CoronaVinyl Day 24 (Pop): Endless Summer by The Beach Boys

For an explanation of CoronaVinyl, click here.

Today's CoronaVinyl category is pop, and while I have a ton of options to choose from, I had to go with The Beach Boys, since Brian Wilson might have been the best American pop songwriter of the 1960s.  The Beach Boys were my first "favorite band," until I discovered Def Leppard.  Just because my musical tastes became broader, however, didn't mean that I turned by back on The Beach Boys.

One could make the argument that The Beach Boys are the greatest American rock and roll band of all-time, and I wouldn't necessarily disagree.  They had 15 Top 10 albums in the U.S., and 42 Top 40 songs on the Billboard Hot 100, including 17 Top 10s and four #1s.  But more than the stats, they set the standard for American pop music in the 1960s, with their catchy songs, amazing harmonies, and teenage and sun-soaked themes.

The only Beach Boys album I own on vinyl is Endless Summer, which is a 1974 double album collection of some of the band's hits from 1962 to 1965.  Endless Summer revitalized the band's popularity, hitting #1 on the album charts in both the U.S. and Canada, and eventually going triple platinum in the U.S.  It stayed on the Billboard album charts for nearly three years.  The album artwork is also pretty cool, featuring illustrations of the band, not as they looked when the songs were originally released, but rather as they did in 1974.

Favorite song from Side 1:  "Surfin' Safari"
"Surfin' Safari" is the band's first Top 40 hit, reaching #14 in 1962.  The song was recorded with David Marks, and not band member and co-founder Al Jardine, on one of the guitars.  Jardine had left the band to pursue a career in dentistry, but rejoined the band full time in 1963.  What sticks out to me on this one is Dennis Wilson's drumming.  He's got some nice fills in there that give the song some added punch.

Favorite song from Side 2:  "In My Room"
In addition to being a COVID-19 quarantine-appropriate song, 1963's "In My Room" demonstrated that Brian Wilson wasn't all surf and sun, but rather had an introspective side.  This song, co-written with Gary Usher, is slow and features those iconic Beach Boys harmonies.

Favorite song from Side 3:  "Don't Worry Baby"
This is probably my favorite Beach Boys song.  What a fantastic pop song.  Released in May 1964 as the B-side to the group's first #1 hit ("I Get Around"), "Don't Worry Baby" hit #24 on its own, but I think it's the better song.  Recorded only a month and two days before everything changed when The Beatles appeared on Ed Sullivan, Wilson tried to capture the feeling of The Ronettes' "Be My Baby," which was his favorite song.  "Don't Worry Baby" is thoughtful and pure and a little dark -- kind of a foreshadowing of the end of the California Sound era.  That was kind of Wilson's genius.  He could write these gorgeous pop songs that had these sneaky undertones of anxiety and self-doubt.  But at the end of the day, don't worry, baby, because everything will turn out all right.

Favorite song from Side 4:  "You're So Good To Me"
"You're So Good To Me" is a hidden gem.  It was originally released on the band's 1965 Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!) album, and then was later included as the B-side on the "Sloop John B" single in 1966.  It's a soulful little ditty.  (Note that "Good Vibrations" is included on the Spotify version of the album embedded below, but it is not on the vinyl version of the album.  If it was, I'd go with that.)