What would have happened if the "Endless Summer" LP was never released?

[SloopJohnnyB]

I was 12 years old when the Beach Boys greatest hits compilation 'Endless Summer' was released in 1974. That's when I became a fan and I've been a fan ever since. At that time I didn't know anything about 'Holland', 'Surf's Up', 'So Tough' or 'Sunflower'.

After the huge success of 'Endless Summer' the group musically went in a different creative direction with '15 Big Ones'.

My question is what would have happened to the Beach Boys if 'Endless Summer' was never released?

Would Dennis and Carl have continued to grow as producers and songwriters in the band? What would the late 1970's have looked like without the return to the nostalgic side of the Beach Boys that 'Endless Summer' brought?

[Jukka]

They had hard time coming up with a decent follow-up to Holland even before Endless Summer, so I guess it wouldn't have that much of a difference. If the improved fortunes hadn't forced them to come up quickly with a rushed album (15 Big Ones), I wonder when and what, if anything, se would have got. Maybe the creative fire was dying anyway?

[Kirk]

We wouldn't have had these in the mid-70s



and thus would've been missing an important chunk of BB history until the 1990 two-fers came out

I wonder if Reprise would've dropped the band c. 75 if not for the Endless Summer renaissance; without ES, I don't think there's a 15 Big Ones

[Jason]

I wouldn't have been shocked if they just continued on as a live attraction.

[Rocky Raccoon]

We wouldn't have had these in the mid-70s

That cover art, yuck!  Over one of my favorite Beach Boys album covers, it's sacrilege I tell ya!

[startBBtoday]

It's odd that a greatest hits comp had such an impact on the band, but it really did. Since it suddenly made them so much more popular than they had been in recent years, I'm sure some motivation to keep changing their sound, getting more creative and churning out better product went away.

I don't think any Carl or Dennis solo albums would have come out, those songs/ideas likely would have been combined in some form for Beach Boys records and I doubt the essentially Brian solo "Love You" probably wouldn't have come out in that form either.

[MyGlove]

I'm guessing probably no 15 Big Ones. At that point they could have easily released something "independently" so I won't rule out Love You. Love You (or something like it) could have come out a couple years earlier, and they probably wouldn't have lost it after LA. (by "lost it" i mean went back to beach tunes)

[SloopJohnnyB]

We wouldn't have had these in the mid-70s

That cover art, yuck!  Over one of my favorite Beach Boys album covers, it's sacrilege I tell ya!

Those were my first copies of 20/20, Wild Honey and others. A lot of great music to discover for the first time! Too bad the original art work wasn't used. Very generic cover art but now good memories for me.

Without ES I see Dennis and Carl staying more involved with writing and producing. No solo albums but their material would be featured in the BB LPs. Maybe Dennis would have stayed more involved with things. We know he use to walk out of recording sessions. Maybe he would have been happier and things would have turned out different for him.

I think Brian would have resurfaced as producer either way.

I don't recall reading anything but was Brian encouraged by the success of ES? Did it make a difference in him getting back to producing or writing again?

The surf music/songs would always have been part of the band's live performances. They were part of the early 70's shows anyway. Those songs will always be part of the Beach Boys and that's a good thing.

But the new music being made in the first half of the 1970's compared to the second half of the 1970's is almost like comparing night to day.

Without ES there probably wouldn't have been any stadium tours. No tours with Chicago. No really good bands opening for the Beach Boys on tour. But they sort of lost their creative soul in a way. The heart was all there in the late 70's. I don't know.

I find this time frame in Beach Boys history so fascinating. Maybe in an alternate reality things would be so different??!!  

Forgot to mention the follow up 'Spirit of America". Wow! So many great songs to discover for the first time. Both ES and SOA both double LPs. I bet they set some sort of sales record for back to back double LP's selling so well. I know that SOA didn't sell as well as ES or did it? I recall it being a big hit on the charts. These two LP's introduced me to the BB's just like the current greatest hit comps are doing to new generations. I still say that these greatest hit comps (ES & SOA) changed the course of Beach Boys history in a very significant way.

[Kirk]

I have so many memories of handling these albums in the mid- and then late 70s. The ENDLESS SUMMER gatefold was entrancing---i used to try to redraw it by hand. SPIRIT OF AMERICA was so overcrowded, but you got pics in the gatefold and the TODAY/SDSN stuff was hard to find anywhere else at the time. Mostly I remember how easily most of these records were to find in record stores. I guess that was once benefit to the renewed popularity between 74 and 77. I bought SUNFLOWER (or should I say my parents bought it) in a mall in the Michigan boonies. A few years later you couldn't find a copy to save your life (Thanks, Reprise). But yeah, those re-releases of the late 60s LPs were pretty uninspired ... but they're so 1970s languid I can't help but feel affection for them.

[Lonely Summer]

Besides ES and SOA, I used to see the Pickwick Beach Boys albums in stores a lot. I bought one called "Good Vibrations", had GV, 409, She Knows Me Too Well, Darlin', Heroes and Villains, The Little Girl I Once Knew, Dance Dance Dance, Girl Don't Tell Me and God Only Knows on it, late 60's shots of the group sans Brian on the front and back. A friend bought the "Surfer Girl" album - not the Capitol classic, but the Pickwick version with a pic of a blonde in a swimsuit on the cover. As albums they were junk, just randomly thrown together tracks, but it was nice to be able to buy a BB's album for just a couple bucks. For the same reason, I bought some of the Elvis Camden albums. It took too long on my weekly allowance to save up for a full price album!

[drbeachboy]

Nothing would have changed that much in the scheme of things. The whole back to the 60's thing was happening before the release of Endless Summer. The audiences still would have clamored for the oldies, so I doubt the stage show would have been radically different than what happened. They still would have pushed Brian to get back in the studio. Remember, it was Brian who wanted to record the oldies as much as anyone else in the band. Almost every major artist were releasing remakes, so I think The Beach Boys would have still done that, as well. The big if is, what type of album would have been released had they had one ready in 74 or 75? I think we might of had a quasi LA (Light Album) type to bridge the gap betwwen Holland and 15 Big Ones.

[AM Radio]

I feel that if Endless Summer had never been released in 1974, it would have been because the social turmoil of the late 60s (Vietnam) which continued into the first half of the 70s, culminating in Watergate, the resignation of a president, the eventual withdrawal from Vietnam, plus, all of the related music that came about during those years, would never have happened to begin with.  

With Endless Summer, the nostalgia for the Beach Boys and all things 60s was a reactive and therapeutic need for a generation to recapture the one part of their youth that wasn't taken from them as a result of these events.
 
It can also be argued that such nostalgia also started both a new fan base plus a healing process between youth of the day and their parents' generation, who often fought their own wars of opposing ideologies over political views and musical/social tastes around kitchen tables most every night.

Now, given this as an alternate scenario, the question becomes what would have happened to the Beach Boys (and music in general) had we not gotten involved in Vietnam in 1965?  Musical tastes and styles would surely still change but there would have been no war songs and the youth culture surely would have evolved differently.

At this stage, Brian is turning more serious with his compositions, abandoning the very style that Endless Summer encompasses and Pet Sounds is on the verge as a work in progress.  So we can say that Brian would have continued in this direction and the competitive drive he felt against the Beatles would still fuel him.  

Would SMiLE have been completed or would it have never been attempted or would it have faced the same fate that resulted in Brian's effective creative departure from the BBs?

 

[petsite]

If Endless Summer hadn't been released, something else would have been. The pressure for BB product was at a fever pitch and remember, Capitol basically let all the BB LPs fall out of print after they left the label. It was time to put the BB back in print somehow, and the tried and true GH collections always works. One does have to wonder still how Mike Ross picked the WRONG version of Ronda (not Rhonda). I understand Be True To Your School, as they wanted ANY stereo track for all songs. No stereo of the 45 mix, but one for the LP mix? That works.  

And don't forget this one:

[Sheriff John Stone]

Endless Summer was a reaffirmation of what the band already knew. Endless Summer was a reaction to the fans' increasing requests/demands for "oldies" IN THE LIVE SHOWS. Capitol Records was catering to the fans, not foreshadowing the future direction of the band.

I don't think the direction that the band ultimately took was entirely a result of the success of Endless Summer/Spirit Of America. Like I mentioned above, the concerts were screaming just as loudly as the record sales. I think just as influential was - again and as usual - Brian Wilson. There is no doubt that Brian was brought back from the dead to rejoin The Beach Boys; to produce them, to make hit records, to give them more credibility. But, if you ask Marilyn Wilson, she would probably say that the concern was more his life, if not his sanity.

I believe it was when they (The Beach Boys) saw what Brian had to offer in late 1975/early 1976 was when the future direction was solidified. Could the Brian Wilson of late 1975/early 1976 compose a Pet Sounds, a Friends, a Wild Honey? Was Brian still in the "This Whole World", "Til I Die", 'Sail On Sailor" mode? Probably not. But, he was in the Spectorian "It's OK", "Palisades Park", "TM Song" mode. The guys ended up taking what Brian had to offer, whatever it was, whatever it turned out to be.

There were a lot of ideas floating around at that time, no doubt about it. And, obviously, some of those ideas included the retro/oldies direction. But, what if Brian Wilson would've come out firing in 1976, with all this new, progressive music; cutting edge stuff. Do you think the guys would've said, "No, Brian, we don't want THOSE songs, we want to re-cut Susie Cincinatti."

The Beach Boys would usually sink or swim based on Brian Wilson's contributions, or lack of. His songs were usually the highlights of each respective album. And, the albums' merits were usually based on the quantity and quality of Brian's contributions - usually. I'm not blaming Brian for the debacle of 15 Big Ones or the ultimate direction the band went, but I do think he played a larger part than is usually mentioned, at least as much as Endless Summer is concerned.