The Smiley Smile Message Board

Who is Celebration! I was watching a clip on youtube and notice pretty much all the Beach Boys were involved some way or another. I thought it was just Mike Love but it sounds like Brian was a big part of them too! So why did the Beach Boys create a side band and not just make it a Beach Boys album? They played a good chunk of the songs off of Celebration songs at their 1978/79 concerts. On American Band stand both Mike and Brian were preforming and mentioned Al Jardine as being a big help! along with Charles Floyd who has done a lot of work with the Beach Boys and on their albums in the 70's along with Mike Kowalski who has been helping drum for the beach boys for years!

So why did they guys decided to make a side band and release this as Celebration?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwZFOG1J7Xk

Al and Brian only contributed to the Almost Summer single, not any of the rest of Celebration's records (although a couple of covers of Wilson/Love songs appeared on their albums). The band were basically Mike plus a lot of people who were in late-70s iterations of the backing band -- Gary Griffin, Ron Altbach, Mike Kowalski, Charles Lloyd and so on.

There's this wonderful site called Wikipedia...

Which is not always accurate! I would like to get insight from the more intelligent. Wikipedia dose not say why the band decided to create a side band! Many unanswered questions Mr. Doe

The Beach Boys did not "decide to create a side band".

The dude on bass in that youtube link is a smokin' hot player!

Was he merely a session muso or did he go on to play in other bands?

the core of Celebration were ex-members of KING HARVEST (of Dancing In The Moonlight fame)
Ron Altbach later became heavily involved  with the BB (as producer, arranger and tour keyboard player), his tribute to the BB ("Beach Boys Suite"), recorded in 1979,  was never officially released.
Paul Fauerso produced Mike Love's First Love solo album.

Me, I'm just not clear on why *Mike* started putting so much emphasis on side projects.  As you pointed out on your own site, it seemed odd that he was working on multiple solo projects at the same time that they were under pressure to deliver MIU and then LA -- especially just after the tension surrounding Dennis' solo album and aborted tour.  Given that this all kicked off shortly after the two-week breakup in September '77, though, it's hard to shake the sense that he was preparing the lifeboats in case the Good Ship Wilson finally sank.

But was there ever a reason given why "Almost Summer" wasn't a Beach Boys project to begin with?

Cheers,
Jon Blum

Just speculating, but the Almost Summer movie opportunity (1978) came right in the middle of the contractual dispute between the Beach Boys and Warner/Reprise over the last album owed on their contract, which culminated in the October release of the MIU Album.  I'm guessing that Warner was not very keen on giving the group permission to appear on the soundtrack album to a Universal Studios picture (a competitor of Warner Brothers) when they were still owed an album.

Lee

Good reasoning Lee. Kind of stuff not found on Wikipedia.

I'd rather see a thread on a Mike solo adventure than what kind of dogs the BBs would be  ;D.

Another thought about that 78 period.

Not the best time in BB history Wilson wise so I could imagine the conservative 'Almost Summer' movie execs just wanted to remove any chance of negative press.

Maybe, but they didn't seem have an issue using a Brian Wilson song. Oh, them Wilson boys.

I was thinking more of Carl, normally the sensible one, going off the rails in Australia. Brian's and Dennis's issues were already well known.

Well, the Celebration recordings for "Almost Summer" started in late '77, in the same time period as MIU, before the Australian tour.  Mike basically went from one project produced with Ron Altbach to another in a matter of days!

Cheers,
Jon Blum

Almost Summer Director, Marty Davidson, contacted the BB's to do the soundtrack - but the soundtrack rights/distribution what have you was with MCA, and the BB's exclusive CBS! contract didn't allow it.  However, individual members could be involved thus Celebration came into being.  According to per Ian and Jon's book, p234/235 (far left and far right hand side text respectively).

Interesting... So in late 1977 / early 1978 the Beach Boys were already under contract to CBS?  Not questioning it; I honestly just can't remember the timing.

Lee

Lee,

Hence they played the famous/infamous CBS Convention in London 1977

Ahh yes...  So the Warner contract had expired from a time standpoint, but the group had not yet delivered the required output.  i guess both Warner and CBS would have had an issue with the group releasing product on MCA.

Lee

LOL...The Beach Boys in their own special way were Rock & Roll Freedom Fighters, L.A style:  Signed to one major while forgetting they were still signed to another, all the while smuggling out product under another name.
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2a/Fist.svg/200px-Fist.svg.png)

Allegedly the band signed to CBS on April 1st, 1977. I can believe it.

Interesting! Thanks for the info!

Too bad, because "Almost Summer" was a hit.  If that had been under the Beach Boys' moniker, as a link in the chain between BIG ONES and L.A. they would have been able to stake a claim to continued commercial relevance in the late '70s - instead of a couple of fitful gasps here and there.

Amazing. If only the disco Here Comes the Night was instead the Celebration single, and Almost Summer was released as a BB track. If only...

I always thought "Almost Summer", if a Beach Boys' single (and eventual album cut), could've jump started M.I.U., which was a lot more listenable to the average BB fan than 15 Big Ones and/or Love You.