Have you ever heard "This Whole World"?

Right @tablejockey, The Beach Boys appeared during the era of the Girl Groups, The Four Seasons, the teen idol Pop singers, instrumental Surf music (I loved The Ventures), Paul Revere & The Raiders, etc., and they continued to be associated with that era after the British Invasion killed the careers of almost all those American entertainers.

But Brian Wilson was no mere entertainer, as everyone in the music business knew. He was progressing musically at light speed, and his Pet Sounds compositions and production (unlike The Beatles, who relied upon George Martin, Brian did it all himself while the other Beach Boys were on the road) took everyone by surprise, especially Paul McCartney. But I was just a 14-year old kid, oblivious to all of that.

The British Invasion groups were much "tougher" sounding than the angelic Beach Boys, Brian’s falsetto vocals harkening back to the sounds of the early-60’s. The All Summer Long album was the last of theirs I bought, ignoring the Today and Summer Days (And Summer Nights) albums. I was listening to The Yardbirds, The Animals, Manfred Mann, etc. and of course The Beatles and Stones.

As far as I was concerned, The Beach Boys were history, no longer of interest. The new American bands---The Byrds, The Lovin’ Spoonful, The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Buffalo Springfield, Moby Grape, The Airplane, etc.---and then Cream, Hendrix, and Procol Harum---are who I was listening to when "Good Vibrations" appeared on the radio. I dug it, but didn’t even consider buying the album it was on. I considered The Beach Boys a singles Pop group, not a Rock band.

Then in early-’68 a guy I knew at school gave me copies of the Smiley Smile and Wild Honey albums. I got high and listened to them, and couldn’t believe what I was hearing! I later read the article about the Smile album in Crawdaddy Magazine, written by Paul Williams (not the singer-songwriter), and thus began my obsession with Brian Wilson. That 2-part Smile article by Williams later appeared as two chapters in his great book Outlaw Blues, a must read.

@pjr801, Holland also contains a pretty good song with music by Brian, "Sail On, Sailor". Lyrics by Brian’s Smile collaborator Van Dyke Parks. The title, by the way, is a play on words: Sail On = Ceylon, the ancient name for what is now Sri Lanka. That darn Van Dyke. ;-)

The bonus 45 included with the first pressing of Holland is a trip, pretty surreal.

Then there is the Carl & The Passions: So Tough album (Carl & The Passions was Brian and Mike Love’s High School band’s name), which includes a great song by Brian: "Marcella".

And be sure to give a listen to a wonderful song on the Surf’s Up album, both music and lyrics by Brian: "Til I Die". On the Bernstein TV special, the host/narrator discusses the album’s title song, and Brian is seen performing it on the grand piano in his Bel-Air living room, the piano famously sitting inside a giant sandbox. The living room also for a time had a tent pitched in it, where band "smoking sessions" and meetings were held. Ah, good ol’ LSD. ;-)

@tablejockey, I listened to All Summer Long every day after it was released in July of ’64, making out with my blonde girlfriend as it played. Later that Summer we both went to the San Jose Civic Auditorium to see The Beach Boys live. When Brian sang "and she makes love to me" during "Don’t Worry Baby" (another fantastic song), every girl in the Auditorium screamed. It was at that moment I decided to become a musician. ;-)

The Foothill Club was a great one, Rockabilly and other roots music every night of the week. You remember I mentioned playing a show there with Don & Dewey? They were label mates with Little Richard on Specialty Records, and Don "Sugarcane" Harris was later in Zappa’s band for a while. After the gig Dewey came up to me and said "I like your style." This from a man who had Earl Palmer on his recordings!

@roxy54 and @three_easy_payments: Well, I tried. ;-) Allow me to encourage you to go back to YouTube, and listen to the remastered listing of "This Whole World". After that song ends, "God Only Knows" automatically comes up. That song contains not only a great melody (not to mention an astounding chord progression), but as the song slowly fades out, you will hear The Beach Boys singing what in Classical music is called a Fugue.

Recording with the songwriter I mentioned up above, I got a free introduction to music theory and composition. He was a music major at San Jose State, transferring down to The University Of California Riverside for advanced studies. The hardest thing I ever had to learn to do was sing one of the three Fugue vocal parts he wrote into one of his songs. J.S. Bach is the Fugue master, but Brian is pretty good at it himself. ;-)

@edcyn, when Brian's debut solo album came out, there was a record release signing event at Tower Records on Sunset Blvd. In addition to the CD, I brought my 7" 45 RPM copy of "Caroline, No" for him to sign. Though included on the Pet Sounds album as a Beach Boys track, the 45 was released under Brian's name. At the event, I handed the single to Brian, and as he gazed at it, a heartbreaking look of wistful longing crossed his face. I came close to crying.

I too couldn't get into Pet Sounds at first, it sounding like "girls" music to me ;-) . It was only after I was exposed to J.S. Bach (by a great songwriter I recorded with in the mid-70's) that I finally "got" it. "God Only Knows" is now my favorite song. As close to genius as any Pop writer has ever gotten. Others, including Leon Russell and Elton John, aren't as conditional as I.  

@roxy54, as always, what you hear in music is that which you listen for. Most songs written by members of Rock bands have chord progression/structures pedestrian at best. Brian’s are the rare, welcome exception. Jackson Browne and Randy Newman have written some fine ones too. A song with the base of a great chord arrangement is something I’m always listening for, and rarely hear, especially in Rock. I go to J.S. Bach when I want a heavy dose. ;-)

@limomangus, I love Wild Honey too, but that is more a Carl Wilson album than a Brian Wilson one. I discovered both Smiley Smile and Wild Honey in early-’68, and my teen combo learned both "Darlin’" and "How She Boogalooed It" off the album, playing it in High Schools, Teen Clubs, and Frat Houses (those at Stanford University in Palo Alto in particular) around the South Bay.

The Beach Boys were my first live concert, at The San Jose Civic in the Summer of ’64. My second was The Beatles at The Cow Palace in S. San Francisco a year later. After that it was up to the Fillmore Auditorium and Carousel Ballroom to see Cream, Hendrix, and The Who. None of those bands had songwriters who knew anything about advanced chord structure, the use of inversion, or superior melodies and harmonies. They were good musicians, mediocre writers. IMO, of course.