The Beach Boys Sing In Flawless Harmony Bringing Contemporary 'Autotune' Singers To Shame

Jun 27, 2020 by apost team

It certainly is difficult to believe that it has been about six decades since The Beach Boys released what would become their first hit, Surfin’ USA, in November 1961. Their gorgeous blended harmonies have been unmatched since the Babyboomer band took hold, and they have yet to be rivaled in today’s music scene. Some have even claimed that the pipes of the beach-loving bunch sustained a larger range and higher quality than their British contemporaries, The Beatles. In a live video from the early 1960s, that inimitable talent is certainly on display.

While fifty-plus years of fans can vouch for The Beatles as the best band to ever form under the British crown, the All-American Beach Boys hailed from the lower Californian coast in the city of Hawthorne, as LA Weekly points out. Their signature sound stood as a testament to the surfing craze and became the sunny soundtrack to afternoons on the beach in the early 1960s. Of course, band leader Brian Wilson changed course in 1966 with the group’s experimental album, Pet Sounds. This record was influenced in part by what The Beatles were doing across the pond, and it was actually greatly appreciated by the Fab Four. Rolling Stone has even hinted that Lennon and McCartney patterned Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band on the aforementioned album.

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The band’s early surf-influenced tunes certainly featured harmonies that were beautiful, and though they may be a bit of a time capsule or an homage to a different, simpler period of time, they still contain an air of enduring charm. They are innocent, yet they capture the carefree joy and biting rebellion of the youth throughout the Camelot years.

Amazingly, kids as young as sixteen in the year 2020 are still really enjoying timeless classics like Surfin’ USA, just as much as their grandparents did at that same age when the song was first released. You must wonder if brothers Brian, Carl, and Dennis Wilson, along with their cousin Mike Love and good friend Al Jardine, knew just how much of an impact their music would have for generations to come. For Carl and Dennis, this popularity continues on even after their untimely deaths.

The unique vocal stylings of Brian set The Beach Boys' songs apart from other music released in that time period. Similar to his brother Carl, he has a soothing, if not surprising, falsetto that branded the group’s early offerings. Surfin' USA also has a catchy beat and cool bass that is immediately identifiable with the premier California boy band of the early 1960s.

However, by the mid-1960s, times were changing, and Brian Wilson, the group leader and member that usually wrote the group’s material, was growing up and adapting to the new sounds that were becoming popular. Using lo-fi techniques as well as Phil Spector’s “Wall of Sound” technique, Wilson and the Beach Boys created a wonderful masterpiece with their Pet Sounds album released in May 1966, as pointed out by Ultimate Classic Rock. It contained what is considered one of the most beautiful songs ever written in God Only Knows, with his brother Carl singing lead.

Encouraged, Wilson got to work on what would probably become the group’s most famous single (prior to the 1988 release of Kokomo from the Tom Cruise movie, Cocktail). That song is, of course, Good Vibrations. Not unlike the album before it, it was composed of complex arrangements, and Wilson took musical chances that were never attempted before at that time. Carl again sang lead and Brian would never write another song that was quite as identifiable. Gone were their trademark white and red striped shirts, but with a new signature song, the group was instantly recognizable wherever they played.

People of all ages still enjoy the talents of these five young men from California, even 60 years after their first releases. What's your favorite Beach Boy's track? Let us know and pass this article on to friends and family members to keep their legacy alive.