Sunflower turns 46

[jiggy22]

Forty-six years ago today, the Beach Boys released perhaps one of their greatest post-Pet Sounds albums, Sunflower. Despite receiving high praise by critics, the album went largely unnoticed back then, reaching only #151 on the US charts. Despite signing onto Reprise Records, the Beach Boys were at their commercial low-point by 1970, only to be rescued by Jack Reiley and his much-needed changes made for the group. Over the years, Sunflower has since earned more appreciation from fans, with the tracks "Add Some Music to Your Day", "Forever", and "All I Wanna Do" often cited as some of the best in the group's catalog. The album even made it onto Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list in 2002, coming in at #380 (which is a little too low IMO). Unfortunately, Sunflower was later removed from the list in 2012. So share your thoughts and memories of the album on its 46th birthday. Were you one of the few people to buy the album back in 1970? I'd love to hear what people have to say about it!

[The LEGENDARY OSD]

Bought it when it was released. Was cruisin' one of the local chains and saw it in the new releases section and was completely floored. I had no info about the album until after it went on sale. I mean, you're in a record shop and there it is! Took it back to my apartment played it, analyzed it, digested it and loved it. It was brand new material from my favorite band! What could be better? It had incredible sound with probably some of the best harmonies they ever did and Dennis' input was incredibly interesting. Perhaps because of the lack of pre album hype, it was more of a genuine unbiased listening experience.

[Robbie Mac]

"Slip On Through" was the setup, "This Whole World" was the KO.

That is all.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

Best *sounding* album by a wide margin, in my Top 5 of favorite albums (and sometimes in my top 3)

[Bill Ed]

Despite signing onto Reprise Records, the Beach Boys were at their commercial low-point by 1970, only to be rescued by Jack Reiley and his much-needed changes made for the group.

I bought Sunflower from the Record Club of American in 1972. When I returned home from a lawn mowing gig I found it waiting for me. I remember that my first listening session was cut short by a violent thunderstorm, but I was blown away by the first few songs. There was so much going on musically/sonically on Sunflower that it took me months to take it in, and I'm sure I'll never grasp the whole thing. Sunflower still ranks in my top three albums (by anyone).

Thanks for starting this thread, but I don't share your opinion of Mr. Reiley and his impact on the band.  I don't know why you bring him up when he has so little to do with Sunflower. Still, let's keep it light and celebrate this wonderful record.

[c-man]

Best *sounding* album by a wide margin, in my Top 5 of favorite albums (and sometimes in my top 3)

Here, here...I came late to the game, being somewhat younger than most here (OK, I was born a few months prior to "Surfin' U.S.A."), but was hooked from '76 on...besides Endless Summer, my first BBs album was Love You, then I think Surf's Up. Either SUnflower or Holland was next, with Big Ones in there somewhere. But Sunflower was the full package...coolness personified, (Surf's Up being a close second), and from then on, I just couldn't get enough - especially Brian and Dennis.

[PS]

Bought it when it was released. Was cruisin' one of the local chains and saw it in the new releases section and was completely floored. I had no info about the album until after it went on sale. I mean, you're in a record shop and there it is! Took it back to my apartment played it, analyzed it, digested it and loved it. It was brand new material from my favorite band! What could be better? It had incredible sound with probably some of the best harmonies they ever did and Dennis' input was incredibly interesting. Perhaps because of the lack of pre album hype, it was more of a genuine unbiased listening experience.

I had a very similar experience at the formative age of 16 when I saw it on display while shopping at E.J. Korvettes in the upstate suburbs of New York. I loved the graphics on the clean, white cover with the family picnic style photograph immediately ("an album offering"), took it home with great anticipation and unwrapped the gatefold (after inhaling the aroma of that new album smell), put the headphones on (straight, mind you) and I was transported - of the great sonic experiences of my life to this day. I worked in a record department in 1969, and it was the stereo single of Breakaway that was really my initial entry into the "alternative" Beach Boy history beyond the radio hits, so the revelations and sheer beauty of the vocals and background vocals of Sunflower arrived right on time for me. Then I began listen closely to everything else that came before, including finally discovering an album called Pet Sounds in its 8-track cartridge format while driving cross country the next summer.

I distinctly remember reading Jim Miller's cheeky but positive review in Rolling Stone a month later ("plastic madmen, rock geniuses"):

By Jim Miller
October 1, 1970


"After a long period of recovery, mediocrity, and general disaster, the Beach Boys have finally produced an album that can stand with Pet Sounds: the old vocal and instrumental complexity has returned and the result largely justifies the absurd faith some of us have had that the Beach Boys were actually still capable of producing a superb rock album — or, more precisely, a suberb rock muzak album. "Add Some Music to Your Day"; hip supermarkets might program this album for contented browsing among the frozen vegetables and canned fruit.

As a reassuring note, most of the lyric impotence of the group remains, though not so prominently displayed as on such colorful recent outings as Friends. In what is mainly a simple collection of love songs, Dennis Wilson has explored some aspects of rhythm and blues while Brian continues to work within his own distinctive framework. Thus on the one hand we have "It's About Time" and "Slip on Through," hints of the soft hard rock that marked "I Get Around," "Help Me Rhonda," etc., transferred to the domain of contemporary Motown. Dennis even pulls off a rib-tickling imitation of Barry Melton imitating James Brown on "Got to Know the Woman." All of these tracks are executed with a certain aplomb that often was lacking in post-"Good Vibrations" Beach Boy music, as if the self-consciousness of such homogenizing enterprise as making a new Beach Boy record has been again overcome. As a result, the naivete of the group is more astounding than ever — I mean, good Christ, it's 1970 and here we have a new, excellent Beach Boys' epic, and isn't that irrelevant?

In any case, Brian's new stuff is great, especially "This Whole World" and "All I Wanna Do." Which brings up the engineering and production work on this album: it's flawless, especially in view of the number of overdubs. There is a warmth, a floating quality to the stereo that far surpasses the mixing on, say, Abbey Road. The effects are subtle, except for the outrageous echo on "All I Wanna Do" that makes the song such a mind — wrenching experience. And then there is "Cool, Cool Water," Brian's exquisite ode to water in all its manifestations, which, like "Add Some Music," is encyclopedic in its trivial catalogue of the subject at hand. "Cool, Cool Water" pulls off a Smiley Smile far better than most of the material on that disappointing venture.

The inevitable saccharine ballads are present in abundance. "Deirdre" and particularly Brian's "Our Sweet Love" rejoin the ongoing tradition of "Surfer Girl," although "Our Sweet Love" is most reminiscent of the mood of Pet Sounds. Of course there is some lesser stuff here, like "At My Window." No matter: as a whole, Sunflower is without doubt the best Beach Boys album in recent memory, a stylistically coherent tour de force. It makes one wonder though whether anyone still listens to their music, or could give a sh*t about it. This album will probably have the fate of being taken as a decadent piece of fluff at a time when we could use more Liberation Music Orchestras. It is decadent fluff — but brilliant fluff. The Beach Boys are plastic madmen, rock geniuses. The plastic should not hide from use the geniuses who molded it."

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

For me, it's 20/20, Friends,Sunflower, Holland, and Wild Honey, with So Tough close behind. Pet Sounds is in its own category...

[Robbie Mac]

Best *sounding* album by a wide margin, in my Top 5 of favorite albums (and sometimes in my top 3)

Yes, in terms of sheer sonics, it is their best record. I tell non-fans that soundwise, it's comparable to ABBEY ROAD.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

GREAT comparison..spot on.

20/20 is my 2nd , esp the 'deep and wide' part of 'Time to Get Alone'

but not on the recently remastered versions, sadly...

[pdas1996]

For me, it's 20/20, Friends,Sunflower, Holland, and Wild Honey, with So Tough close behind. Pet Sounds is in its own category...

It's as if you read my mind! 

[Moon Dawg]

Bought it when it was released. Was cruisin' one of the local chains and saw it in the new releases section and was completely floored. I had no info about the album until after it went on sale. I mean, you're in a record shop and there it is! Took it back to my apartment played it, analyzed it, digested it and loved it. It was brand new material from my favorite band! What could be better? It had incredible sound with probably some of the best harmonies they ever did and Dennis' input was incredibly interesting. Perhaps because of the lack of pre album hype, it was more of a genuine unbiased listening experience.

  Any reaction to Mike Love's guru pics on the sleeve?

[JK]

I remember hearing "Tears In The Morning" on the radio when it was released in the UK as a single in 1970.

I didn't even know of the existence of Sunflower until 30 years later when I read about it in Brian's discredited "autobiography" in 2002.

Seeing it paired with Surf's Up, whose second side I knew and loved, I bought it and quite frankly was about to give up on it (!!!) when "All I Wanna Do" kicked in and I was smitten.

Naturally, I've listened to the album many times since and have come to love it almost as much as Surf's Up...     

[Tony S]

Bought it as a 10 year old kid, also from Korvettes. No internet or advanced notice at that time for a 10 year old, but the cover was stunning, as was the music inside. To this day, still my favorite disc from the band, after Pet Sounds, by a wide margin. Just a tremendous group effort!

[KDS]

By a small margin, my favorite Beach Boys album. 

I also like the fact that everybody contributes. 

[The LEGENDARY OSD]

Best *sounding* album by a wide margin, in my Top 5 of favorite albums (and sometimes in my top 3)

Yes, in terms of sheer sonics, it is their best record. I tell non-fans that soundwise, it's comparable to ABBEY ROAD.

Yes it is. In fact, I believe that the RS review that I have mentions that it had a certain "floating" quality to the sound that far surpassed AR or something along those lines.

[thorgil]

Sunflower is one of the best among the most underrated series of albums ever: the Beach Boys stretch after "Pet Sounds" up to "Love You" (included).

[halblaineisgood]

Yes it is. In fact, I believe that the RS review that I have mentions that it had a certain "floating" quality to the sound that far surpassed AR or something along those lines.

Floating would be a good way to describe something actually recorded in stereo compared to something recorded in mono. The reviewers probably didn't know why it was better but they felt it.

Surf's Up sounds just as good though.