The Beach Boys

The Beach Boys were the idea of three Wilson brothers, Brian, Carl and Dennis, their cousin Mike Love and school friend Al Jardine. Their first popular song Surfin' was released by the locallabel. It was welcomed so nicely, that, thanks to this track, the band entered the Billboard charts. Shortly after, Capitol Records managers took notice of the young men and offered them a contract. In 1962, they started cooperation. Within the following year and a half, The Beach Boys released as many as four albums. Ten songs from them became national bestsellers, and yet the hard work took its toll on the health of the main creative figure on the band – Brian Wilson, who was also working for Jan and Dean. In 1963, the young group's fame reached the shores of the UK, whose local music heroes were pushed aside by the single Surfin' USA. However, The Beach Boys surrendered their throne to the British invaders of the USA. The band did it best to resist the intervention and recorded three more albums in 1964, all in vain. The Beatles and their followers made The Beach Boys share their pie of glory. Brian alone wrote the whole material for the new CD Pet Sounds (1966). This record ruined the expectations of the local music lovers, who waited to hear the trademark music of The Beach Boys and bought up the album in a blink of an eye. Eventually, the new album was a commercial failure in the States while having critical acclaim across the Atlantic.

Brian's strong nervous tension aggravated his health troubles and put an end to his performing with the band. It caused the first substitutions in The Beach Boys lineup. Overcoming the hardships, the band released an undisputable masterpiece, Good Vibrations (1966). This song topped many prestigious charts, including the American Billboard. Meanwhile, the members of The Beach Boys experienced growing conflicts on musical basis. Some wanted to continue the pop line, and the others strived to experiment and innovate. Moreover, Brian's condition was constantly getting worse on the background of his drug addiction. All these factors influenced the next albums Smiley Smile, and Wild Honey (both 1967), which did not succeed. This coincided with Brian's taking to his bed seriously ill. In 1969, The Beach Boys parted with Capitol Records. Their following release Sunflower (1970) repeated the lot of the band's last works, which forced them to go on a large tour across the States to bring back the lost positions. However, the idea of these concerts together with the double The Beach Boys in Concert (1972) proved to be a disaster. Such failures made it surprising that the Endless Summer (1974) compilation remained one of the American chart-toppers for 149 weeks.

In 1976, having passed the rehabilitating courses, Brian became the full-time member of The Beach Boys again, but the other brothers had their own troubles with drugs. In 1983, the band suffered a tragedy – Dennis Wilson, the drummer, drowned after a dive from his friend's boat. In 1985, The Beach Boys recorded the album of the same name and seemed to make progress again. However, it was only a short-period tendency. Still, their studio activity was extremely poor. They managed to record only two albums in 90's - Summer In Paradise (1992) and Stars and Stripes, Vol. 1 (1996). It was the session for the latter, when Brian Wilson, Carl Wilson and Al Jardine reunited for the last time. After Carl Wilson's death of lung cancer in 1998, the band practically collapsed. Time and again, the musicians attempted to bring back the good old days. However, for the last two decades, they caused sensations rather by participating in court battles claiming their copyrights and unpaid royalties, than by playing and making music. All these years The Beach Boys have been drawing attention only thanks to their glorious past.