The Fiver Summer Stories & Holland Conundrum

[TonyW]

The surf movie Five Summer Stories, close to 50 years since its release, still stands as arguably the best “surf movie” of its genre (I’d argue Morning of The Earth is better). The movie featured several Beach Boys tracks including Sail On Sailor, The Trader and California from the Holland album. One of the two producers of the movie, Greg MacGillivray, has stated that Brian Wilson gave open access to the Beach Boys catalogue to use in the production. The conundrum is that Holland was released in January 1973 but Five Summer Stories was first released in April 1972 when the band were still working on Carl and The Passions. On this or previous message boards I recall discussions about this from some notable BB historians who recall seeing the movie upon release and noted unreleased songs on the soundtrack and didn’t realise what they were until Holland was released. And so to the “conundrum”: has this disparity in release dates or the timing of the Holland tracks inclusion into the movie soundtrack ever been resolved by the historians?

[bryand]

I don't think that it has been resolved. It is very strange. I am wondering if we have a bit of the Mandela Effect going on here...

[TonyW]

I don't think that it has been resolved. It is very strange. I am wondering if we have a bit of the Mandela Effect going on here...

Interesting thought on the Mandella Effect. There does exist at least one review and personal perspective from the opening night written by Eve Babitz - in it she talks to Greg MacGillavary about the Beach Boys involvement but no mention is made of the Holland tracks in question: https://www.surfer.com/blogs/eos/eve-does-five-summer-stories/

[Jay]

According to the Wikipedia page, the music was composed and performed by the group Honk. No mention of The Beach Boys at all.

[TonyW]

Music was Beach Boys, Honk and a few others. The officially released soundtrack was Honk only. I've owned the video/DVD for 20 plus years and the beach boys are definitely in it.

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

The movie also included (from memory) Surf's Up, Feel Flows, Cool Water, Surfin Safari ...

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