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By Howie Edelson
Without a doubt by 1964, The Beach Boys were consistently breaking new musical ground, scoring monster era-defining hits that reshaped the sounds of the Top 40. It was a new morning for America and through their songs, the band held a toehold on the hearts and imaginations of youth across the globe. Amazingly, The Beach Boys issued an astounding 51 new tracks over the year – and that was in addition to a plethora of domestic and international concerts as well as high profile TV and film appearances that brought the band’s name, faces, and music into millions of homes.
March 2nd, 1964, saw the release of the band’s fifth long player in 17 months, the unforgettable, Shut Down Volume 2, which peaked at Number 13 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. The group was forced to adopt the awkward “Volume 2” title as its moniker after their label Capitol Records beat them to the punch by releasing Shut Down -- a 1963 compilation featuring assorted automotive and hot rod songs.
Despite the bedlam created by “Beatlemania,” America’s top act proved they were more than up for the challenge and kicked off the set with their Top Five smash “Fun, Fun, Fun” – a Brian Wilson / Mike Love song for the ages that more often than not has served as the closing song of The Beach Boys’ legendary live shows. A tune passed down through the generations, “Fun, Fun, Fun” remains without a doubt one of the cousins’ greatest collaborations, an ultimate calling card for youth, and one of the most instantly memorable and beloved rock singles of all time.
The album also featured the breathtaking “Don’t Worry Baby,” co-written by Brian Wilson and Roger Christian. Although seemingly about a driver’s doubts prior to a drag race, it mirrored Brian’s concerns with the state of his creative life and career – along with the pain, fear, and indecision that came from it.
One of the most poignant moments on the Shut Down Volume 2 album is “The Warmth Of The Sun.” Written around the time of President Kennedy’s assassination, it took the anguish of the tragedy and transformed the emotion into one of the most beautiful and heartbreaking love songs of all time.
Mike Love explained to us how the song combined the despair of a broken heart with the first national tragedy of the 1960's: “'The Warmth Of The Sun' is one of the more beautiful songs I think we've ever done. . . Well, I wrote the lyrics to that, Brian did the music. And we wrote it one night in 1963 (after) we were awakened with the news that President Kennedy had been shot in Dallas. And so obviously, that song has a melancholy sadness. And we didn't change the lyrics at that point, I had written them down. But it was about losing someone you love, but at least you had had the feeling of having been in love.”
Brian Wilson recalled the collaboration with affection, remembering, “In my opinion ‘The Warmth Of The Sun’ lyrics are probably the most beautiful Mike has ever written and it’s one of the prettiest songs I ever made. We dedicated it to President Kennedy and I tried to sing it sweetly, attempting to capture the sound of an angel.”
Dennis Wilson was often overwhelmed by the power of his brother’s musicality and genius while imparting pure emotion into sound: “We would be in the studio and Brian would play us a song that was so beautiful that we would start crying. It was like, ‘How could this be happening?’ There wasn't one person in the group that could come close to Brian's talent.”
Later that same year, on July 13th, 1964, Capitol Records released All Summer Long. Most famously, the LP, produced by Brian Wilson, contained the band’s first Number One single – the massive two-week chart-topper “I Get Around” and featured seven other collaborations between Wilson and his cousin and frontman, Mike Love. All Summer Long hit the Top 10 of the Billboard 200 albums chart on August 15th, entering at Number Seven before peaking at Number Four for a solid month and staying in the Billboard Top 10 for 16 weeks. Coincidentally, the week it fell out of the Top 10, the band’s sole Number One album of the 1960’s – Beach Boys Concert – kicked off its month-long reign on top of the Billboard 200.
Over the decades, All Summer Long has been considered not only the greatest concept album about California youth – but a global calling card for American life. The group captured their times perfectly with a collection steeped in hope, promise, and real excitement. The Beach Boys were standing tall as the British Invasion flooded the U.S. airwaves and could pride themselves as being among America’s most innovative songwriters and progressive record makers.
As Brian Wilson remembered: “1964 seemed like more than one year. We played more than 100 shows, all over the world, and recorded all or parts of four albums. We had our first number one hit with ‘I Get Around’ in May. The flip side of ‘I Get Around’, ‘Don’t Worry Baby’, might be one of the best songs I ever wrote. I thought it could be the follow-up to ‘Be My Baby’ for Ronnie Spector, but Phil Spector didn’t go for it.”
Lyricist Mike Love took the lead on the track and recalled hearing his cousin’s latest musical ideas for the first time: “In April (1964), Brian invited us to his office on 9000 Sunset in Hollywood and played us some new tracks, which revealed how much he was progressing as a composer. He employed unusual chord progressions to create ‘fake modulations,’ which is when you think a song is moving into a different key but it stays in the same key. Brian also combined chords that do not occur naturally in the same key, which was rarely done in pop music, yet they fit together beautifully. ‘I Get Around’ was an unbelievable arrangement; the song jumped out of the radio. Brian was developing musically and ‘I Get Around’ was a transitional record that took us from ‘Little Deuce Coupe’ and ‘Shut Down’ to something more like Pet Sounds and ‘Good Vibrations.’”
By utilizing the band’s ballad “Don’t Worry Baby” from earlier in the year as the B-side to “I Get Around” the band created an unbeatable emotional yin and yang that was irresistible to the public. Al Jardine shed light on the strength of The Beach Boys’ first chart-topper: “We had so many great B-sides. We often put out competitive pieces on the other side. We didn’t have as many Number One singles as The Beatles, but we might have if we’d put clunkers on the other side.”
Brian Wilson looks back with fondness and pride in the All Summer Long album: “(It) was a turning point in understanding how to write for the band. There was a real maturing of our sound on that record. There’s a start-stop cadence on ‘I Get Around’ with a driving bass. Nobody had done a record like that before. There’s a great instrumental break on the title song, all these subtle shifts that then feed back into a stellar group harmony.”
Had they gotten the nod, tunes like the title track, “Little Honda,” “Don’t Back Down,” “Girls On The Beach,” “Wendy” – all would’ve easily scored the band solid Top 10 smashes.
Carl Wilson, who at this point was learning the ropes in the studio by shadowing his big brother Brian in the studio, spoke of the band’s output during this era: “The music on the face of it is very simple and there was a time when people thought it was a little silly. However, musically speaking, a lot of it is quite deep and complex. I mean, it was about going to the beach and having a car and the American experience, but a lot of the songs are master works.”
The Beach Boys continued to score throughout ’64 with “When I Grow Up (To Be A Man)” – Wilson / Love’s wise-beyond-their-years bittersweet look at the tail-end of adolescence, and the pair’s team-up with Carl Wilson on their final hit of the year, the forever rocking, “Dance, Dance, Dance.”
In that one year, the Wilson / Love hit machine had score five Top 10 hits – including their first chart-topper – with the band issuing no less than four new albums as different as they were historic. Beach Boys Concert – the band’s first chart-topping album – was recorded in front of nearly 4,000 screaming fans at Sacramento’s Memorial Auditorium and showcased a more dangerous side of the band. The Concert LP provided a perfect snapshot of the ‘striped shirts’ era and clearly resonated with fans who either caught The Beach Boys when they last hit town or desperately wished they had. Unbelievably, Beach Boys Concert was the group’s only Number One album of the Sixties, holding down the top spot for a solid month.
For the Christmas season of ’64, Brian Wilson – who was clearly burning the candle at both ends – produced the holiday perennial The Beach Boys’ Christmas Album as an answer, of sorts, to the previous year’s A Christmas Gift for You From Phil Spector. Building on 1963’s “Little Saint Nick,” in addition to holiday evergreens, the band included a total of five original numbers – including such favorites as “The Man With All The Toys,” “Merry Christmas, Baby” and “Christmas Day.”
The Beach Boys have always been a band for all seasons – with the fall and winter months both full of music and incredible history.
That said, as we say goodbye to September, as the man sang. . .
And as we look at the future
Though it be through a tear
Keep an eye on Summer this year