little Deuce Coupe is a bit of throwaway fun before we are treated to When I Grow Up To Be A Man, one of my favourites and perfect rites of passage song. I got into it when I was seventeen. How perfect was that?
Thereafter, side one is full of summery California fun in the shape of the joyous Help Me Rhonda, the much-used on TV adverts California Girls, a song that is just so typically Beach Boys, the harmonious goofery of Barbara-Ann and the uplifting, singalong Sloop John B which was a last minute addition to 1966's iconic Pet Sounds album. No matter. Its great. Always has been. Some feel it sits incongruously. Not Me. I love it being there. Whatever anyone says, it is The Beach Boys at their irresistible best.
Weirdness was on its way, but not before several more complete classics were delivered.
You're So Good To Me is an underrated number from such a fertile period. Then comes Paul McCartney's favourite song of all time, the sublime God Only Knows. Is there a more perfect love song? I doubt it.
Pet Sounds' opener, Wouldn't It Be Nice, is actually a classic Beach Boys teen romance song that would have fitted quite nicely on previous albums. It has a superb keyboard intro though. It is simply a piece of pop perfection. I never, ever tire of it. The vocals, the harmonising, the refrain. Top quality. It is, though, possibly the album's only throwback to the carefree, romantic teen pop days. It all gets very introspective thereon as Wilson gets more and more angst-ridden in his room.
He still found time, while growing his beard, to get his theramin out and make all those strange sounds that contributed to one of the most revolutionary pop songs heard to date in 1966's phenomenal Good Vibrations. Then I Kissed Her is a wonderful male equivalent to The Crystals' Then He Kissed Me from earlier in the decade.
Heroes and Villains is weird in that it is extremely varied within the one song and completely experimental - out there. Its harmonies are totally delicious, however. What it is about, though - who knows? Along with Good Vibrations, it was the only decent track on the God-awful Smiley Smile album, in my opinion, anyway.
Darlin', from late 1967's Wild Honey album is a welcome throwback to traditional Beach Boys, but with a tad more maturity. It was covered as a live concert 45 rpm release by David Cassidy in 1975.
Now come two from 1969's 20/20 album and they are absolute corkers - the nostalgic, insistent shuffle of Do It Again, and the Spectoresque majesty of I Can Hear Music. The latter is one of my favourite ever Beach Boys songs. It was a cover of a Ronettes song from 1966 and Ronnie Spector does a great live version of it, incidentally. A bit of trivia for you is that it was recorded by Queen's Freddie Mercury in the early seventies, under the name Larry Lurex.
We end with the archetypal summer/surf-sounding Break Away, a song whose nostalgic vibe seemed like a perfect end to an album that really was quite golden. Now - let me go and wax down my surfboard and compliment my wife's bushy bushy blonde hairdo....
