The Smiley Smile Message Board

And it was in the top 20 for 2 months! Can anyone explain the mood around this song at the time it was released? Considering what was going on at the time with the BBs, it was really a minor miracle that they were able to pull out a hit like this. Granted, it was essentially a musical retread of "Surfin' USA", but somehow it worked.

Was this treated as a big return for the Boys? How did Brian feel about the success?

I've read some claim that it was only a hit because the public was hungry for anything new from the BBs, but somehow it achieved a level of success a song like "It's OK" couldn't quite capture.

Did this song feel contemporary at the time? In a way, it feels like a transmission from a drunk space station.

Incredible!

Can't really say why with any certainty, but I will say that it sounded pretty cool on AM radio and my car radio.

The Beach Boys were having a renaissance because of the success of Endless Summer.


It might seem that way because, in many ways, Surfin' USA is a musical retread of Sweet Little Sixteen.

I think the " hunger" reason is very credible.

It was summer and it felt good.  I remember at the beach, and at the community pool, that tune was playing on every radio starting right around my birthday (July 16) that summer.  I still remember it fondly.

I know it's been beaten to death, but it's insane that they waited three months to release It's OK as a single -- once summer was over in September. The single still did well, comparatively speaking, but it could have done so much better if it was released in June or July.

In an ideal world, they release Rock and Roll Music in May, It's OK in July, and they would have finished Good Timin, put it on 15 Big Ones and released that in September.

It's amazing how badly they squandered the success they received from Endless Summer and their touring. "River Song" could have been put on a post Endless Summer album as well, and perhaps it would have done better commercially with a Beach Boys credit.

They had enough for a commercial, decent summer album based on what they had in the vaults, a couple covers and what's already on the album.

Yeah, obviously the listening public was ready for some NEW Beach Boys' music after the success of Endless Summer and Spirit Of America in 1974 and 1975. And, as inaccurate as it may have been, the "Brian Is Back" campaign worked. It got people interested...or curious.

"Rock And Roll Music" benefited by being released almost six weeks BEFORE the 15 Big Ones album. So, I guess people couldn't wait. Which might be one reason why the superior "It's OK" single didn't fare as well. Many people already had it on the album.

And, one would assume, based on the success of Endless Summer, Warner Brothers probably put on the full-court press to promote the album. I don't think heavy support and promotion from the record label can be overlooked. Even bad records (not saying this was one) can become hits with enough push and favors being called in by the sales department.

They also sounded like "The Beach Boys" to many people for the first time since the late 60s.

I completely feel your pain, but it is actually not amazing at all.  It is absolutely staying in character with every freaking decision they have ever made. They have squandered every bit of  momentum they have ever enjoyed. The Beach Boys are the George Costanza of the Rock world. Every decision they have made should have been the opposite. And don't get me started on the aborted 1995 album...

Same reason David Leroth's version of California Girls was a hit. Fresh take on a hit standard.

  Could it have something to do with Chuck Berry being an ace songwriter?

'Cause there was nothing else good that was out at the time. I think Capitol Records released a Beatles Rock & Roll Music album around that time, didn't they? And it did pretty well.

Just think. If The Beach Boys woulda released the ALTERNATE version of Rock & Roll Music (MIC version) in 1976 it probably would've gone at least top 10 and been on the charts longer!

I had Brian sign my Rock & Roll Music single 2-3 weeks after it came out in '76. He asked me how I liked it and I of course lied and told him I did.

Nostalgia was in the air in the summer of 1976.  Henry Gross had the Beach Boys pastiche Shannon out; his Springtime Mama would be an even better Beach Boys clone.  Beach Baby by First Class was still in heavy rotation as a recurrent on Top 40 stations.  Capitol shoved out a wildly successful Beatles comp called Rock & Roll Music and the Beatles themselves had a hit single on the radio that summer with Got to Get You Into My Life.   We listed to WLS-AM out of Chicago and you heard Beatles and Beach Boys all the time, particularly Do It Again, Surfin USA, Fun Fun Fun and Help Me Rhonda.  They were still considered contemporary acts.  Endless Summer and Spirit of America were still selling like hotcakes... but Rock & Roll Music just sounded great coming out of an AM car radio.  When that song started we'd all sing it at high volume, til we were hoarse.  It just sounded like a classic anthem Beach Boys single and we loved it.  As Carl Wilson said at the time, it was just a great single, a kickass single.

While a lot of the contemporary hits that summer were great background music (Starland Vocal Band, Abba, Chicago, the Spinners, Heart, all come to mind)... these summer anthems like Rock & Roll Music always got the volume cranked and everyone singing.

I can't speak with any contemporaneous authority because I was approximately -2 months old when it came out. And I don't agree with Mikie that there wasn't anything else good out there at the time. There's a lot of dance music/disco, sure, but plenty of quality within and outside that sound.

Here's my hypothesis: "Rock 'n' Roll Music" was a hit for the Beach Boys in the summer of 1976 because it's a good song, the public was ready for new Beach Boys product (especially if it reminded them of earlier times, as nostalgia was indeed en vogue), and, honestly, it was a good single. There. I said it. It didn't change the world or anything, but it's fun.

Considering it is one of the very few "New" songs (post 1969) to stay consistantly in their live shows for 38 years, says just how popular and how much most people like it.

Uh.... it did go top 10. It went to #5.

I remember being surprised it did that well, but like everyone else has said, it sounded great on the radio. It seemed like it fit in perfectly at the time. There was still that nostalgia thing going on and I think people were just really happy to have the Beach Boys back on the radio with a new release.

I have a semi-related observation and question.  Prior to my becoming a Beach Boys fan, I had some exposure to most of the band's top 40 hits and certainly all of their top 10 hits except for this one, which I didn't even know existed until I bought Sounds of Summer.  Anyone have a similar experience?  Seems that in spite of its high chart rating, its popularity hasn't aged that well.  Rightly so, in my mind.

I agree that it hasn`t become a quintessential Beach Boys song...

Certainly in the U.K. it has often been omitted from Best of compilations and the same has happened quite a few times in America as well.

At least the single version is considerably better than the album version.  I still wish It's OK was the first single though.  It's also anthemic, it's original, and a better recording overall.  A top 30 placing is nice enough, but surely an early summer release would have boosted its fortunes.

I have no love for the BB version of Rock & Roll Music (love the CB original) so I'm not trying to defend its exclusion when I say that the reason, I think, that it has not "become a quintessential Beach Boys song" as you correctly put it, is because it kind of disrupts the narrative that the Beach Boys were a great 60s band whose greatness ended with the 60s and then re-emerged with one mega-hit comeback single in the 80s. Of course, this narrative is false because it excludes, generally, the beautiful music that the band made in the late 60s and early 70s, and it also excludes the several hits the band had along the road to Kokomo.

I personally think the reason why R&R Music has lasted for so long in the Beach Boys setlist is because it works as a kind of nod to Chuck Berry. They used to cover Johnny B. Goode but then had a hit with another one, so they use that. The song too has a good deal of cultural capital. It has been recorded by two other giants: Chuck Berry and The Beatles. There's a good chance that an audience who goes to see the live show would have heard it from one of these three sources.

much as I like the thought above.. the problem was and really still is even with the MIC version, "It's OK" starts cold (no real intro) and is barely 2:00 long at best with a sizable fade-out.. for 1976 radio its too short. This is a song that needed someone to write a beginning to! :o

It's been included in every Greatest Hits series since the turn of the century. It's not on the Icon  release, but nothing past 1966 is either. Also, their last three Top 10 hits are: Good Vibrations, Rock And Roll Music and Kokomo.

That's probably true.  I like both the Chuck Berry and Beatles versions of the song, and I liked it when I heard the Beach Boys play it during the C50 tour.  It's a great song that is ruined in album version by production and one of Mike's lesser lead vocals on a rocker, but those problems are easily remedied when it comes to playing it live.

I remember when it came out. If you thought 2012 was a big year for the Beach Boys, it had nothing on 1975-76. I was just a kid but EVERYONE liked them.  Heck, we all thought Endless Summer was a new album. There was no way that single could fail.

It was probably the Mafia's doing.

Does anyone remember which version was played more on the radio? (I was only a few months old at the time).

The single version is 100x better than the album version. And the newly constructed MiC version is nice, but still does not compare to the single version.

Rock and Roll music has often been the highlight of different shows I've seen over the years.  The live arrangement has a groove to it that is missing in all the studio versions.

You're right. And Kayla Williams did a nice job!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnhTZObOTcU (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnhTZObOTcU)

She is amazing.. I heard her take on Vegetables 4-5 years ago and it blew me away  ;D
It's OK is her best cover IMO. It's better than the Beach Boys version!

It was a hit because of the great singalong chant Brian arranged for it: "Rock, roll, rock-and-a-roll". That and all the other factors mentioned.

It was a good song, and even though the production of R&R Music as well as the entire 15 Big Ones album is poor, when asking why it was a hit you need to go back and look at all of the other top 10-40 stuff from that era. In reality at the time, a lot of their "not so great stuff" was really as good or even better than many many hits during those years. How were "Afternoon Delight"  and "You Light Up My Life" huge hits in the '70's ?

At the time 15 big ones came out I loved it. R&R Music was a new release by my favorite band since Endless Summer caught me......a band I would go on to follow and love the rest of my life.

"America's Band" comes out with a hot new summer single around the time of the Bicentennial. How could it miss?

I'd like R&R Music if it wasn't for the "Rock, roll, rock-and-a-roll" chant; for some reason that really grates on me.

I've always enjoyed the BBs recording and live performances of this song.  I think it's fun, catchy and rocks along quite well.  It was really good in the C50 show I saw (Cincy) in that long string of nothing but hits towards the end of the show.  The single version is almost unarguably better, and the MIC version is pretty good too.

I beg to differ on BOTH of those accounts!

I know I'm in the minority here but I love this song. I love Mike's vocal, the production, everything.

The mid 70's were, I believe, a time when people wanted to have fun, be reminded of the "good old days", etc.   It was the Bicentennial too, post Watergate/Nixon.   It was a fun, throwback song, and I think people were nostalgic for that, plus they missed Mike's nasal tones - really.  
However, "It's OK" would have been a better choice as a lead single - it was an original, and a throwback to the "good old days" as well....

It is a little on the short side, but of course that's one of those things I love about The Beach Boys.  Unless the song is going to be musically diverse, most pop songs don't really need to be longer than 3 minutes.  R&R Music being only 15-20 seconds longer tells me the public would have been okay with it, but I would love an intro as you suggest!

Years ago I coudn't stand the damn song.  I've found over the years though that there's something a little endearing about it, I don't know what the hell it is, but maybe to a casual listener they find something they like in it?  I don't know.

What amazes me is why they even TRIED that song.  Chuck Berry did such an amazing job... and then the Beatles arguably did it even better... then the Beach Boys come along and it sounds like a joke. 

First off, we're talking about two different songs.

The single mix of RRM is so vastly better, with so much more punch and verve, that it makes the album track sound like an ugly cousin. It's like the difference between Ronda and Rhonda. One just sits there, while the other one sounds like a hit.

Why? It's loud, dumb, catchy pop music. Brian's rock, rock and roll chant gave an already-catchy tune a second hook. Mike camps it up incomparably. The Moog bass has never farted more thunderously. Everyone has a good time, and no one has to think very hard or learn extra chords.

I've always been a fan. Of the single version.

That part is mixed way too high in the album version, to the point of competing with the lead vocal. It's mixed at a much more reasonable level on the single version.

This. It's mind-boggling how the album version winds up on so many high profile compilations.

Same reason why the wrong - i.e. non-hit - version of "BTTYS" and "Rhonda" were used for so long: carelessness. The suits didn't know there was a single master.

R&R Music is one of the few BBs songs that i can't stand to listen to. The album version especially. The single version(s) are better but i'd be embarrassed to play it for non-BBs fans.

It grates instantly and never lets up. A version by the 1964 boys would have been far superior, and drop that annoying Rock-and-a-roll chant too.

Wow, that is a great one!  Absolutely love Kayla Williams' BB covers!

I can remember exactly where I was when I first heard Rock n Roll Music - driving by the beach in Del Mar, Calif.  I had just pushed a button to change the station and heard the song, on AM radio, about 30 seconds in.  My thoughts were, "Wow, that's the Beach Boys," and, "I absolutely love this rendition of the song!" 

Perhaps someone can answer this question - "Why was there ever an album version in the first place?"  The single mix was released before the album and is vastly superior.  I find it baffling that the album version is on most of the comps, other than the fact that such a move seems par for the course for the BBs. 

And another question - "Who was responsible for the single mix vs the album mix?"  The single had been on the charts for 5 weeks and was already a top 20 song in the US when 15 Big Ones was released, so why did they stick a far less punchy and rather anemic sounding mix on the album?

Is the single version on any recent comp?

Most recent release I believe is Greatest Hits Volume Three: Best of the Brother Years.  It also has the seldomly heard single mixes of It's OK and CS: California.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greatest_Hits_Volume_Three:_Best_of_the_Brother_Years_1970%E2%80%931986

Good question.  Didn't someone say here once that Brian's mixes were different from what Carl ended up finishing up? Basically the direct opposite of Love You, in that Brian's versions were superior?

It's amazing how wild the crowd gets when The Beach Boys launch into "Rock and Roll Music" here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i93s023sONQ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i93s023sONQ)

I LOVE the album version. The single version is compressed as hell and you can barely hear most of the parts, as is everything the BBs mixed without Brian from the mid-late '70s. I think (and this is just my opinion) that the band felt Brian's mix was too busy for AM radio, so they came up with a mix that focused more on a few select aspects. And while it could very well be that the single mix cuts better on AM, I know what version I prefer on my modern sound system!

That is a great version ( except Mike blows the lead on a verse) I think the Midnight Special one a few years later is even better.

Thing is, I think you have it backwards...I think the single mix was Brian's. I know it read it here somewhere that Brian's original mixes for that, and indeed the rest of the album, were rejected.

Nah, I think you have it backerds.  The Hot( single) mix is Carl. the album is part of Brian's vision

I had never thought of that before. That makes it even more mind boggling that the album version was ever released at all!

I haven't watched this in years and forgot just how much Mike brings the FUNK with his crazy outlandish dance moves!