when was the first time you noticed or listened to the beach boys?

[muchacho_playero]

when was the first time you noticed or listened to the beach boys?


i guess it was five or six years ago. i saw the beach boys documentary: An American Band in tv by chance and in the nick of the time i fell in love

then mike and bruce came to argentina and it was a moment i wont forget

today im a beach boys vinyls collector, so if any of you want to give a present haha

in the beggining i didnt like the 70s and 80s albums but now i hear everything

[mikeyj]

I first got into the Beach Boys through the movie "The Beach Boys: An American Family" as I was blown away by songs like "In My Room", "Forever" etc. I then went and got my dads Sunflower/Surf's Up twofer and listened to Forever a few times and was in love with that song for a while. For some reason, and I have no idea how, I just listened to Tears In The Morning and I thought "hey, I've never heard my dad play this song before and it's pretty good, I wonder what the other songs are like" and so I listened to that twofer a few times. I don't think I could comprehend it all at first. I mean I remember hearing "Surf's Up" (the song) for the first time and I thought "wow, what was that!" I just seemed so strange to me. I mean before getting into the Beach Boys I was listening to Nirvana, Rage Against The Machine etc.. so this music was so different to me. Anyway those events kick-started my obsession with the band.

[The Shift]

1976. Heard Good Vibrations. Bought Good Vibrations. Listened to Good Vibrations hundreds of times on one of those mono players which would repeat a 45rpm single as long as you left the arm off the central pole. Bought 20 Golden Greats and realised that I already knew most of those songs. Realised Heroes and Villains cut be cut and reshuffled and looped into a never-ending modular symphony – and did just that on a cheap cassette recorder. Never looked back!

[mikeyj]

Oh yeah I forgot to mention that it was towards the end of 2005 (I was 17 at the time) when I first watched the An American Family movie.

[Stegibo]

I watched "Full House" on TV and the Beach Boys performef "Kokomo".

[The Heartical Don]

Rewind to 1969 or thereabouts. I had a friend who was a few years older than me, he was in grammar school, I was in primary school. He was totally in to boys' stuff, like:

- DX hobby, which meant: trying to receive faraway radio stations on the short wave, and sending them report cards with data on reception. His proudest possessions were a double mini-LP from China, with a red and a green vinyl disk, carrying a Chinese Maoist agitprop opera about conquering Tiger Mountain; and some very dark propaganda material from I think Cambodia, that told us about the terrible war crimes by American soldiers in that region (my friend was far from a Communist, I should add, he was extremely curious).

- chemistry. He threw solid phosphorus out of a bottle onto the street. It caught fire immediately. Wondrous. He lit a strip of magnesium and that produced an intense white light that I still recall vividly. Also, he held a test tube filled with H2S gas near the kitchen stove. He promised me a bewildering array of colours if I dared to get close enough. Instead, I smelled an intense smell of rotten eggs, of course.

- radio plays and music. He had recorded an entire series of a Dutch sci-fi story, and we listened in the dark. Thrilling, gripping, stuff.

...and then, one spring day, he told me he'd just recorded a great song on his reel-to-reel. It was Good Vibrations, by a band that I as a kid had never heard of. In fact, I was a huge James Last fan at the time (true! ).

I was won over. A love affair started that has lasted for 40 years by now, and is still going strong.

[The Heartical Don]

(deleted)

[Jonas]

The Don, have you sold the rights to your story yet? A made-for-tv movie should be in the works.

[The Heartical Don]

The Don, have you sold the rights to your story yet? A made-for-tv movie should be in the works.

  thanks, Jonas. Fond memories came alive when I saw this thread. I never forgot the awe I felt: what is THIS? It is GOOD, no, make that: it is GORGEOUS!

Yes, I am speaking with the Coen Brothers as we write. They want to make a film about my early years in a small Dutch village. Provisional title:

'He Never Was The Same Again'

[smile-holland]

In fact, I was a huge James Last fan at the time (true! ).

HA, I knew it !! 

[Dutchie]

It was around 1984/1985. I was at my school friend at home and his mother was playing a best of lp. I fell in love instandly with the harmony's and songs. From the time i went into the army and was earning money i was collecting all the original and b##ts cd's  . I now got more b##ts than officially cd's 

[pixletwin]

Don't remember what year it was (and I may be totally wrong) but the first time I heard the Beach Boys was in a commercial for a drink called Orange Crush.

[doc smiley]

would have been about 1968.... and about 7 years old..

had a bunch of my sister's old lps that she didn't listen to anymore.. and one of them was
BB "Today"  . even though it was really scratchy, that record made me a fan for life!

[The Shift]

I watched "Full House" on TV and the Beach Boys performef "Kokomo".

My gawd!  And you became a fan after that???               

[Magic Transistor Radio]

Who are the Beach Boys?

[Big Bri]

Age 6 in 1969 at my Grandmother's house in Pottstown,Pa.
My Aunt lived there(she was only 13)and had a bunch of 45's of The Monkees, Beatles and Beach Boys.
The first BB song I ever heard and still my all time favorite was "Sloop John B". Then I think it was "California Girls" and "Let Him Run Wild" not sure?  My very first Rock song was "Stand" by Sly & the Family Stone.
The greatest "gift" I got was Christmas in 1973(10 years old) when I got "In Concert '73" on LP. WOW!  Still the greatest live album(that and "Second's Out" from Genesis)that I ever received!  And Sloop and "Let The Wind Blow" steal that LP.

My very first concert was the Beach Boys in 1976 at the Spectrum in Philly during the 15 Big Ones tour! And Heart opened for them during their Dreamboat Annie tour.

Bri

[Amy B.]

I can't remember the exact order of things, but I remember hearing "Good Vibrations" on a commercial for Sunkist orange soda. When I was 9 my family was driving around on vacation and went and bought some cassette tapes for the car. A BB compilation was among them. I guess I co-opted the tape after the vacation was over, though I only had a tape recorder (not a stereo) to listen to music. I always enjoyed the BBs on a superficial level-- they made great harmonies. But the Beatles were the tops for me. The BBs didn't become one of my favorites until a few years ago when I heard Pet Sounds for the 100th time and it sounded incredibly sublime to me at that moment, where before it just sounded nice. (No drugs involved) I finally understood the whole "Brian Wilson is a genius" thing.

[hypehat]

They seemed to be playing in my house quite a lot as i was little - the surfin' tunes mostly. Then, one fateful afternoon, i decided to get my parents cds of Sgt. Pepper and, more importantly, Pet Sounds and give them a spin. I saw Brian live not long after that, then bought Smile and was a full-on Beach Boys freak ever since 

[The Heartical Don]

If there were a 'classic threads' section, this one would be a prime candidate for inclusion. May it live long.

(Adminstrators?)

[SloopJohnB]

I remember hearing "Good Vibrations" on a Chrysler commercial when I was 3 or 4... My dad had the Chrysler that was being advertised, and he liked the Beach Boys, so I must have felt that something unusual was going on in that ad. I remember thinking that the music sounded nice and different from what I'd heard until then, and it's one of my earliest memories!

[The Heartical Don]

I remember hearing "Good Vibrations" on a Chrysler commercial when I

Great call. Perfect. Best ever.

[Alex]

I've posted about this a few times before here, but long story short, my mom had a copy of Endless Summer, and sometime around 1991 or '92 when I was about 6 or 7, she was on a big BB kick, and would blast it on the stereo just about every day...she'd always start with side 4, so the first BB song I ever heard was California Girls. Flash forward to 2003...I picked up a copy of Sounds of Summer...I wanted to reaquaint myself with the BBs for some reason...then I started reading about how great Pet Sounds was...I then found out about SMiLE when BWPS came out...took me until late 2005 to get around to buying PS, got BWPS shortly afterwards, started listening to SMiLE boots, then got into the 67-73 stuff...by 2006 I was a hardcore fan!

[SloopJohnB]

I remember hearing "Good Vibrations" on a Chrysler commercial when I

Great call. Perfect. Best ever.

Blame my ISP for this gem. I've edited it, by the way 

[Andrew G. Doe]

Ready, Steady, Go !, November 6th, 1964. I especially noticed that they made a complete horlicks of the intro to "When I Grow Up..." - even aged nine !

The first time I listened to them because they were The Beach Boys was (and not just because they were on the radio/TV) was about a day after reading Nick Kent's 1975 NME article.

[Bicyclerider]

I Get Around was the first hit I took notice of (and bought the single).

I didn't follow them (or buy any of the catalogue) until Pet Sounds which I purchased (along with Revolver) in a London record shop in August 66.  Then I was hooked and bought every new release and started completing a collection of the earlier records.