1.
The Beach Boys
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The Beach Boys are an American rock band formed in Hawthorne, California in 1961. The groups original lineup consisted of brothers Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, distinguished by their vocal harmonies and early surf songs, they are one of the most influential acts of the rock era. The Beach Boys began as a band managed by the Wilsons father Murry. Emerging at the vanguard of the California Sound, they performed material that reflected a southern California youth culture of surfing, cars. After 1964, they abandoned the surfing aesthetic for more personal lyrics, in 1966, the Pet Sounds album and Good Vibrations single vaulted the group to the top level of rock innovators and established the band as symbols of the nascent counterculture era. Following Smiles dissolution, Brian gradually ceded production and songwriting duties to the rest of the band, reducing his input because of mental health and substance abuse issues. The continued success of their greatest hits albums during the mid 1970s precipitated the transition into an oldies act. Since the 1980s, much-publicized legal wrangling over royalties, songwriting credits, Dennis drowned in 1983 and Carl died of lung cancer in 1998. After Carls death, many live configurations of the band fronted by Mike Love, Even though Wilson and Jardine have not performed with Love and Johnstons band since their one-off 2012 reunion tour, they remain a part of the Beach Boys corporation, Brother Records Inc. The Beach Boys are one of the most critically acclaimed, commercially successful, the group had over eighty songs chart worldwide, thirty-six of them US Top 40 hits, four reaching number-one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. They received their only Grammy Award for The Smile Sessions, the core quintet of the three Wilsons, Love and Jardine were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988. At the time of his birthday on June 20,1958, Brian Wilson shared a bedroom with his brothers, Dennis and Carl – aged thirteen and eleven. He had watched his father, Murry Wilson, play piano, after dissecting songs such as Ivory Tower and Good News, Brian would teach family members how to sing the background harmonies. For his birthday that year, Brian received a tape recorder. He learned how to overdub, using his vocals and those of Carl, Brian played piano with Carl and David Marks, an eleven-year-old longtime neighbor, playing guitars they had each received as Christmas presents. Soon Brian and Carl were avidly listening to Johnny Otis KFOX radio show, inspired by the simple structure and vocals of the rhythm and blues songs he heard, Brian changed his piano-playing style and started writing songs. His enthusiasm interfered with his studies at school. Family gatherings brought the Wilsons in contact with cousin Mike Love, Brian taught Loves sister Maureen and a friend harmonies
2.
Rock music
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It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by blues, rhythm and blues and country music. Rock music also drew strongly on a number of genres such as electric blues and folk. Musically, rock has centered on the guitar, usually as part of a rock group with electric bass guitar. Typically, rock is song-based music usually with a 4/4 time signature using a verse-chorus form, like pop music, lyrics often stress romantic love but also address a wide variety of other themes that are frequently social or political in emphasis. Punk was an influence into the 1980s on the subsequent development of subgenres, including new wave, post-punk. From the 1990s alternative rock began to rock music and break through into the mainstream in the form of grunge, Britpop. Similarly, 1970s punk culture spawned the visually distinctive goth and emo subcultures and this trio of instruments has often been complemented by the inclusion of other instruments, particularly keyboards such as the piano, Hammond organ and synthesizers. The basic rock instrumentation was adapted from the blues band instrumentation. A group of musicians performing rock music is termed a rock band or rock group, Rock music is traditionally built on a foundation of simple unsyncopated rhythms in a 4/4 meter, with a repetitive snare drum back beat on beats two and four. Melodies are often derived from older musical modes, including the Dorian and Mixolydian, harmonies range from the common triad to parallel fourths and fifths and dissonant harmonic progressions. Critics have stressed the eclecticism and stylistic diversity of rock, because of its complex history and tendency to borrow from other musical and cultural forms, it has been argued that it is impossible to bind rock music to a rigidly delineated musical definition. These themes were inherited from a variety of sources, including the Tin Pan Alley pop tradition, folk music and rhythm, as a result, it has been seen as articulating the concerns of this group in both style and lyrics. Christgau, writing in 1972, said in spite of some exceptions, rock and roll usually implies an identification of male sexuality, according to Simon Frith rock was something more than pop, something more than rock and roll. Rock musicians combined an emphasis on skill and technique with the concept of art as artistic expression, original. The foundations of music are in rock and roll, which originated in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. Its immediate origins lay in a melding of various musical genres of the time, including rhythm and blues and gospel music, with country. In 1951, Cleveland, Ohio disc jockey Alan Freed began playing rhythm and blues music for a multi-racial audience, debate surrounds which record should be considered the first rock and roll record. Other artists with rock and roll hits included Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Fats Domino, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis
3.
Capitol Records
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Capitol Records, LLC is an American record label which operates as a division of the Capitol Music Group. The label was founded as the first West Coast-based record label in the United States in 1942 by three industry insiders named Johnny Mercer, Buddy DeSylva and Glenn Wallichs, in 1955, the label was acquired by the British music conglomerate EMI as its North American subsidiary. EMI was later acquired by Universal Music Group in 2012 and was merged with the company in 2013, making Capitol Records, Capitol Records circular headquarter building located in Los Angeles is a recognized landmark of California. Mercer first raised the idea of starting a company while golfing with Harold Arlen. By 1941, Mercer was a songwriter and a singer with multiple successful releases. Mercer next suggested the idea to Wallichs while visiting his record store, Wallichs expressed interest in the idea and the pair negotiated an agreement whereby Mercer would run the company and identify their artists, while Wallichs managed the business side. On February 2,1942, Mercer and Wallichs met with DeSylva at a Hollywood restaurant to inquire about the possibility of investment of the company from Paramount Pictures, while DeSylva declined the proposal, he handed the pair a check worth $15,000. On March 27,1942, the three men incorporated as Liberty Records, in May 1942, the application was amended to change the companys name to Capitol Records. On April 6,1942, Mercer supervised Capitols first recording session where Martha Tilton recorded the song Moon Dreams, on May 5, Bobby Sherwood and his orchestra recorded two tracks in the studio. On May 21, Freddie Slack and his orchestra recorded three tracks in the studio, one with the orchestra, one with Ella Mae Morse called Cow-Cow Boogie, on June 4,1942, Capitol opened its first office in a second-floor room south of Sunset Boulevard. On that same day, Wallichs presented the companys first free record to Los Angeles disc jockey Peter Potter, on June 5,1942, Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra recorded four songs at the studio. On June 12, the recorded five more songs in the studio. On June 11, Tex Ritter recorded Jingle Jangle Jingle and Goodbye My Little Cherokee for his first Capitol recording session, and the songs formed Capitols 110th produced record. 133 - Get On Board Little Chillun - July 31,1942 - is a Freddie Slack/Ella Mae Morse/Mellowaires recording that might be the first rock n roll record and she has sometimes been called the first rock n roll singer. A good example is her 1942 recording of song which, with strong gospel, blues, boogie. Bone Walker recorded Mean Old World a pioneering example of the use of electric guitar. The earliest recording artists included co-owner Mercer, Whiteman, Tilton, Morse, Margaret Whiting, Jo Stafford, the Pied Pipers, Johnnie Johnston, Tex Ritter, Capitols first gold single was Morses Cow Cow Boogie in 1942. Capitols first album was Capitol Presents Songs By Johnny Mercer, a three 78-rpm disc set with recordings by Mercer, Stafford and the Pied Pipers, all with Westons Orchestra
4.
Mike Love
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Michael Edward Mike Love is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and activist who co-founded the Beach Boys. Characterized by his nasal, sometimes baritone singing, Love has been one of the vocalists and lyricists for most of their career. He is often regarded as a figure in the bands history. In the 1960s, Love collaborated with Wilson and was a lyricist on singles including Fun, Fun, Fun, during this period, his lyrics primarily reflected the youth culture of surfing, cars, and romance, which helped fashion pop cultures perception of the California Dream. Starting in 1968, Love became a teacher of Transcendental Meditation under Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the experience influenced his lyrics to take on themes of astrology, meditation, politics and ecology. Following this, Loves lyrical direction shifted to attempt to recapture the bands earlier, in the late 1970s, Love began working on solo albums, releasing his first and only in 1981, Looking Back with Love. In 1988, he, along with the founding members of the Beach Boys, was inducted into the Rock. The same year, the song, Kokomo, co-written by Love, in 1998, following the death of cousin Carl Wilson, Love and longtime Beach Boy Bruce Johnston were given an exclusive license to tour under the name the Beach Boys. The other surviving Beach Boys, Brian Wilson and Al Jardine, in 2011, the group reunited to produce a new album and embark on a tour for their 50th anniversary. Following the 50th anniversary reunion shows, Love resumed touring only with Johnston, Loves mother, Emily Wilson, was the sister of Mary and Murry Wilson, a family resident in Los Angeles since the early 1920s. Glee married Edward Milton Love, the son of the founder of the Love Sheet Metal Company, michael Edward, the first of six children, was born in the Baldwin Hills district of Los Angeles, in 1941, thereafter the family moved to the upmarket View Park area. Mike attended Dorsey High School and graduated in 1959, unsure of a career direction, he pumped gas and briefly joined his fathers company, whose fortunes dramatically declined in the late 1950s. Both Milt and Glee Love were active in sports, and Glee had a distinct interest in painting, like her brother, Murry, however, she was also strong-willed and, according to her husband, a dominant personality. The family was close-knit and regularly socialized with Murry and Audree Wilson, Murry Wilson was a part-time songwriter. Mike Love befriended the Wilson sons and often sang at family get-togethers at the Wilsons home in nearby Hawthorne and it was here, under the vocal harmony guidance of Brian Wilson, that the Beach Boys sound was established, predominantly influenced by Brians devotion to the Four Freshmens arrangements. Musical accompaniment during this phase was solely Brians self-taught piano. With the failure of Love Sheet Metal, the family was forced to move to a modest two-bedroom house in Inglewood, Love played rudimentary saxophone in the first years of the fledgling garage band that evolved from the Pendletones to the Beach Boys. He also established himself, along with neighbor Gary Usher, local DJ Roger Christian, as the Beach Boys career developed, all members contributed lead vocals to hit songs, but Love remained the central vocal focus on songs like Do It Again
5.
Irving Berlin
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Irving Berlin was an American composer and lyricist, widely considered one of the greatest songwriters in American history. His music forms a part of the Great American Songbook. Born in Imperial Russia, Berlin arrived in the United States at the age of five. He published his first song, Marie from Sunny Italy, in 1907, receiving 33 cents for the publishing rights and he also was an owner of the Music Box Theatre on Broadway. Alexanders Ragtime Band sparked a dance craze in places as far away as Berlins native Russia. In doing so, said Walter Cronkite, at Berlins 100th birthday tribute, he helped write the story of country, capturing the best of who we are. He wrote hundreds of songs, many becoming major hits, which him a legend before he turned thirty. During his 60-year career he wrote an estimated 1,500 songs, including the scores for 19 Broadway shows and 18 Hollywood films, with his songs nominated eight times for Academy Awards. Many songs became popular themes and anthems, including Easter Parade, White Christmas, Happy Holiday, This Is the Army, Mr. Jones, and Theres No Business Like Show Business. His Broadway musical and 1942 film, This is the Army, Celine Dion recorded it as a tribute, making it no.1 on the charts after the September 11 attacks in 2001. In 2015, pianist and composer Hershey Felder began touring nationwide as a show, portraying Berlin. Composer George Gershwin called him the greatest songwriter that has ever lived, Berlin was born on May 11,1888, in Tolochin, Russian Empire. He was one of eight children of Moses and Lena Lipkin Beilin and his father, a cantor in a synagogue, uprooted the family to America, as did many other Jewish families in the late 19th century. In 1893 they settled in New York City, as of the 1900 census, the name Beilin had changed to Baline. By daylight the house was in ashes, as an adult, Berlin said he was unaware of being raised in abject poverty since he knew no other life. Tsar Alexander III of Russia and then Tsar Nicholas II, his son, had revived with utmost brutality the anti-Jewish pogroms, which created the spontaneous mass exodus to America. When they reached Ellis Island, Israel was put in a pen with his brother and his Yiddish-speaking family eventually settled on Cherry Street, a windowless cold-water basement flat in the Theater District of the Lower East Side. His father, unable to find work as a cantor in New York, took a job at a kosher meat market and gave Hebrew lessons on the side
6.
Buddy Holly
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Buddy Holly was an American musician and singer-songwriter who was a central figure of mid-1950s rock and roll. Holly was born in Lubbock, Texas, to a family during the Great Depression, he learned to play guitar. His style was influenced by music, country music, and rhythm and blues acts. He made his first appearance on television in 1952. In 1955, after opening for Elvis Presley, Holly decided to pursue a career in music and he opened for Presley three times that year, his bands style shifted from country and western to entirely rock and roll. In October that year, when he opened for Bill Haley & His Comets, Holly was spotted by Nashville scout Eddie Crandall, Hollys recording sessions at Decca were produced by Owen Bradley. Petty became the manager and sent the demo to Brunswick Records, which released it as a single credited to The Crickets. In September 1957, as the band toured, Thatll Be the Day topped the US Best Sellers in Stores chart and its success was followed in October by another major hit, Peggy Sue. The album Chirping Crickets, released in November 1957, reached five on the UK Albums Chart. Holly made his appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in January 1958 and soon after, toured Australia. In early 1959, Holly assembled a new band, consisting of country music star Waylon Jennings, famed session musician Tommy Allsup, and Carl Bunch. After a show in Clear Lake, Iowa, Holly chartered an airplane to travel to his show, in Moorhead. Soon after takeoff, the crashed, killing Holly, Ritchie Valens, The Big Bopper. During his short career, Holly wrote, recorded, and produced his own material and he is often regarded as the artist who defined the traditional rock-and-roll lineup of two guitars, bass, and drums. Holly was an influence on later popular music artists, including The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton. He was among the first artists inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked him number 13 in its list of 100 Greatest Artists. Buddy Holly was born Charles Hardin Holley on September 7,1936, in Lubbock, Texas, at 3,30 pm, he was the child of Lawrence Odell L. O. Holley. His older siblings were Larry, Travis, and Patricia Lou, from early childhood, he was nicknamed Buddy
7.
Record producer
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A record producer or music producer oversees and manages the sound recording and production of a band or performers music, which may range from recording one song to recording a lengthy concept album. A producer has many roles during the recording process, the roles of a producer vary. The producer may perform these roles himself, or help select the engineer, the producer may also pay session musicians and engineers and ensure that the entire project is completed within the record companies budget. A record producer or music producer has a broad role in overseeing and managing the recording. Producers also often take on an entrepreneurial role, with responsibility for the budget, schedules, contracts. In the 2010s, the industry has two kinds of producers with different roles, executive producer and music producer. Executive producers oversee project finances while music producers oversee the process of recording songs or albums. In most cases the producer is also a competent arranger, composer. The producer will also liaise with the engineer who concentrates on the technical aspects of recording. Noted producer Phil Ek described his role as the person who creatively guides or directs the process of making a record, indeed, in Bollywood music, the designation actually is music director. The music producers job is to create, shape, and mold a piece of music, at the beginning of record industry, producer role was technically limited to record, in one shot, artists performing live. The role of producers changed progressively over the 1950s and 1960s due to technological developments, the development of multitrack recording caused a major change in the recording process. Before multitracking, all the elements of a song had to be performed simultaneously, all of these singers and musicians had to be assembled in a large studio and the performance had to be recorded. As well, for a song that used 20 instruments, it was no longer necessary to get all the players in the studio at the same time. Examples include the rock sound effects of the 1960s, e. g. playing back the sound of recorded instruments backwards or clanging the tape to produce unique sound effects. These new instruments were electric or electronic, and thus they used instrument amplifiers, new technologies like multitracking changed the goal of recording, A producer could blend together multiple takes and edit together different sections to create the desired sound. For example, in jazz fusion Bandleader-composer Miles Davis album Bitches Brew, producers like Phil Spector and George Martin were soon creating recordings that were, in practical terms, almost impossible to realise in live performance. Producers became creative figures in the studio, other examples of such engineers includes Joe Meek, Teo Macero, Brian Wilson, and Biddu
8.
Christmas music
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Christmas music comprises a variety of genres of music normally performed or heard around the Christmas season. Music was a feature of the Christmas season and its celebrations. The earliest examples are hymnographic works intended for use in observance of both the Feast of the Nativity and Theophany, many of which are still in use by the Eastern Orthodox Church. The 13th century saw the rise of the written in the vernacular. In the Middle Ages, the English combined circle dances with singing, later, the word carol came to mean a song in which a religious topic is treated in a style that is familiar or festive. From Italy, it passed to France and Germany, and later to England, Music in itself soon became one of the greatest tributes to Christmas, and Christmas music includes some of the noblest compositions of the great musicians. During the Commonwealth of England government under Cromwell, the Rump Parliament prohibited the practice of singing Christmas carols as Pagan, like other customs associated with popular Catholic Christianity, it earned the disapproval of Protestant Puritans. Famously, Cromwells interregnum prohibited all celebrations of the Christmas holiday and this attempt to ban the public celebration of Christmas can also be seen in the early history of Father Christmas. The Westminster Assembly of Divines established Sunday as the holy day in the calendar in 1644. The new liturgy produced for the English church recognised this in 1645 and its celebration was declared an offence by Parliament in 1647. There is some debate as to the effectiveness of this ban, Puritans generally disapproved of the celebration of Christmas—a trend which continually resurfaced in Europe and the USA through the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries. William Sandyss Christmas Carols Ancient and Modern, contained the first appearance in print of many now-classic English carols, singing carols in church was instituted on Christmas Eve 1880 in Truro Cathedral, Cornwall, England, which is now seen in churches all over the world. Christmas festivities, including music, are celebrated in a more secular fashion by such institutions as the Santa Claus Village, in Rovaniemi. The tradition of singing Christmas carols in return for alms or charity began in England in the century after the Restoration. Also from the century, there was the English custom, predominantly involving women, of taking a wassail bowl to their neighbours to solicit gifts. The status of Christmas as an important feast within the year also means there is a long tradition of music specially composed for celebrating the season. S. This is in due to the efforts of amateur choral societies during the nineteenth century. When it was composed, it was performed during Passiontide, jakub Jan Ryba, Czech Christmas Mass Hey, Master
9.
Brian Wilson
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Brian Douglas Wilson is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer best known for being the multi-tasking leader and co-founder of the rock band the Beach Boys. After signing with Capitol Records in 1962, Wilson wrote or co-wrote more than two dozen Top 40 hits for the group, in the mid-1960s, Wilson composed, arranged and produced Pet Sounds, considered one of the greatest albums ever made. The intended follow-up to Pet Sounds, Smile, was canceled for various reasons, as he suffered repeated nervous breakdowns, Wilsons contributions to the Beach Boys diminished, and his erratic behavior led to tensions with the band. He remains a member of the Beach Boys corporation, Brother Records Incorporated, Wilsons work with the Beach Boys helped raise pop music to the level of high art. Wilson effectively set a precedent that allowed bands and artists to enter a recording studio and his songs became inextricably tied with the zeitgeist of the early 1960s, and he helped develop the sound of the wistful Flower Power era that proceeded. In later years, Wilson was regarded as a godfather to an era of musicians who were inspired by his melodic sensibilities, chamber pop orchestrations. His honors include being inducted into the 1988 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and winning Grammy Awards for Brian Wilson Presents Smile and The Smile Sessions. In lists published by Rolling Stone, Wilson ranked 52 for the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time in 2008 and 12 for the 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time in 2015. In 2012, music publication NME ranked Wilson number 8 in its 50 Greatest Producers Ever list and he is an occasional actor and voice actor, having appeared in television shows, films, and other artists music videos. His life was portrayed in the 2014 biopic Love & Mercy, Brian Douglas Wilson was born on June 20,1942, at Centinela Hospital in Inglewood, California, the son of Audree Neva and Murry Wilson. He was the eldest of three boys, his brothers were Dennis and Carl. He has English, Swedish, Dutch, German, and Irish ancestry, when Brian was two, the family moved from Inglewood to 3701 West 119th Street in nearby Hawthorne, California. Murry Wilson said, He was very clever and quick, I just fell in love with him. At about age two, Brian heard George Gershwins Rhapsody in Blue, which had an emotional impact on him. A few years later, he was discovered to have diminished hearing in his right ear. The exact cause of hearing loss is unclear, though theories range from him simply being born partially deaf to a blow to the head from his father, or a neighborhood bully. While Brians father Murry was ostensibly a reasonable provider, he was often abusive, a minor musician and songwriter, he also encouraged his children in this field in numerous ways. At an early age, Brian was given six weeks of lessons on a toy accordion and, at seven and eight, at Hawthorne High School, Brian was on the football team as a quarterback, played baseball and was a cross-country runner in his senior year
10.
White Christmas (song)
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White Christmas is a 1942 Irving Berlin song reminiscing about an old-fashioned Christmas setting. According to the Guinness World Records, the version sung by Bing Crosby is the single of all time. Other versions of the song, along with Crosbys, have sold over 150 million copies, accounts vary as to when and where Berlin wrote the song. He often stayed up all night writing—he told his secretary, Grab your pen, I just wrote the best song Ive ever written—heck, I just wrote the best song that anybodys ever written. At first, Crosby did not see anything special about the song and he just said I dont think we have any problems with that one, Irving. The song initially performed poorly and was overshadowed by Holiday Inns first hit song, Be Careful, by the end of October 1942, White Christmas topped the Your Hit Parade chart. It remained in position until well into the new year. A few weeks after the attacks on Pearl Harbor, Crosby introduced “White Christmas” on a Christmas Day broadcast, the Armed Forces Network was flooded with requests for the song. The recording is noted for Crosbys whistling during the second chorus, in 1942 alone, Crosbys recording spent eleven weeks on top of the Billboard charts. The original version hit number one on the Harlem Hit Parade for three weeks, Crosbys first-ever appearance on the black-oriented chart. Re-released by Decca, the returned to the No.1 spot during the holiday seasons of 1945 and 1946. The recording became a perennial, reappearing annually on the pop chart twenty separate times before Billboard magazine created a distinct Christmas chart for seasonal releases. In Holiday Inn, the won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1942. In the film, Crosby sings White Christmas as a duet with actress Marjorie Reynolds and this now-familiar scene was not the moviemakers initial plan. In the script as originally conceived, Reynolds, not Crosby, the song would feature in another Crosby film, the 1954 musical White Christmas, which became the highest-grossing film of 1954. The version most often heard today on radio during the Christmas season is the 1947 re-recording, the 1942 master was damaged due to frequent use. Crosby re-recorded the track on March 19,1947, accompanied again by the Trotter Orchestra, the re-recording is recognizable by the addition of flutes and celesta in the beginning. Although Crosby dismissed his role in the success, saying later that a jackdaw with a cleft palate could have sung it successfully
11.
Endless Harmony Soundtrack
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Endless Harmony Soundtrack is an anthology album of previously unheard material by The Beach Boys, originally released by Capitol Records in August 1998. Named for Bruce Johnstons song on the 1980 album Keepin the Summer Alive, the soundtrack was re-issued in March 2000 with some remixing and different artwork, while the original 1998 edition was deleted shortly thereafter. The Endless Harmony project was shortly after the death of founding member Carl Wilson. At this point, Brian Wilson decided that the band was finished and disassociated himself from any further group activity. At odds with Mike Love for continuing after Carls passing, Al Jardine did the same, both Love and Bruce Johnston continued to perform live as The Beach Boys until all five surviving members reunited for their 50th anniversary in 2012. The Endless Harmony Soundtrack itself is patterned like The Beatles Anthology albums, with alternate versions and live renditions of songs, Endless Harmony Soundtrack never charted in the U. S. or the UK. Although the album was not a success, it did encourage Capitol Records to issue a more comprehensive archival package in Hawthorne, CA. All tracks written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love, unless otherwise noted. Soulful Old Man Sunshine –0,42 Soulful Old Man Sunshine –3,25 Radio Concert Promo 1 –0,15 The version on the revised 2000 edition features a different promo from Dennis Wilson. Medley, Surfin Safari/Fun, Fun, Fun/Shut Down/Little Deuce Coupe/Surfin U. S. A
12.
The Beach Boys' Christmas Album
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The Beach Boys Christmas Album is the seventh studio album by the Beach Boys, released in November 1964. It is regarded as one of the finest holiday albums of the rock era, one single was released from the album, the original song The Man with All the Toys backed with the groups rendition of Blue Christmas. Little Saint Nick, a single which had already released the previous year, was included on the album. In 1977, the Beach Boys attempted to follow the album with Merry Christmas from the Beach Boys, the entire Christmas Album plus selections from the Merry Christmas sessions were later assembled for the 1998 compilation Ultimate Christmas. The album was devised as a response to Phil Spectors A Christmas Gift for You from Philles Records and he played piano on the song Santa Claus Is Coming to Town but was dismissed by Spector due to his substandard piano playing. Original album cover photo by George Jerman for Capitol Photo Studio, with the exception of Little Saint Nick, sessions for the album spanned from June 18–30,1964, one month after the All Summer Long album was completed. Christmas Day is the first Beach Boys song to feature a vocal from Al Jardine. The album was released in mono and stereo, the mix, prepared by engineer Chuck Britz. Single Dont Hurt My Little Sister were recorded in between June sessions, on April 6,1982, the album was certified gold by the RIAA, selling more than 500,000 units
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