Special moment that got you hooked to the Beach Boys music...

[letsmakeit31]

Sorry if this has been asked before, But which moment or song got you hooked onto the Beach Boys music?
For me it was an EMI pressed greatest hits album back in the 80's hearing Surfin' USA for the first time via headphones then reading something about how the track Heroes & Villians was formed from fragments of an unfinished album called Smile which was according to the notes within this greatest hits album driven the Producer Brian Wilson to a breakdown...Or something like that, That made a big impact on me as a young kid I wanted to hear this strange sounding music, which I did 10 years later, If anyone knows the album I'm writing about and if i remember the notes right too, It would be good to know cheers.

[willy]

Firstly from reading US Hot Rod comics in 1980 when I was 14, and I became thrilled by the "California Scene". I had also recently heard (in the UK) Lady Lynda and Sumahama a lot on the radio. Magical. Then my sister married a guy who was a surfer in Tynemouth near here. He had loads of early BBs and Jan and Dean albums. Playing those my life changed forever. 30 years later and I want more and more. Obsessive!!!

[letsmakeit31]

Firstly from reading US Hot Rod comics in 1980 when I was 14, and I became thrilled by the "California Scene". I had also recently heard (in the UK) Lady Lynda and Sumahama a lot on the radio. Magical. Then my sister married a guy who was a surfer in Tynemouth near here. He had loads of early BBs and Jan and Dean albums. Playing those my life changed forever. 30 years later and I want more and more. Obsessive!!!

I think we'er all obsessive mate but in a good way
I also remember going to Camden Market every Saturday back in the late 90's to buy rare records, the first time I actually brought one I've really wanted made me smile!!

[kwan_dk]

My best friend making me - no wait, almost forcing me  - to sit down with him and watch his VHS copy of Endless Harmony. That changed my whole view of what the group was about. Up untill then I hadn't 'understood' them - and I distinctly remember the live footage of Cool Cool Water blowing my mind!

[drbeachboy]

My brother bringing home the "Fun, Fun, Fun/Why Do Fools Fall In Love" 45 single. While he wore out WDFFIL, I in turn wore out FFF. That was a much cooler song to a fun loving 6 year old. From then on I've been hooked some 47 years later.

[letsmakeit31]

Hearing the song "Good Vibrations" track only blow my mind.
The Sessions for God Only Knows amazing made me realize how good Brian and the other musicians were, and how hard the work was !!!.
Hearing Pet Sounds box set in stereo for the first time was like coal being transformed into diamonds.

[GuyO]

California girls performed by Brian Wilson, live on TV from the Jubilee concert, Buckinham palace, London 2002.

[Pinder's Gone To Kokomo And Back Again]

Hearing the last two movements of Surf's Up over the opening credits of An American Band with the footage of the guy surfing really hooked me in a way I've never experienced since..... Just looking at some guy surfing while THAT music played....... Man!

[rab2591]

My best friend making me - no wait, almost forcing me  - to sit down with him and watch his VHS copy of Endless Harmony. That changed my whole view of what the group was about. Up untill then I hadn't 'understood' them - and I distinctly remember the live footage of Cool Cool Water blowing my mind!

Jeesh, I wish my friends were more open-minded like you!
_____

I had bought the 20 Good Vibrations compilation and listened to only the surfing songs for years - later I finally gave 'Wouldn't It Be Nice' and 'God Only Knows' a fair listen....I kept listening to 'WIBN' over and over and over again...then I found out it belonged on an album called Pet Sounds, which was supposedly the greatest album ever made....I bought Pet Sounds, loved it, soon found the SmileySmile board, started listening to Love You constantly, and now I'm regarded to as the "guy who likes the Beach Boys" among friends and family.

It's a healthy obsession.  

[phirnis]

Listening to Surf's Up (the album) and reading "Back to the Beach" did it for me after I had already bought a copy of Pet Sounds several months before (and loved it, of course). The weird mysteries surrounding the Surf's Up period made me want to dig a lot deeper and I couldn't believe I had missed out on actual pop songs as good and as mesmerizing as 'Til I Die and ADITLOAT.

[Runaways]

i used to listen to good vibrations on my dad's oldies compilation like a billion times.  this was probably...93? i was around 6.  so then i had my greatest hits as a kid.  then i stopped listening, then i heard brian wilson's smile and didn't click at first.

i remember the first time i heard heroes and villains was actually the BWPS version, and it's weird but like.  i heard it in like blocks.  like "i've been in this town so long that" then new block "back in the city i was" etc.  it was weird.  like everything in the block was being heard at once. 

anyway.  then the big omg beach R da best everrzz was buying pet sounds. 

[shelter]

About eight years ago I was in a car with my best friends on a beautiful Summer day, when 'I Get Around' came on the radio. Even though we were all in our early twenties and none of us were Beach Boys fans, we spontaneously all started singing and clapping along. That was the moment when I realized that their music was special. I bought a greatest hits CD and for a couple of years, that was enough for me. I checked out 'Pet Sounds', but I didn't really "get it" yet. Then a friend told me to check out 'Sunflower'. I've been an obsessed fan ever since I first heard that album.

[RCTID]

i was listening to a talk radio show and they played "Don't Worry Baby" and it was the prettiest song I had ever heard.

that motivated me to get my hands on everything Beach Boys/Solo that i could.

[Sam_BFC]

Mine was Jon's WIBN BBC doc.

[metal flake paint]

I already had a various artists compilation that included "Do It Again" and "Good Vibrations" but they were about the only tracks I'd skip! Hearing "I Get Around" during a bus tour on a warm day in Queensland really knocked me out. I felt as if there was no going back. Upon returning home I bought a used CD copy of 20 Golden Greats and spent a good deal of the summer reading and re-reading Heroes and Villains by Steven Gaines. 

[punkinhead]

After watch BB: An American Family, I bought The Greatest Hits Vol. 2 (20 more Good Vibrations)...from then on, all those b-sides and ballads had me hooked. I already knew In My Room, Warmth of the Sun, Don't Worry, Wendy and Little Honda, Kiss Me Baby, Heroes and Villains, and You're So Good To Me...but I knew them as a kid...I was a teen now, age 15, they meant so much more...all my friends listened to crappy new bands and I had the Beach Boys to myself.
Hearing Please Let Me Wonder, Little Girl I Once Knew, Caroline No, Darlin', I Can Hear Music for the first time ever, I instantly fell in love and was HOOKED

[Emdeeh]

Hearing "Surfin' U.S.A." on the radio as a new song in 1963.

[oldsurferdude]

Had my close encounter with the release of "Surfer Girl". Haven't looked back since.

[southbay]

June, 1985.  Heard "Getcha Back" on the local top 40 station while driving in my car.  Drove right down to the local record store, bought the 85 Album and All Summer Long and was hooked.  BTW, that summer was a great one for new, young BB fans.  Not only did we have the new album, but also the updated Leaf book and An American Band.    

[D409]

Buying the boxset, it raised more questions than it answered and triggered an obsession

[sockittome]

I had grown up hearing BB on the radio, and I guess you could say I more or less took those songs for granted.  The rotation of songs was so heavy in this area I never felt like I needed to go out of my way to buy any of the records.  Back around '80 when the medley came out, my sister and I would sing along to it, but it was more of a novelty to us at the time.

The "special moment" came in the late '80s when I was watching the movie "Good Morning Vietnam" and I heard Warmth of the Sun for the first time.  I HAD to get that movie soundtrack!  That was the last storebought cassette I ever bought, because I paid $10 for the damn thing and I could have gotten the CD on sale for the same price!  Only, I wouldn't have had anything to play it on (yet).  

That soundtrack had a great selection of songs, but I found myself listening to WOTS and I Get Around the most.  I had been hearing I Get Around on oldies radio for years, but now it was starting to really get under my skin.  A short time later, I got my first CD player and as I was building up my CD collection I came across Made in the USA.  That one sealed the deal.  I've been hooked ever since!  

[Louie Napoli]

June 1964 hearing Don't Worry Baby for the first time. I never looked back.

[Alex]

6 years old, circa 1991 or '92...heard California Girls on Endless Summer....BBs went on a back burner, though I did watch a BW concert on PBS around '98 or '99 (probably the Imagination show-I could've sworn it was Al Jardine and Glenn Frey with Brian, even though it was actually Bruce and Tim B. Schmidt). Bought Sounds of Summer in '03. Started reading about how great Pet Sounds was, read about BWPS coming out...finally got PS in the fall of '05. LOVED IT! Got into SMiLE, then the 70s stuff, found this site sometime around '05 or '06, and yada yada yada.

[Menace Wilson]

Took a chance and bought Pet Sounds at a "going out of business" sale.  Was so blown away that I drove straight back and picked up the Smiley Smile/Wild Honey twofer and listened to it the same evening.  My thinking was "any band that could do THAT and then do THIS has got to be the most interesting band on Earth."

[rab2591]

Took a chance and bought Pet Sounds at a "going out of business" sale.  Was so blown away that I drove straight back and picked up the Smiley Smile/Wild Honey twofer and listened to it the same evening.  My thinking was "any band that could do THAT and then do THIS has got to be the most interesting band on Earth."

I really wish I had no information on SMiLE/Smiley-Smile before I heard Smiley Smile. I bought Pet Sounds, Summer Love Songs, then I read Carlin's book....then I went out and bought every album - so I had somewhat of an idea about what I was getting into before I even heard any of it!