The Beach Boys - Sounds of Summer: Very Best of The Beach Boys
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Free Music Notes for Sounds of Summer: Very Best of The Beach Boys
Free Music Review: The FINAL Beach Boys Compilation?
Hit: 5 Stars
Beach Boy fans who've walked past collections from three 60s best-ofs to "Endless Summer" in the 1970s to two sets of re-release two-fers, box and rarity sets as countless as sands on the seashore....finally have their ultimate one-disc greatest hits. "Sounds of Summer" gives the Beach Boys a comprehensive hits collection to rest beside hisorical rock figures from Elvis to the Beatles to Elton John.Attractively packaged and sequenced, "Sounds of Summer" features a cool, sweet but ultimately vanilla Anthony de Curtis essay. (Beach Boy historians David Leaf and Mark Elliot have written better mini-histories of the band on other compilations.) Ultimately, these three-minute West Coast symphonies and California mimi vacations ("Surfin USA," "Sloop John B," "California Girls," "I Get Around") at least retain some freshness more than 40 years later.
It's the hits, nothing but. Longtime Beach Boy fans could easily name a favorite "Endless Summer" or other LP track missing here. But like "Beatles 1" and "Elvis' 30 Greatest Hits," this Beach Boys set ultimately introduces the band's legendary singles to the youngest music fans, many of whom were just learning to wade when "Kokomo" topped the charts in 1988. Buy "Sounds of Summer" for your children who can't wait for June, then buy "Pet Sounds" for yourself to prepare for their adolescence.
Free Music Review: The Teenage Declaration of Independence
Hit: 5 Stars
Sounds of Summer, yes! Year-round summer is what California has always represented to the rest of the USA. The Beach Boys sang the surfer lifestyle into American and world consciousness, and doing so declared California's musical and cultural independence from the East Coast. The Beach Boys also sang the independence of teenagers of the Baby Boom, with cars and purchasing power, from their parents' generation of frugal, anxious conformists shaped by the Great Depression. They sang the primacy of summer and outdoor life over the stuffy classroom and grimy workplace. There's not a word of piety or propriety in any of Brian Wilson's songs; the Beach Boys were prophets of a life style free of shibboleths, in a world of sun-tanned smiles and endless summer. How could anyone not be thrilled by such a prospect?
Musically, the Beach Boys were tight, driving, innovative, the best dance music ever, and they never went noir on us, never wallowed, never whined. You might say they never grew up, they lived in a false paradise of surf boards and bikinis, but I'd say 'more power to 'em'. The Miwok Indians of California used to believe that dancing kept the world in balance, and if the dancing stopped, catastrophes would erupt. The Beach Boys kept the world dancing, at least for a few decades.
This is a great, ample, well-engineered collection of the Beach Boys' greatest songs from their golden times. I doubt we'll ever hear their like.
Free Music Review: Best Single - Disc Beach Boys Collection Ever
Hit: 5 Stars
Countless Beach Boys hits collections have been thrown around like trash over the years. Most of them are not good. 2003's 30 - song "Sounds Of Summer" is the exception. It features all the big hits plus a few less recgonized tracks.All the Beach Boys classics are here. Whether you enjoy "Surfin' USA", "Fun, Fun, Fun", "California Girls" or "Good Vibrations", it's unlikely that your favorite Beach Boys song isn't here. But there's more than a few unrecognizable songs hear that make this collection even more worthwhile: the latter - day singles "Wild Honey", "Darlin'", "Do It Again", "I Can Hear Music", "Good Timin'", "Come Go With Me" and "Getcha Back" are just as good as anything from their peak period.
As usual, there is a fair amount of hits missing, even with 30 songs. There are too many to list here, so I'll just list the ones that reached the Billboard top 40. They are:
"Little Saint Nick" (numner 6)
"The Warmth Of The Sun" (number 13)
"The Man With All The Toys" (number 3)
"Caroline No" (number 32)
"It's Ok" (number 29)
But overall, this a very worthwhile collection of classic music, perfect for this time of year. Also, get the boxed set "Thirty Years Of Good Vibrations".
Free Music Review: Awesome album!
Hit: 5 Stars
I didn't take the time to look through all ninety reviews but I bet I'm one of the few, if not only, younger people that decided to pick up this album and not only listen to it, but review it. I'm 20 years old, was born in 1985 and I absolutely love classic music, especially from the 50's, 60's, and 70's. And I have to say.... this album was one of the best that I've picked up.
I have to admit, I don't know much about the Beach Boys but when I heard "God Only Knows," for the first time, I fell in love with them and had to get an album that would bring their best work to me. So one night, after work, I was wandering the Electronics section at Wal-Mart and picked up this CD randomly. And I was blown away at how good the Beach Boys really are... it seems that 'I Get Around,' 'California Girls,' and 'Little Deuce Coupe' dominate people's minds but they have so many better songs... like 'Don't Worry, Baby,' 'God Only Knows,' 'Good Vibrations,' and 'Wouldn't It Be Nice.' I love all the songs on the album but those are my favorites and I think they're the best I've heard so far. But then again, I should check out 'Pet Sounds' before I say anything else.
This is a pretty crappy review, I know... but subject of it: I highly recommend this album to anyone my age who wants to immerse themselves in the best the 60's had to offer. That and the Beatles, of course.
Free Music Review: The perfect Beach Boys collection for casual fans
Hit: 5 Stars
Casual fans will find this to be the ultimate collection of the Beach Boys music as it contains all of the band's top 40 hits. 30 classic tunes from 1962 all the way to 1988 are here on a single CD with top-notch sound quality, rare photos of the band, and a nice essay inside the CD booklet. All of the early surf classics that everyone knows are presented along with lesser-known later hits that are just as worthy such as "I can hear music", "Do it Again", "Wild Honey", and "Getcha Back".
However, since this CD contains only the band's "top 40 singles", serious fans will find this collection a little less appealing since some of the Beach Boys' best music {including many good recordings after 1966} never made the top 40. Several of these songs such as "Let him run wild", "Catch a Wave", "Warmth of the Sun", and "Girls on the Beach" are not included in this otherwise excellent collection. Much of this worthy lesser-known material has just been reissued on the new highly recommended compilation "The Warmth of the Sun".
This is only a minor issue of course since "Sounds of Summer" is surely one of the most comprehensive greatest hits collections ever released by any band. ALL of the Beach Boys hit singles are here on one disc, which makes this an essential CD for every Beach Boys fan.