Beach Boys' Party!
Encyclopedia
Beach Boys' Party! is an album of cover songs (featuring acoustic instruments) by American
rock and roll
band The Beach Boys
that was marketed during the lucrative Christmas season
. The original album release included a sheet of photographs of the band 'appearing' to be at the party at hand. It was The Beach Boys
' tenth album release, and their third in 1965. Although it was recorded in a music studio, it is presented as an impromptu live recording
of a party.
In August, after the release of Summer Days (and Summer Nights!!)
, The Beach Boys' leader Brian Wilson
was contemplating his next studio album, which would turn out to be Pet Sounds
. Capitol Records
requested a new album for the holiday season (and "Pet Sounds" could not be finished in time for that). Since a live album, Beach Boys Concert
, had already been released the previous year, the "live party" idea was selected. (Also, the Beach Boys already had had a Christmas album, and it was felt that a "greatest hits" compilation would signal that the Beach Boys' career was coming to an end.) Sporadically during September, the band and their friends rehearsed current and older hits (including revisiting The Rivingtons
' "Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow"). Although presented as a live recording, the individual songs were recorded carefully, and laughter and background chatter was mixed in during post-production.
The album included versions of The Beatles
' "Tell Me Why", "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away" and "I Should Have Known Better", The Everly Brothers
' "Devoted To You", Phil Spector
's "There's No Other (Like My Baby)" and a send-up of their own "I Get Around" and "Little Deuce Coupe".
Beach Boys' Party! was meant as a fun album created without a single, because Wilson was readying "The Little Girl I Once Knew
" for single release concurrently with the album. Several other songs were also recorded, but not put on the album. This included a rendition of The Beatles' song "Ticket To Ride
", three takes of The Rolling Stones
"(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
", a version of Bob Dylan
's "Blowin' in the Wind
" and the song "Riot In Cell Block #9
" (which would later be played live in the early 1970s, and then became "Student Demonstration Time
" on the Beach Boys' Surf's Up album), and several other songs, all of which can be found on bootlegs.
The new single's inventive use of silence was disliked by radio programmers, causing "The Little Girl I Once Knew" to stop at US #20. The last track of Party!, a cover of The Regents
' "Barbara Ann", which radio disc jockeys around the country had started playing straight off the "Party" album and getting good listeners response was promptly issued as a single by Capitol when they started hearing from radio programmers, and became a #2 hit in early 1966.
Beach Boys' Party! reached #6 in the US (though it never went gold). Beach Boys' Party! and the surprise hit single "Barbara Ann" became The Beach Boys' biggest successes yet in the UK, both reaching #3 in early 1966 and making them stars in The Beatles' homeland.
Beach Boys' Party! is now paired on CD with Stack-O-Tracks
with bonus instrumental tracks.
Beach Boys' Party! (Capitol (D) MAS 2398) hit #6 in the US during a chart stay of 24 weeks. It reached #3 in the UK in March 1966.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
band The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys are an American rock band, formed in 1961 in Hawthorne, California. The group was initially composed of brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Managed by the Wilsons' father Murry, The Beach Boys signed to Capitol Records in 1962...
that was marketed during the lucrative Christmas season
Christmas season
Christmastide is one of the seasons of the liturgical year of most Christian churches. It tends to be defined as the period from Christmas Eve to the evening of 5 January, the day before Epiphany...
. The original album release included a sheet of photographs of the band 'appearing' to be at the party at hand. It was The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys are an American rock band, formed in 1961 in Hawthorne, California. The group was initially composed of brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Managed by the Wilsons' father Murry, The Beach Boys signed to Capitol Records in 1962...
' tenth album release, and their third in 1965. Although it was recorded in a music studio, it is presented as an impromptu live recording
Live album
A live album is a recording consisting of material recorded during stage performances using remote recording techniques, commonly contrasted with a studio album...
of a party.
In August, after the release of Summer Days (and Summer Nights!!)
Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!)
- Singles :* "Help Me, Rhonda" b/w "Kiss Me Baby" , 5 April 1965 US #1; UK #27* "California Girls" b/w "Let Him Run Wild" , 12 July 1965 US #3; UK #26- References :...
, The Beach Boys' leader Brian Wilson
Brian Wilson
Brian Douglas Wilson is an American musician, best known as the leader and chief songwriter of the group The Beach Boys. Within the band, Wilson played bass and keyboards, also providing part-time lead vocals and, more often, backing vocals, harmonizing in falsetto with the group...
was contemplating his next studio album, which would turn out to be Pet Sounds
Pet Sounds
Pet Sounds is the eleventh studio album by the American rock band The Beach Boys, released May 16, 1966, on Capitol Records. It has since been recognized as one of the most influential records in the history of popular music and one of the best albums of the 1960s, including songs such as "Wouldn't...
. Capitol Records
Capitol Records
Capitol Records is a major United States based record label, formerly located in Los Angeles, but operating in New York City as part of Capitol Music Group. Its former headquarters building, the Capitol Tower, is a major landmark near the corner of Hollywood and Vine...
requested a new album for the holiday season (and "Pet Sounds" could not be finished in time for that). Since a live album, Beach Boys Concert
Beach Boys Concert
Beach Boys Concert is a live album by The Beach Boys, released in 1964. It is their seventh album in all, and their third alone in the same year...
, had already been released the previous year, the "live party" idea was selected. (Also, the Beach Boys already had had a Christmas album, and it was felt that a "greatest hits" compilation would signal that the Beach Boys' career was coming to an end.) Sporadically during September, the band and their friends rehearsed current and older hits (including revisiting The Rivingtons
The Rivingtons
The Rivingtons were a 1960s doo-wop group. The group members were:lead vocalist Carl White , tenor Al Frazier , baritone Sonny Harris, and bass singer Turner "Rocky" Wilson Jr.. Frazier was replaced by Madero White for a period in the late 1970s.-History:Their first hit was "Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow"...
' "Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow"). Although presented as a live recording, the individual songs were recorded carefully, and laughter and background chatter was mixed in during post-production.
The album included versions of The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
' "Tell Me Why", "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away" and "I Should Have Known Better", The Everly Brothers
The Everly Brothers
The Everly Brothers are country-influenced rock and roll performers, known for steel-string guitar playing and close harmony singing...
' "Devoted To You", Phil Spector
Phil Spector
Phillip Harvey "Phil" Spector is an American record producer and songwriter, later known for his conviction in the murder of actress Lana Clarkson....
's "There's No Other (Like My Baby)" and a send-up of their own "I Get Around" and "Little Deuce Coupe".
Beach Boys' Party! was meant as a fun album created without a single, because Wilson was readying "The Little Girl I Once Knew
The Little Girl I Once Knew
"The Little Girl I Once Knew" is a song written by Brian Wilson for the American rock band The Beach Boys. It was released in November 1965 as a single 45 rpm, backed by "There's No Other ", and reached #15 on the Cash Box chart, #20 on Billboard...
" for single release concurrently with the album. Several other songs were also recorded, but not put on the album. This included a rendition of The Beatles' song "Ticket To Ride
Ticket to Ride
"Ticket to Ride" is a song by The Beatles from their 1965 album, Help!. It was recorded 15 February 1965 and released two months later. -Composition:...
", three takes of The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
"(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
" Satisfaction" is a song by the English rock band The Rolling Stones, released in 1965. It was written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards and produced by Andrew Loog Oldham. Richards's throwaway three-note guitar riff — intended to be replaced by horns — opens and drives the song...
", a version of Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
's "Blowin' in the Wind
Blowin' in the Wind
"Blowin' in the Wind" is a song written by Bob Dylan and released on his album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan in 1963. Although it has been described as a protest song, it poses a series of questions about peace, war and freedom...
" and the song "Riot In Cell Block #9
Riot In Cell Block Nine
"Riot In Cell Block #9" is a classic and pervasive R&B song composed by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller.In this song, a man is serving his sentence in federal prison for armed robbery. At 4:00 AM on July 2, 1953, he wakes up to a rather alarming disturbance: a jail riot! It started in cell block #4...
" (which would later be played live in the early 1970s, and then became "Student Demonstration Time
Student Demonstration Time
"Student Demonstration Time" is a song which was recorded by the American rock band The Beach Boys. The original song, titled "Riot In Cell Block Nine", was originally written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, and was regularly performed by The Beach Boys in concert starting in 1969...
" on the Beach Boys' Surf's Up album), and several other songs, all of which can be found on bootlegs.
The new single's inventive use of silence was disliked by radio programmers, causing "The Little Girl I Once Knew" to stop at US #20. The last track of Party!, a cover of The Regents
The Regents
The Regents were an American doo-wop vocal group from New York, operating in the late 1950s and early 1960s.They are best known for writing and recording the hit "Barbara Ann" in 1961, which reached #13 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart...
' "Barbara Ann", which radio disc jockeys around the country had started playing straight off the "Party" album and getting good listeners response was promptly issued as a single by Capitol when they started hearing from radio programmers, and became a #2 hit in early 1966.
Beach Boys' Party! reached #6 in the US (though it never went gold). Beach Boys' Party! and the surprise hit single "Barbara Ann" became The Beach Boys' biggest successes yet in the UK, both reaching #3 in early 1966 and making them stars in The Beatles' homeland.
Track listing
Singles
- "Barbara Ann" b/w "Girl Don't Tell Me" (from Summer Days (and Summer Nights!!)Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!)- Singles :* "Help Me, Rhonda" b/w "Kiss Me Baby" , 5 April 1965 US #1; UK #27* "California Girls" b/w "Let Him Run Wild" , 12 July 1965 US #3; UK #26- References :...
(Capitol 5561), 20 December 1965, US #2; UK #3
Beach Boys' Party! is now paired on CD with Stack-O-Tracks
Stack-O-Tracks
Stack-O-Tracks is an album release by The Beach Boys containing the backing tracks to fifteen of their songs spanning their career to that point. Considered little more than a penny pincher when it came out, Stack-O-Tracks turned out to be a very educational album for those who wanted to know what...
with bonus instrumental tracks.
Beach Boys' Party! (Capitol (D) MAS 2398) hit #6 in the US during a chart stay of 24 weeks. It reached #3 in the UK in March 1966.
Influence
- In 1997, the Canadian Indie Rock group SloanSloan (band)Sloan is a Toronto-based alternative rock quartet from Halifax, Nova Scotia. Throughout their 20-year tenure Sloan has released 10 LPs , two EPs, a live album, a "best of" collection and no less than thirty singles...
, released an EP entitled Recorded Live at a Sloan Party!Live at a Sloan Party!Recorded Live at a Sloan Party! was a rare album release by Sloan; it was released in the United States in 1996 as a bonus album to March Records' release of One Chord to Another. [In the US: packaged with initial pressings through The Enclave label]...
(a.k.a. The Party Album) as a bonus disc to the U.S. release of One Chord To Another in homage to the Beach Boys' Party! LP. Like the Beach Boys' Party! album, Recorded Live At A Sloan Party! mixes acoustic versions of old classics and songs originally written and recorded by other artists, and presents a supposed gathering that was actually constructed in the studio.
- Rivers CuomoRivers CuomoRivers Cuomo is an American musician, best known as the lead singer, lead guitarist, and principal songwriter of the alternative rock band Weezer. Raised in an Ashram in Connecticut, Cuomo moved to Los Angeles at age 19, where he participated in a number of rock bands before founding Weezer in 1992...
revealed that the Beach Boys' Party! album inspired Weezer'sWeezerWeezer is an American alternative rock band. The band currently consists of Rivers Cuomo , Patrick Wilson , Brian Bell , and Scott Shriner . The band has changed lineups three times since its formation in 1992...
2008 "Hootenanny Tour," in which fans would be invited to bring their own instruments to play along with the band. Cuomo also named it as his favorite all-time Summer album in a July 2008 issue of Entertainment WeeklyEntertainment WeeklyEntertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
.
- In 2003, NetherlandsNetherlandsThe Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
pop-punk band Travoltas released Party! in homage to the Beach Boys' Party! which includes acoustic covers of Beach Boys and other surf-rock tracks. Like the original Beach Boys' Party! album and subsequent tribute albums (e.g. Live at a Sloan Party!Live at a Sloan Party!Recorded Live at a Sloan Party! was a rare album release by Sloan; it was released in the United States in 1996 as a bonus album to March Records' release of One Chord to Another. [In the US: packaged with initial pressings through The Enclave label]...
), the album includes the ambient sounds of a party, spontaneous-sounding singalongs, glasses clanking, etc.
Sources
- The Nearest Faraway Place: Brian Wilson, The Beach Boys and the Southern California Experience, Timothy White, c. 1994.
- Wouldn't It Be Nice - My Own Story, Brian WilsonBrian WilsonBrian Douglas Wilson is an American musician, best known as the leader and chief songwriter of the group The Beach Boys. Within the band, Wilson played bass and keyboards, also providing part-time lead vocals and, more often, backing vocals, harmonizing in falsetto with the group...
and Todd Gold, c. 1991. - "Top Pop Singles 1955-2001", Joel Whitburn, c. 2002.
- "Top Pop Albums 1955-2001", Joel Whitburn, c. 2002.