The Smiley Smile Message Board

Endless Summer was number 1 on Billboard this week in '74. I know it is a 'divisive' album, in that many see it as the end of a creative period for the bands music.

However, there is no denying the impact this album had on the history of The Beach Boys. Obviously the financial benefits were great. I can't imagine how many fans discovered the band through this album, and I am sure it resulted in a great deal of them digging deeper into the catalogue.

Mike's involvement apparently steered this compilation away from the traditional 'greatest hits packaging' and gave it an altogether didferent vibe.

Still the album has sort of been tossed aside. Discontinued in the shadow of other comps like Sounds of Summer. I think that's a disservice to the album. It should have been treated with a deluxe special edition re-release somewhere along the way.

Endless Summer is definitely of historical importance.  It was both the best thing, and the worst thing, to happen to The Beach Boys.  You could argue that the band might have ceased to exist without the release of that album.  But, like you said, it did pretty much put a stop to the creative roll The Beach Boys were on in the early 1970s. 

Its really a shame that the Boys followed it with the very mediocre 15 Big Ones album. 

Don't forget that another (successful) compilation came between ES and 15BO, 'Spirit Of America' in 1975 which hit No.8 in the U.S.A.   

ES sure didn't help in the halting of the creative nature of the BB's output, but my theory also includes the huge loss of both Blondie and Ricky  (god what a band they were with these 2 guys on board studio & live output wise) and the total in-activity of a certain BW.  

I would be one of those fans who discovered the group only through one of the compilation albums of the 70s (20 Golden Greats) so I'm thankful. Because of that I then searched out their albums. (followed by tours, new recordings, books, movies....... ::))

I honestly can't think of a compilation that was more of a double edged sword than Endless Summer / Spirit of America.  

I know Queen released a Greatest Hits album in 1981, but it didn't turn them into a nostalgia band.  In fact, as they went on, they played even less of that material in concert.

The Beatles were broken up by the time the Red and Blue albums were released.  

That's a good point. The band didn't do much to swim against the strong tide of Endless Summer. I guess, in their defence, their has seldom been a band that is so connected to a 'culture' as the Beach Boys have been to well, the Endless Summer. But they did work their tails off to show the world they were more than just surf and cars.

Still, this album showcased how good the early stuff really was/is. 40 years later, people still pack em in to hear those songs.

The hits re-issues need not have stopped the group's ongoing creativity.  Likely the success of those albums contributed to a feeling of, oh hell, lets just do the oldies and forget about the new stuff which really doesn't sell in any appreciable quantities anyway.  It was easier to just tour the old stuff.  As Jardine would say, "follow the path of least resistance".

Other factors involving the group's acquiescence into the oldies format most likely were the personal problems that some or all of the members were experiencing.  It is a shame that they were unable to figure out a way to both exploit the re-issues and use them to generate positive reaction to any new music.  But the new music was starting to go downhill anyway.  Holland was good but not as good as Surf's Up.  CATP was ok, good in places but kinda spotty too.

I think they had just largely run their course, musically.  How many things can you do with what is basically a vocal group?  Had they evolved into a better instrumental group over time, perhaps they could have continued to evolve.  But they really didn't.

From their apparent failed attempts to work with Guercio to do an album of new original  material post-Holland , it kind of became a foregone conclusion that they would dip their toes back into nostalgia.

So Endless Summer in my opinion was a savior for the group, if only mainly for financial reasons and re-generating a basic level of respect for their earliest work.

Re-makes of oldies had always served them well on the singles market.

I think your post is on point.  In addition to that, the crowds had been clamoring for "oldies" since about 1967.  Album sales were far from setting the world on fire and singles weren't doing any better.  They simply gave the people what they wanted and it gave them a big wave of popularity that lasted for several years. 

I think that James Guerico had a big influence with the band at this time and pushed them in the oldies direction as well.

It's a pretty nice compilation but I find it odd that they used the Today! version of Help Me Rhonda with the weird false endings instead of the more familiar and superior single version and the album version of Be True to Your School too.  Like were the masters for the single versions not available for some reason?

I had been a fan and buying BB records since around 64.    BUT, I had strayed as a fan and had been into other stuff of the day in the early 70's .   Then, my favorite hip record store had a rack of copies of ES on sale.   I bought.    I reconnected.   Been a rabid fan , bigger than before ever since.    As a vinyl collector, I have since acquired the entire catalogue along with 6 copies of ES .     I agree with the thread initiator that this is a milestone collection.  HMR should have been the single version though.

This was typical of compilations in the pre-digital age.

Probably among the minority, but I always liked the cover art, and wished that the poster insert was the full gatefold illustration instead of the plane picture.

I imagine the Boys were as surprised by ES as anybody.

Are the faces on the cover supposed to be the Beach Boys or are they just random faces?  I've always thought two of them look vaguely like Brian and Al but if they were trying to make uncanny resemblances of the five guys, the artist failed at that.

Yes, Mike, Brian and Al on the front and Carl and Dennis on the back.  Then Brian again on the inside gatefold.   

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That's a good point. The band didn't do much to swim against the strong tide of Endless Summer. I guess, in their defence, their has seldom been a band that is so connected to a 'culture' as the Beach Boys have been to well, the Endless Summer. But they did work their tails off to show the world they were more than just surf and cars.

Still, this album showcased how good the early stuff really was/is. 40 years later, people still pack em in to hear those songs.
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 I think Queen were still very popular when the Greatest Hits were released and writing some of their best music. BB on the other hand were struggling to make a living and so I would imagine willing to jump on anything that would pay the bills....

ES is certainly a huge watermark in their career and I can't disagree with most of the comments here.  I would add that the  "resurgence" of the Blondie/Ricky period had likely already passed.  They had essentially left the band and there was no sign of any new creative  activity after "Holland."  I would also think that although the early 70s touring group and the LPs of that time with the attendant exposure in Rolling Stone etc. raised the profile and "hip" quotient of the band, they probably liked the amount of financial success and audiences that came on board after several years relatively out of the spotlight and sagging profits.  So why not?

I can also tell you as a huge fan of the band at the time, especially "Pet Sounds" through "Holland", I hated "Endless Summer"  and what it did.  "Spirit of America" I liked -- it had "Breakaway" on it.

I believe ES's highlighting of the oldies helped show how superior that music was to much of what was on FM radio, the album rock in the early '70s.    If you were in Connecticut listening to  WPLR, the album rock FM station out of New Haven, they would play an entire side of Endless Summer.  This was possible due to the format, which limited/grouped commercials in blocks.   Every evening there would be a longer special with 60-90? minutes devoted to one band.   After a long, impressive BB set, the DJ, Stoneman, once said:  "Back on the East Coast," and then go on to identify himself and the station.  It sometimes felt like we had left the East Coast with the immersive experience.

I can't complain about Endless Summer. It gave me the chance to snag all of those great Beach Boys hits I heard on 45 back before I had the change to buy anything. I think the nostalgia wave in the 70's actually could have worked in the band's favor if they had been in a place creatively to match the quality of the original product and leverage the exposure into a second career chance. I just don't think they were there, so they locked into the oldies approach. Other bands from the same period, like the Four Seasons, managed to use the momentum to move forward. The Beach Boys just didn't.

I don't think Endless Summer trapped them into the oldies circuit. They did that on their own.

Its not an album, it's a greatest hits compilation, albeit a brilliantly titled/marketed one which sold incredibly well and revitalized interest in the band. But its still not new material, not a new release, not a cohesive unified statement. Its a rerelease of old songs. It had its time and now its largely irrelevant because of more comprehensive greatest hits comps and boxsets. It has no reason to exist anymore, as far as rereleasing it.

It's interesting that many of the FM rock stations latched onto "Endless Summer" - and the followups, too. Listening to classic rock radio today - which is supposed to represent what was popular then - you NEVER hear ANY Beach Boys songs.

The Four Seasons had 2 hits in 75/76 - Who Loves You and December 1963 (Oh What a Night). If you stretch the definition of hit, you can get 3 by including Silver Star, which barely made it into the top 40. Well, if we're going to do that, the Beach Boys had similar success - top 5 with Rock & Roll Music, top 40 It's OK, and bubbling under with Sail On, Sailor. Frankie Valli had several solo hits in the mid 70's; there wasn't any solo  Beach Boy to ever have that kind of success.

"Good Timin'" did okay at the dawn of the 80s as well.

I came onboard thanks to the Beach Boys medly and tge accompanied lp of greatest hits which came out in Australia. I recall vividly how EVERY song on that album was good. It also had an insert sheet which listed all the then-current reissues. I was hooked and have been since Dec. 24 1981.

This is very true.  But, at least in my market, I've noticed a shift in classic rock away from the 1960s. 

You might hear some early Led Zeppelin, Hendrix, Cream, The Doors, or late Beatles.  But you never hear the height of the British Invasion (DC5, Hollies, early Beatles / Stones, Kinks, etc etc).  But you hear plenty of 70s and 80s rock.  And now, 90s era grunge is starting to make appearances on Classic Rock radio.  Our CR station here in Baltimore now plays Pearl Jam and Nirvana. 

Has anyone noticed this in other markets?  In the term "classic rock" shifting across the board? 

I was actually going to make a thread about this later today in the general music forum.  In 2007 our oldies station switched to "greatest hits" which basically meant cutting out 50s rock and less 60s music, but adding 80s music.  In the past few months I noticed they changed their jingle to be more modern (auto tune, which I find odd for this station) and now they're playing even more 80s music.  A lot of it I don't even recognize.  Anything from the 60s is pretty much nonexistent and they've cut back on 70s music as well.  The only Beach Boys songs I hear are GV and Kokomo and that's very rare.  The Beatles are basically restricted to their last two albums.  Thankfully a new oldies station came on air a few years ago, but it's on AM, which is kind of a bummer.  I feel like they have better quality music than the other station had anyway.  They play Sinatra and Martin as well as popular instrumentals from that time. 

Definitely.  I live in a 'mid sized' market, population 1M. For years we had a quite popular 'Oldies' AM station, but it signed off a few years ago.  Now the Classic Rock  stations will go back to mid sixties Stones or Beatles, but you never hear any Beach Boys on Classic Rock formats here.

My thoughts on Endless Summer:

- Yes, it could theoretically be one of the things that stopped the Beach Boys from growing as artists; however, they still did have some great tracks afterwards...many of us love The Beach Boys Love You, and there are post-EH signs of brilliance...just not to the extent of the pre-EH materials...like, you don't have albums' worth of greatness.

- However, how many people over the years became fans because of this album and furthered their musical education into some of Brian's most brilliant work as a result?

- Regardless, Endless Summer was an important album for so many reasons. It really bugs me that it's no longer available. Yes, the band has had countless similar compilations since, but the fact is, what dominated the charts for years was Endless Summer, not 50 Greatest Hits That Piss Off Whiny Entitled Fans or whatever it was called.

And a big thing, too...Endless Summer came out when the nostalgia craze was at a peak. What else did we have in and around that time? American Graffiti. Sha Na Na. Happy Days. Grease. Feel-good stuff. And what better way to celebrate musically than with feel-good Beach Boys' oldies?

Carl, talking about Endless Summer:

"We just surrendered to it. We'd gone through so many changes over the idea of oldies over the years, and now it was obvious what the people wanted us to play. Really obvious."

http://fridaynightboys300.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/carl-wilson-interview-from-1983.html

"Endless Summer" and "Spirit of America" should always be available. They are part of the history of the  Beach Boys. Those albums were so huge in the 70's, that music was part of any rock 'n' roll stations playlist - be it oldies, top 40, or AOR. "Good Vibrations - Best of the Beach Boys" is also a good comp - after buying ES, it was my nice BB album.

Both of them are still available on iTunes and you can get an import version on Amazon. 

Its not like you cant just make your own though. Download or rip the songs and put them in that order. Boom. No one's denying the comp's impact, but its a waste of resources to keep these two specific comps available when theres so many more comprehensive comps and boxsets out there and you could easily make them yourself at home. It's not like this is an album of unique material we're talking about here.

Sunshine Dream was another great compilation that followed those 2 around 82?

I have all of those major comps from the 70s and 80s.     On vinyl.     Never listen to them.    I have remastered mega mixes on CD.    Those I listen to.     But at the time, I was thrilled to find and listen to them, and to discover some cuts I had not yet heard.  I hold onto these vinyl copies for nostalgia purposes.       Having said that I do still enjoy , in a nostalgic way, the sequencing of ES.   Remember, there was no GV on ES.  You had to buy another comp to get that! ;)

Yep, because Reprise owned the rights to the 1966-and-later stuff. FWIW, that really was a good compilation that they put out. Interesting that "Good Vibrations" was called "Good Vibrations (from the Air)" on that one, IIRC.

So overall, what are your thoughts on the complete track listing from the 'trilogy' of ES, SOA, and SD? exhaustive? Or missing key tracks?

"Surfin' Safari" 
   "Surfer Girl"
   "Catch a Wave"     
   "The Warmth of the Sun
   "Surfin' U.S.A.
   "Be True to Your School" 
   "Little Deuce Coupe"
   "In My Room"
   "Shut Down"
   "Fun, Fun, Fun"
   "I Get Around"
   "Girls on the Beach"
   "Wendy"     
   "Let Him Run Wild"
   "Don't Worry Baby"
   "California Girls" 
   "Girl Don't Tell Me"
   "Help Me, Rhonda" 
   "You're So Good to Me"
   "All Summer Long" 
"Dance, Dance, Dance"
"Break Away"
"A Young Man Is Gone"
"409"
"The Little Girl I Once Knew"
"Spirit of America"
"Little Honda"
"Hushabye"
"Hawaii"
"Drive-In"
"Good to My Baby"
"Tell Me Why"
"Do You Remember?"
"This Car of Mine"
"Please Let Me Wonder"
"Why Do Fools Fall in Love"
"Custom Machine"
"Barbara Ann"
"Salt Lake City"
"Don't Back Down"
"When I Grow Up (To Be a Man)"
"Do You Wanna Dance?"
"Graduation Day"
"I Can Hear Music"
"Here Today"
"Darlin'"
"Caroline, No"
"Aren't You Glad"
"Good Vibrations"
"Wouldn't It Be Nice"
"Friends"
"God Only Knows"
"Vegetables "
"How She Boogalooed It"
"There's No Other (Like You Baby)
"Heroes and Villains"
"All I Want To Do"
"Wild Honey"
"I'm Waiting for the Day"
"Cottonfields"
"Then I Kissed Her"
"Sloop John B"
"Be Here in the Morning"
"Bluebirds Over the Mountain"
"Keep an Eye on Summer"
"Do It Again"
"The Beach Boys Medley"

Maybe in the case of Be True To Your School, it was a matter of choosing stereo over mono, as was the case for all (most?) other tracks then available in stereo. In the case of Help Me Rhonda, I don't know why two mistakes were made —not only using the Today version instead of the single/Summer Days version, but spelling the Today! version included wrong. (Ronda, not Rhonda.  ;D)

It's been said that Capitol's storage system and facilities where they cataloged all the tapes and masters was in such disarray when they were compiling the package, they couldn't find a suitable master copy of the single version of Help Me Rhonda to press, so they went with the album version instead.

if I remember my AGD correctly, it's actually that it was ORIGINALLY misspelled as "Ronda" but should have been "Rhonda," which means they actually got it right on Endless Summer. :)