The Smiley Smile Message Board

What do you think, as the release and succes of ES good for the Beach Boys or was it really the begin of the downfall like it's been said many times. What did ES do for and against the BBs?

It was ridiculously good for them.  All it did was cause millions and millions of people to pay attention to them, and the appropriate fraction were impressed enough to follow up and discover more.  You might as well ask if the high attendance at the Beach Boys/Chicago shows hurt the band.

The direct result on their recording career was 15 Big Ones- but that's no more than a blip on their legacy.  If we'd gotten another Carl And the Passions instead it would have made little or no difference in the long run.  They only had two great albums left in them- Love You and Pacific Ocean Blue, and we got both of those.  The unreleased tracks are left to warm the winters that remain...

I don't own the album but I once made a CD from the tracklist of it. It's an interesting little insight into their world and i'm sure it bagged many a fan.

It bagged me back in the 70's

A lot of people can say the same.  And how about some love for the incredible song selection?  Somehow, against all odds, it seemed to please nearly everyone (except maybe in using the wrong "Help Me, Rhonda").  A dazzling hits collection that also featured "Warmth Of The Sun",  "Girl Don't Tell Me", "Wendy", "Girls On The Beach", "You're So Good To Me", and "Let Him Run Wild".  It seemed to elevate those tracks to a well-deserved elite status with the general public. 

And somehow they left enough over ("Dance, Dance Dance", "When I Grow Up", "Little Honda", "Custom Machine", "Break Away", and for God's sake "Please Let Me Wonder" and "Good To My Baby") for another grand slam.  And they didn't even touch Pet Sounds, "Good Vibrations", "Darlin', "Do It Again", etc. until the third entry.

I disagree with Capitol adding "Good Vibrations" to the CD reissue of the album as that song is completely out of place with the other summer themed tracks (I feel the same way about "Breakaway" on the original "Spirit Of America" - although I was happy to have it on an LP!).

I loved it.  Played it over and over when I was 10.  It's "security music" like grilled cheese sandwiches and Campbell's tomato soup is security food.

It was great for them!  What they did with that success is another issue and their own responsibility.  IMO they didn't have to take quite such a relentlessly populist career path.

Commercially speaking it was the best thing that could've happened, creatively and artistically speaking the worst.

And personally, i loved - and, indeed, still love - it.  I was fascinated by the cartoonish cover, and blown away by the sounds...still am.  One of the great Greatest Hits collections of all time.

BTW anyone has the front and back cover of ES ? I just have a version where the BBs are pictured on the beach around SS/WH. Never really saw the original covers in all their *beauty* 

I have ES on vinyl at home, I can check after work.

Thanks!!

LOVED IT!  Hooked me!

As far is it being blamed for killing the progressive side of the BBoys...rubbish.  They still made Love You, right?  It probably saved them.  Brian might have died, Mike Love may have gone into selling used cars.  Actually, they probably would have become a rock, roll and remember moldies oldies act without it.  Instead they filled STADIUMS!!

L O V E   I T!!!!

Monster lp.  Their career would have been different without it...and not for the better IMO.  That being said....Mike and the guys saw $$$ in them oldies...thus the change to an oldies heavy format.

Great LP. #1 for a while. Turned a lot of 70's listeners on to the BB'S...nice collection of tunes

Here you go.

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I agree,  ES only gave more exposure to their "progressive" music which followed, not less.

Sentimentally, I've always loved the cover art, and looking at those pictures it just occurred to me that four posters of the four Beatles that I had as a kid, issued by Capitol for the tenth anniversary of the Beatles in America in 1974 and given away in record stores when Beatles albums were sold, were almost certainly done by the same artist.  I wonder who it was?

Thanks Chuck !!!  Funny covers!

You are welcome.  Still one of the most important "best ofs" ever released, for any band. 

Endless Summer was the first, and greatest, "bringing the Beach Boys back into the public consciousness" in their entire career. I don't blame the fact that they couldn't capitalize on it on the album itself. I tend to look at the drugs, lack of direction, lack of great material, etc. There were other (albeit lesser) opportunities in the ensuing years: Come Go With Me and The Beach Boys Medley were fluke hits, the James Watt controversy/July 4th concerts, Wipe Out w/ The Fat Boys, Kokomo, and a TV series in the late 80's. The Beach Boys didn't capitalize on those either.

Two quick points: I think "Good Vibrations" fits perfectly on Endless Summer. For years that song was near the top of the list of songs that "shoulda been on there" including "Your Summer Dream", "Wouldn't It Be Nice" and "Sloop John B".

I, too, have a sentimental feeling about the Endless Summer cover art. But I could never figure out the drawings/portraits of the guys. How could the group approve those pictures. Or maybe they weren't shown them ahead of time. The Beach Boys were good-looking guys, even in their 30's. I could barely tell who was who from those pictures. They're scary looking!

I don't think the Boys had anything to do with or say about ES really for good or bad did they, it was all Capitol, beyond Cap's acceptance of Mike's suggestion for the title of the already compiled comp. 

Not to derail but to illuminate:  what other groups have had an equivalent career reviving album/comp?  Should this be a separate but complimentary thread? I'll do that.

Now, I was under the impression Mike Love either picked out the songs, or made suggestions.  Is that incorrect?

My understanding, based on a Mike interview, is no one in the group had any input into that; they weren't asked by Cap.   Is there more to the story? Or am I confused?

It's just that "Endless Summer" originally covered 1962 to 1965 quite well which is of a period for the band in a sense. Now on the CD you suddenly skip "Pet Sounds" altogether and go straight into "Good Vibrations" (simply because it was a hit). In the 70s and 80s, the whole "20 Golden Greats" concept tended to obscure the incredible progression the band made from '62 through '66 and beyond. Historically, the Beatles were always revered for going from "Please, Please Me" to "Strawberry Fields Forever" in four and a half years. But, of course, going from "Surfin' Safari" to "Good Vibrations" in the same time period was equally astounding. The constant emphasis on hits packages put "God Only Knows" and "409" on the same level in the minds of many. The two-fer reissues in 1990 and the "30 Years" box set did a lot to give this material a historical perspective, which I suspect gave many of us here a context to appreciate the artistry of the work.

Creatively, it KILLED any idea of the Beach Boys attempting to create any relevant material. After the success of the album they were forever chasing the almighty "Beach band in a time warp" dollar.

However, it was one of the first albums I ever bought and it helped me "discover" The Beach Boys!

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I see what you're saying, Roger. That's why I also INCLUDED "Wouldn't It Be Nice" and "Sloop John B" on my "wish list" for Endless Summer. I WOULD NOT have skipped Pet Sounds. If you're going to include "Let Him Run Wild" and even "California Girls", just go one more step and include the 1966 songs.

For me, the cutoff for the "early years", or the "fun in the sun" years, has always been "Good Vibrations". The time period is usually 1962-1966.

I'm sometimes tempted to include "Darlin'" or "Do It Again", but that IS taking it too far ahead...

Last summer I've finally bought an original LP of Endless Summer at a used record store and I immediately got hooked again on all of their hits from the early days. It's easy to talk about that compilation in a dismissive fashion as long as you haven't experienced the whole thing yourself. Many fans tend to view it as the main contribution to the Beach Boys' creative downfall, but personally I think that in a strange way Endless Summer and Holland fit each other quite perfectly. Reminds me of the far-too-short snapshot of the group doing "Fun, Fun, Fun" in their early seventies hippie looks on the Endless Harmony documentary. Perhaps "It's OK" should have been a single in 1974. Always wondered why that didn't happen, 'cause it sure would have been huge. And then they could have gone on in a way more suitable to their talents than 15 Big Ones...

I heard this in 1976 when I was 13. Not being very familiar with the group except for hearing the common radio staples growing up, it gave me the impression that all the group ever did was dated car, school, and surf songs. It was an unbalanced view of the catalog for us young teens to hear and judge by. Capitol even pulled "Barbara Ann" and "Surfin USA" as "new" singles. This could have had something to do with Reprise having the latter Capitol material at the time(?) To make matters worse we (mid-seventies kids) all became familiar with "Good Vibrations" as a Todd Rundgren hit and then as a overly-played Sunkist jingle. Thank goodness the kids today get to have more comprehensive hits collections that don't cut off after 1965.