The Beach Boys – 20 Golden Greats (1976)

In my childhood I knew The Beach Boys mainly as a band that played old sounding sunny and very American pop rock. I had mainly heard their songs in films and at that time I wasn't really that interested in the band's music. Then later on as a teenager I got interested in the history of rock music and started systematically listening to bands that you should know. Then I found another side of The Beach Boys. They had their own psychedelic period where they made songs that were believable contenders to The Beatles songs. I basically made my research into The Beach Boys via this and other compilation albums back in the day, so I didn't know more about the individual albums. I thought this was the best compilation by the band, so I ended up buying it on vinyl from a record store in Stockholm. It was fairly cheap. When I bought this compilation that really encouraged me to listen to the band a bit more.

I really think The Beach Boys' career was cut too short when the frontman, Brian Wilson, had a nervous breakdown as a consequence of too much drug abuse. They had just released their best album of their career, Pet Sounds. This album started competing with The Beatles and was a serious contender to their Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. After this album The Beach Boys released their best single of all times, Good Vibrations. All of this promised amazing career for this band, but this future never came to be. 

Brian Wilson released some of these new songs on his solo album Smile and decades later The Beach Boys released an album that was supposed to sound like the album following Pet Sounds should've sounded like. The Beach Boys continued to make albums even after this, but without Brian Wilson, it just wasn't the same again. 

The Beach Boys have amazing vocal harmonies in their songs. Vocals are just as much of an instrument as guitars, bass or drums. The early songs are fairly straightforward rock n' roll and surf rock, whereas the later songs have psychedelic elements and baroque pop melodic structures. On those later songs they also use an interesting array of different instruments. I like those later songs a lot more, but even the early songs have their place. It's great to listen to some of those early songs when it's hot outside and the sun is shining. The Beach Boys just mean summer. When I was in Ruisrock, a Finnish rock festival, the last time, there was a brilliant cover band that was playing The Beach Boys on a stage next to the beach. This was one of the best gigs there even though everyone knew that this was only cover stuff.

The Beach Boys have got huge significance in the history of pop music, but some of their songs are also very important to me personally. God Only Knows, Wouldn't It Be Nice and Good Vibrations are among my favourite songs of all times. I will write more about The Beach Boys when I get to actual albums.

Listen to the album on Spotify.