New Beach Boys comp

Capitol is trying to repeat the success of Beatles 1 and Elvis 30 #1 Hits with yet another Beach Boys compilation of hits, called Sounds of Summer. Of course, 1974's Endless Summer pioneered the trend (in the U.S.) of albums of 10-year-old hits reaching the top of the charts. I have info from EMI on the new release — 30 songs, all chart hits, not in chronological order, and no word on mono/stereo content. Comes out June 17. Press material also says Pet Sounds DVD-A coming out July 22 - hope it's reasonably priced.

 

Thank goodness! We certainly need another Beach Boys comp. I can't wait.

 

Why did they make us wait so long?

 

Seriously, has a summer gone by in the past 20 years in which at least one new Beach Boys compilation was NOT released? Is there a band/artist with more greatest hits albums than the boys? I can't think of anyone...

 

Just reissue the OOP Razor & Tie title that Steve mastered and I'll be a happy camper.

Jim W.

 

Things have really spiralled out of control in the last 10 years. I could understand releasing a new greatest hits package every few years to appeal to the uninitiated but this is ridiculous .

 

Seems life isn't very fair. There's over a dozen Beach boy's hits albums and yet only two Kajagoogoo hits discs! Let's hope they both contain "Too Shy"

 

Elvis Presley and the Monkees can give the BB's a run for their money in the greatest hits/best of type compilations.

 

Here is the tracklisting:

1. California Girls
2. I Get Around
3. Surfin' Safari
4. Surfin' U.S.A.
5. Fun, Fun, Fun
6. Surfer Girl
7. Don't Worry Baby
8. Little Deuce Coupe
9. Shut Down
10. Help Me, Rhonda
11. Be True To Your School
12. When I Grow Up To Be A Man
13. In My Room
14. God Only Knows
15. Sloop John B
16. Wouldn't It Be Nice
17. Getcha Back
18. Come Go With Me
19. Rock And Roll Music
20. Dance, Dance, Dance
21. Barbara Ann
22. Do You Wanna Dance
23. Heroes And Villains
24. Good Timin'
25. Kokomo
26. Do It Again
27. Wild Honey
28. Darlin'
29. I Can Hear Music
30. Good Vibrations


I could quibble about Good Timin' and no Breakaway or 409 or Little Honda or Wendy.

And I do not care for not putting it in chronological order. The Elvis and Beatles collections are in order and this is supposed to be the Beach Boys version.

Brian

 

Yeah, I'm opposed to non-chronological greatest hits albums. Maybe they were worried about the disc ending with several mediocre-to-bad tunes in a row if they went chronological...

 

Yeah,

I find it ironical. way back when the 20 Good Vibrations hits package came out, it used the wrong versions of the songs (Help Me Ronda) and was out of order.

When it was remastered, they used the correct mixes and put it in chronological order. Now it's back to out of order.

It has a number of hits, but I would lose Getcha Back and Good Timin' and you would have room for maybe three of the missing hits (409, Wendy, and Little Honda, not to mention Breakaway).

Hope they do use single mixes.

Brian

 

The ironic thing is that Brian picked his favorite songs and did some liner notes for a CD that was released in 2000, I think, and called "The Beach Boys Classics" (I hope I'm remembering that title correctly). I would have much rather seen a two-fer of the true stereo versions of "Today"/"Summer Days" than another comp, or even a volume 2 of "Hawthorne, CA". They probably have hours of music which their devoted fans would love to hear, and could be edited into a commercial form-like how about this same line-up, only an ALTERNATE (and complete, with maybe a few seconds of studio chatter) take of every song?

 

Has anyone seen this around since Collector's Choice sent out a bunch of "No Longer Available" notices? My order was cancelled twice by CC.

 

Beach Boys comp

BTW, my press kit (one piece of paper) has endorsements for the new collection from both Brian Wilson and Mike Love. Brian calls the track listing "one giant flashback to my life with the Beach Boys. But you should know we got a kick out of every minute of it. A lot of love went into our singing, our harmonies, the making of these records. I hope that as you listen to it, you still feel the love."
Mike sez: "It's fantastic to look out on our concert audiences in the year 2003, the 40th anniversary of Surfin' USA, and seeing the faces of thousands of happy people basking in the sounds of summer. It's so great to see kids from 8 to 80 appreciating the good vibrations through the generations."

 

More from press kit

Other factoids: BW plays Toronto June 12 (I don't know if there's been any cancellation because of the SARS scare).
Beach Boys touring between May and September.
BB TV appearance Good Morning America June 27 (no members specified).
ABC repeats Beach Boys: An American Family June 14. BB and BW-related specials on specialty channels (nothing specified).
Surfer Girl featured in Charlie's Angels sequel.
All Summer Long and It's OK (!!!) used in Toyota commercials in July.

 

Where the hell is Sail On Sailor???

 

Great tune, but it wasn't a charting hit.

 

I thought it charted like somewhere in the 70s or 80s in 1973. You mean the 45 didn't chart AT ALL? It didn't do better than Good Timin'?

 

I'm a bit confused here. The Beatles - "1" and Elvis Presley - "ELV1S" were CDs that contained number one hits in the U.S. and U.K. How can Capitol claim to be doing the same thing with The Beach Boys? They only ever had 4 number one hits in the U.S. according to Billboard: "I Get Around", "Help Me Rhonda", "Good Vibrations" and "Kokomo". The Beach Boys had one number 2 hit with "Barbara Ann". They had three number 3 hits with "Surfin' USA", "California Girls" and "Sloop John B". AND, two number 5 hits with "Fun Fun Fun" and "Rock And Roll Music".

BTW, "Good Timin' " only made it to number 40 on Billboard in 1979 charting for only one week. So with that in mind, this compilation CD could easily have included "Sail On Sailor". It was released as a single, twice, by Warner. Once in 1973 and again, IIRC in 1975. It got mid-level radio play in my hometown.

What about "California Saga", "Add Some Music", and "Marcella"? I'm not surprised that they weren't included.

Guess I'll have to put together a proper CD-R or two of the Beach Boys single in chronological order.

 

Hope this date holds... Tired of slippage.

 

Some replies:
1. Sail on Sailor charted twice, but I don't remember how high, certainly higher for the second release.
2. I Get Around and Help Me Rhonda also went to #1.
3. Capitol didn't claim anything about repeating the success of the Beatles and Elvis comps, that's my theory, the fact they're packing on 30 hits on one CD, much as the Beatles and EP hits were crammed on one disc.

 

Oops!

Joel, I've edited my original post to reflect four number 1s.

Most of my music bio books are packed away in storage. Maybe Tim Neely can give us the chart info on Sail On Sailor.

 

The comp does seem rather pointless. Although the one Brian put together was kind of unique. Hey, at least Mike Love isn't putting out a new "Beach Boys" record.
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Now Playing-The Velvet Underground & Nico

 

It's kind of nice to have a compilation packed into one nice little disc. "Endless Summer" used to be the one to get on CD, even before the DCC version. Even though they could've fit more stuff on it, it had all the biggest songs (if not the correct 45 versions for two tracks, and no Pet Sounds tracks, which is an album everyone should buy anyway).

I didn't like the subsequent two volume Greatest Hits, just because they split up the really big hits between the two, not to mention in haphazard order.

This one comes close, but again, no Wendy, and scrambled order.