If anybody is aware of something about the Seaside Boys, it’s about their distinctive vocal harmonies, courtesy of brothers Brian, Carl and Dennis Wilson, together with cousin Mike Love, buddy Al Jardine and, later, Bruce Johnston. Then, how Brian composed a few of the most formidable pop music ever identified, with a view to enable the Seaside Boys collectively to shine.
But the group additionally had a knack for reinventing different individuals’s songs in their very own distinctive fashion. Our playlist celebrates 15 of the perfect examples of the group’s powers of interpretation.
The Seaside Boys’ early albums noticed them working via their rock’n’roll influences, recording covers of Eddie Cochran’s “Summertime Blues,” plus the title observe to their 1963 US No.2 album, Surfin’ USA. The latter, a No.3 US single, ultimately noticed Chuck Berry obtain a co-credit, since Brian Wilson had primarily written new lyrics to Berry’s 1958 traditional, “Sweet Little Sixteen.”
As Wilson’s personal songwriting and composition abilities grew, nonetheless, so did his formidable method to covers. By the point he turned to “Why Do Fools Fall In Love,” initially made well-known in 1956 by doo-wop icons Frankie Lymon & the Youngsters, Wilson was additionally recording for the primary time with the famed Wrecking Crew, the session group behind numerous 60s pop classics. Launched on Shut Down Quantity 2 (and likewise showing on the B-side of “Fun, Fun, Fun,” the Seaside Boys’ US No.5 single, launched in 1964), their model of “Why Do Fools Fall In Love” paved the best way for additional grand preparations.
These included Bobby Freeman’s “Do You Want To Dance” and the Phil Spector/Ellie Greenwich/Jeff Barry traditional “Then He Kissed Me” (re-recorded by Wilson and co as “Then I Kissed Her”). The group would revisit {the catalogue} of Spector, Brian’s hero, a number of years later, when Carl oversaw a euphoric model of “I Can Hear Music” for the Seaside Boys’ 1969 album, 20/20.
Even with just some acoustic guitars and their voices, nonetheless, the group have been fascinating. Launched as a single in 1965, the feelgood “Barbara Ann” has develop into probably the most well-known observe from the Seaside Boys’ Social gathering! album. However their model of the Rivingtons’ “Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow” reveals that, by this stage of their profession, the group have been already in a position to throw infectious harmonies collectively on the drop of a hat.
Wilson was at his most formidable throughout the Smile classes, however he was ceaselessly conscious of pop music’s wealthy historical past, reaching again to the pre-war track “You Are My Sunshine,” for which Dennis supplied one of many extra maudlin lead vocals within the group’s catalog. This period of pop music continued to encourage the group, as additionally they took two stabs at Lead Stomach’s 1940 folks traditional “Cotton Fields”: one recorded for 20/20, with Brian on the helm, and a second model, launched as a single in 1970, with Al Jardine teasing a extra overtly nation efficiency from the group, which took the track to No.5 within the UK.
Later within the 70s, the Seaside Boys have been nonetheless mining their earliest influences, referring to the Phil Spector association of the Righteous Brothers’ “Just Once In My Life” for his or her 1976 album, 15 Huge Ones. That LP additionally had them making a brand new go to to Chuck Berry’s catalog for a spirited model of “Rock and Roll Music.”
The band would proceed to play rock’n’roll-era classics on tour all through the 70s and 80s, however, in 1986, they recorded a 60s folk-rock traditional that, actually, they may nicely have penned themselves. The Seaside Boys’ devoted rendering of “California Dreamin’”, initially a 1965 No.4 US hit for the Mamas And The Papas, was included on their Made In USA compilation and likewise issued as a single. That includes Roger McGuinn of the Byrds on 12-string guitar, it hyperlinks three of the best West Coast icons of the Nineteen Sixties and supplies a becoming near our Seaside Boys covers playlist.
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