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

[bsten]

When 11 I was at a party in a cosy cottage, we played records all night, someone put on "California girls". When I heard the opening bars I was hooked!!

And then came Pet Sounds - my first album... What a thrill!!

/Bengt

[GuyOnTheBeach]

About 3 years ago someone sent me a Sweet Insanity boot, he informed me of the history of that album, Landy and everything else around that time... I'm sad to admit, that is what turned me on to The Beach Boys

[The Shift]

I've posted my own "in" before but here we go again, in more details:

T'was the summer of 1976 and the UK was enjoying a heatwave. The BBs were back on the radio as Good Vibes had been released to promote 20 Golden Greats and it actually charted.

That was the first time I'd consciously heard the BBs and I fell in love with the track. Would get home from school (I was 12) and play it continuous on my old box record player, leaving the arm off so the needle automatically went back to the beginning of the track. At times I'd close my eyes and the room seemed to swim around me.  And no, at the innocent age of 12 I had yet to discover the delights of alcohol, tobacco and self-pleasuring, so it was definitely the music what did it for me!

On the strength of that I made sure I got a copy of 20 Golden Greats and began to realise just how many of the tunes I recognised – I'd simply never known that they were all by the same band until then.

Heroes & Villains was new to me though, and I spotted the way it was in sections. So I put my cassette recorder next to the player and started to record sections again and again, mixing the order, repeating some, shuffling others, until I had a mammoth version of H&V. That got me kooked.  I mean, hooked.

Eventually read David Leaf's book and learned of SMiLE; as a young 'dult (prob late 80s) I picked up a cassette version of one of the early SMILE boots (record stall on Norwich market I think) and was mesmerised (and yes, I was fooled by the Miles Davis track… liked it so much that when I discovered the truth I bought Porgy & Bess).

Thing is, it was a near-miss, as I asked my dad to get the 20 Golden Greats LP, and he nearly came out of the store (Macro, a big cash & carry wholesale near Leeds) with a copy of 15 Big Ones.  Thankfully he came over to the window first, as I was waiting outside, and showed me the sleeve to make sure he'd found the right one, so I had chance to correct him.

Otherwise I might have spent the last 35 years trying to track down such lost, unreleased BBs gems as Battle Hymn of the Republic and Running Bear!   

[Howie Edelson]

Believe it or not, watching Brian & Mike on 'American Bandstand' performing "Almost Summer."
(Still a favorite that I remind Mike of every chance I get.)

[kookadams]

I've been a Beach Boys fan for 20 of my almost 26 years. Goes back to kindergarten when I heard Good Vibrations or Surfin Safari on the radio, either one. I was only 6 years old and didn't know that much about discographies so I would get whatever CD or cassette I could get my hands on. The first CD I owned was Endless Summer, and the first LP I owned was Little Deuce Coupe. From that moment on I spent my childhood into my 20s collecting everything I could. First concert I ever went to was them when I was a kid before Carl died, and now I've seen them several times in different variations.  I have every LP, CD, and I'm workin' on the 45s. When I was 17 I was inspired (by Dennis) to pick up the drums and I been goin' since. I've been a devout punk rocker for a decade and I always latch on the bands and artists that draw some kind of Beach Boys influence or sound. Their music will forever be a huge impact on my daily life.

facebook.com/kookadams

[Bill Tobelman]

Early on I was more of a Byrds & Beatles fan. The Beach Boys seemed like also rans but their early sixties look & sound was cool in a contrarian way.

What really hooked me on The Beach Boys was when I traded a copy of Dylan's Planet Waves for a beat up copy of The Beach Boys TODAY. Had moved away from home and played that album along with After School Session by The Milkshakes that whole summer long.

Later on the same guy who traded albums played the An American Band video & the live energy of the group really surprised me.

The 2fer CDs were also key. I'd try & get them the moment they arrived at the stores & then studied the liners.

Then Look!Listen!VIBRATE!SMiLE! really amped things up.

So it was a slow build but with many special moments.

[bachelorofbullets]

Brian Wilson tribute concert.  I was like..."oh they're doing a tribute concert for that beach boys guy who is kind of nuts".  Then I heard him sing and I was like wow, no wonder why he is famous.  Then I watched some documentaries on the Wilson family and start to get more intrigued.  I think they're the most fascinating story in all of popular music.  The nostalgia only increases when I meet people who don't know who he is, even though he wrote the songs they are listening to.

[Iron Horse-Apples]

June '88, I was 15 and seriously into 50's rock'n'roll.
A friend suggested I might like the Beach Boys, but I wasn't sure.
I rented the "Surfer Girl" LP out of the library.
Fist listen, wasn't too impressed and went back to my Chuck Berry.
Second listen, still not that bothered........then, at school I found myself humming "Catch a Wave", and couldn't wait to get home and hear it. The magic of Brian Wilson had struck, and that was it for me.
Funnily it's the only 20th century music I still listen to, as I went from Pet Sounds and SMiLE to Mozart and Bach, this seemed the only logical step,  and these are my main musical loves now.
I will always love the BB's though, and cannot wait for the 1 second of the Boxset I haven't already heard.

[Ram4]

I remember a TV commercial back in the early 80's that was for a greatest hits Beach Boys album and all those songs sounded so "fun" to me.  I always liked the hits whenever they came on the radio.  But I never owned anything by them until much, much later when I got Pet Sounds and a friend loaned me the GV box.  I finally got hooked once I opened up and listened to the studio albums and all the great non-hit tracks.  I also was happily surprised at how good the post 1966 music is. 

[MBE]

An American Band on Vh1 in 1988. Bought Endless Summer and it rolled from there.

[bsten]

I'm with Jon - All Summer Long is the definitive early sixties California lifestyle concept album.

From Wikipedia:
"The album was released in July [1964], peaking at #4 in the United States, and being certified gold; the album did not make the UK charts, however."

Can't believe ASL did not make the charts in the UK. And that Surfin USA didn't make the charts until 1965!! 

http://www.everyhit.com

/B

[MaxL]

I'm with Jon - All Summer Long is the definitive early sixties California lifestyle concept album.

From Wikipedia:
"The album was released in July [1964], peaking at #4 in the United States, and being certified gold; the album did not make the UK charts, however."

Can't believe ASL did not make the charts in the UK. And that Surfin USA didn't make the charts until 1965!!  

http://www.everyhit.com

/B

I may be wrong, but wouldn't the reason for this be that "Surfin' USA" wasn't released in the Uk till '65?

[FUN³]

pretty common story im sure. i came in late in the game; it was '98, and i was a 23 yo with some mild ocd, a lot of free time, and a new pc on pretty fast dial-up...musically, my tastes ran the gamut of about every "alternative/indie" band that was inspired by a wilson composition of some form/era, or alluded to in reviews. i guess my primary means of arrival was via the o'hagan highway through stereolab and the high llamas. i would keep running into oft-drawn comparisons to the beach boys in most everything i was listening to/reading about at the time, but i hadn't yet explored that mythic font of inspiration.

there was a time before this when i naively considered most of what i had heard of the wilson canon to be dynamically subdued (compared to more modern music), cloying, and even "simple"

that would of course change when i began to hear fragments of SMiLE floating around the internet. i loved the childlike innocence and exuberance - how it felt tossed off, yet inexplicably profound. it was a great mystery to me! i hadn't yet heard anything about smile or the epic lore that accompanied it, an oversight that was rectified when i began exploring the beach boys webring (around '99 i think). i grabbed whatever i could get and read everything i could on the anne wallace site, the smile shop, tobelman's zen page, and somewhere during that time i became hooked...smile was all i could think about. eventually i acquired my first boot, as well as what i could find on napster and kazaa. i bought LLVS, the good vibrations boxset, the pet sounds box, the SS/WH twofer, pastmasters, offshoots, and  everything i could find on vinyl.

my interest in smile fell to the wayside until 2004, which was nice to finally have a cohesive "official" assembly, but as such it didn't resonate with me - there really is a musical magick to those 66/67 recordings that i haven't been able to find anywhere else. consequently i started collecting again; anything i hadn't heard yet from the smile era,  just in time for the smile sessions box.

and that's where im at now

[bsten]

I'm with Jon - All Summer Long is the definitive early sixties California lifestyle concept album.

From Wikipedia:
"The album was released in July [1964], peaking at #4 in the United States, and being certified gold; the album did not make the UK charts, however."

Can't believe ASL did not make the charts in the UK. And that Surfin USA didn't make the charts until 1965!!  

http://www.everyhit.com

/B

I may be wrong, but wouldn't the reason for this be that "Surfin' USA" wasn't released in the Uk till '65?

Exactly - and what is even more strange is that "Surfer girl" was released in 1967!!!
And that "Party" - which is a true summer album - was released in November (US) and February (UK)...
And that "Pet Sounds" and "Summer days" were released simultaneously in the UK...
And... and...

http://esquarterly.com/bellagio/UKcharts.html

http://www.sergent.com.au/beachboys/1963.html

/B

[MaxL]

Exactly - and what is even more strange is that "Surfer girl" was released in 1967!!!
And that "Party" - which is a true summer album - was released in November (US) and February (UK)...
And that "Pet Sounds" and "Summer days" were released simultaneously in the UK...
And... and...

http://esquarterly.com/bellagio/UKcharts.html

http://www.sergent.com.au/beachboys/1963.html

/B

That is weird. Must've been disorientating having those albums released in that order.

Won't they ever think of us Brits?!  

[AllIWannaDo]

initially it was 'The Beach Boys - Endless Summer' in a knackered and vvvvcheap 1st car
one side of the car speakers didnt work too hot, which fortunately was the side with the lead vocals on.
Meant you could sing all the leads and have the BB's backing you

after that - my very first listen to the first song i found of SMiLE... 'Our Prayer'
blew my mind - best album opener ever, period.