Carl queers the pitch in the mid '90s

...after the disaster that was 15 Big Ones/Love You.

No argument with 15 B/O's, but Love You is no disaster, by a long shot(a really, really long shot).

Love You was a disaster, not artistically but commercially.

Agreed to some extent, although US top 60/UK top 30 isn't too bad going from a commercial point of view, is it (happy to be corrected)?

I get that Love You didn't set the world on fire back in the day and haul in mountains of cash, but 35 years on we can probably forgo the economic rationalism and assess the album on it's artistic merit.

And Love You did not seal the band's fate as an oldies act.

The way I see things, an album that peaks at #53 is a commercial disaster, it seems to me that quite a lot of newer fans who had gotten into the Boys via Endless Summer would have been majorly put out by the one-two punch of 15 Big Ones & Love You - 15 Big Ones being just plain bad and Love You being way to weird to be a true commercial success.

Exactly my point. Thank you, Paulos. To be a commercially viable recording band in 1976, the BB's needed to put out a record as pleasing as Summer Days, Today, or Pet Sounds. Not necessarily an album that sounded exactly like those albums, but something with some traces of the old sound, along with the more mature sounds they explored on Holland or Surf's Up. If they had done that, they would've permanently won over a new generation of fans. As it turned out, the new fans heard the new music, and moved on to other things.

Looking at "Good timin'" and "It's ok" (maybe even "California feeling") Brian seemed to be on to something like that in '74. Just at the same time Endless Summer hit it big such an album might've been a blockbuster.

I agree. I still don't know why they didn't try harder to get an album out earlier that would contain "Good Timin''", "It's OK" and "California Feelin'". Even if those were the only Brian written tracks, that would pretty much be par for the course anyways. I still don't know why "Good Timin'" was held back until L.A. (Light Album). It would have been a great "re-introductory" tune for the band in the mid '70s. But anyways, back to a proposed album, you would have 2 great singles, "Good Timin'" and "It's OK", and one great album track from Brian ("California Feelin'"). Then you throw in, say, three tracks from Dennis, like "River Song" and "Pacific Ocean Blue", and then "Angel Come Home" from Carl, "Everyone's In Love With You" from Mike, and something from Al, likely "Susie Cincinnati". Also talked about was "Our Life, Our Love, and Our Land" from Mike and "Don't Let Me Go" from Carl and Mike, so maybe those would've made it. Who knows how they sounded?

It probably wouldn't be as "artistic" as Holland, but I think it probably still would've been a pretty good album that would have done well, especially as people were flippin' over Endless Summer. Most of the tracks above would show a "grown up" Beach Boys, but with a lot of the feeling of the "old days", but not as overtly nostalgic and lame as it seemed to come across on 15 Big Ones.

I agree. An album like that would've sold well, and also encouraged people to take a chance on the next album. After 15 Big Ones, the average fan probably felt that "these guys aren't worth it", and passed on the albums after it.

I'm trying to put together a Spotify playlist as best I can with some of the suggestions here. I'm torn between Al and Brian's versions of California Feelin' though, Brian's is more Beach Boy sounding but I can't stand his vocal on it whereas Al has a nice vocal but the track doesn't sound as BBish. Also we can't have San Miguel as it's not on spotify.

EDIT - Here's what i've come up with so far, I nixed Everyone's In Love as it didn't seem to fit so well. I've tried to follow the Today template roughly by having more uptempo songs in the first half and more introspective/ballad type songs in the second half.

http://open.spotify.com/user/111751626/playlist/5OAnFlSAc7JbB50c1lg70f

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