The Beach Boys 50th Anniversary Tour is set to surf across North America and is the first time in more than two decades that Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine, Bruce Johnston and David Marks are touring together.The band, who performed together at the 2012 Grammy Awards, will also release a new studio album and commemorative 50th Anniversary catalog with Capitol/EMI. The Beach Boys and Capitol/EMI have also teamed up for a 50th Anniversary campaign spotlighting the band’s entire catalog, with several new commemorative releases planned for 2012, including a new hits collection and a career-spanning box set.
For five decades, America’s first pop band to reach the 50 year milestone has recorded and performed the music that has become the world’s favorite soundtrack to summer. The Beach Boys continue to hold Billboard / Nielsen SoundScan’s record as the top-selling American band for albums and singles, and they are also the American group with the most Billboard Top 40 chart hits with 36. “Sounds of Summer: The Very Best of the Beach Boys” is fast approaching triple-platinum sales status, and :The SMiLE Sessions”, released to worldwide critical acclaim in November, has been heralded as 2011’s #1 Reissue of the Year by Rolling Stone magazine.
Formed in 1961 in Hawthorne, California, the group was initially composed of brothers Brian, Carl and Dennis Wilson, their cousin Mike Love and friend Al Jardine. Managed by the Wilsons’ father, the Beach Boys signed with Capitol Records in 1962 and released their debut, “Surfin’ Safari”. The band’s early music gained popularity across the nation for its close vocal harmonies and lyrics reflecting a Southern California youth culture of surfing, cars, and romance.
A similarly themed follow-up, “Surfin’ U.S.A.”, hit the Top Ten in early 1963. The third Beach Boys LP also released in 1963, “Surfer Girl”, featured the title track, “Catch a Wave,” and “In My Room.”
The following year, “I Get Around” became the first #1 hit for the Beach Boys. Riding a crest of popularity, the 1964 LP “Beach Boys Concert” spent four weeks at the top of the album charts, just one of five Beach Boys albums simultaneously on the charts. The single “Help Me, Rhonda” became the Beach Boys’ second chart-topper in early 1965. Other releases including “The Beach Boys Today!”, “Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!)” and “Beach Boys’ Party” followed in 1965. The singles “California Girls” and “Barbara Ann” became surprise hits. The band reached its peak in 1966 with “Pet Sounds” and the #1 single “Good Vibrations.”
In 1974, Capitol Records issued a repackaged hit collection, “Endless Summer”. The double LP hit #1, spent almost three years on the charts, and went gold. That year, Rolling Stone magazine named the Beach Boys its “Band of the Year.” Another collection, “Spirit of America”, hit the Top Ten in 1974. By the end of the decade, though, the group splintered.
It was not until the tragic drowning death of Dennis Wilson in 1983 that the group reformed, and in 1985, the Beach Boys released a self-titled album which returned them to the Top 40 with “Getcha Back.” It would be the last proper Beach Boys album of the ’80s, however, despite the success of the single “Kokomo,” from the soundtrack to the film COCKTAIL that hit #1 in the U.S. in 1988.
The Beach Boys core quintet of the three Wilsons, Love and Jardine was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998.
The Beach Boys’ 50th Anniversary 40+ city tour, which will begin in April 2012, will also feature a headlining date at New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival on April 27th and a performance at The Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival on June 10th.
The Beach Boys will be at the Seminole Hard Rock Live in Hollywood, Florida on Friday May 4, 2012.
