The Beach Boys - Today/ Summer Days (and Summer Nights)
List Price:
Our Price: $4.17
You Save: $7.77 (65%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $3.73 (click here)
Category: Music CD
See more new music releases
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store
Canadian Music Store
Music CD Cover
Artist: The Beach BoysEdition: Music CD
Format: Extra tracks, Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
CD Release Date: 2001-03-13
Music Label: Capitol
Soundtracks:
- Do You Wanna Dance
- Good To My Baby
- Don't Hurt My Little Sister
- When I Grow Up (To Be A Man)
- Help Me, Rhonda - (LP version)
- Dance, Dance, Dance
- Please Let Me Wonder
- I'm So Young
- Kiss Me Baby
- She Knows Me Too Well
- In The Back Of My Mind
- Bull Session With "Big Daddy"
- The Girl From New York City
- Amusement Parks U.S.A
- Then I Kissed Her
- Salt Lake City
- Girl Don't Tell Me
- Help Me, Rhonda - (single version)
- California Girls
- Let Him Run Wild
- You're So Good To Me
- Summer Means New Love
- I'm Bugged At My Ol' Man
- And Your Dreams Come True
- Little Girl I Once Knew, The - (stereo track, single version)
- Dance, Dance, Dance - (stereo, bonus alternate take)
- I'm So Young - (bonus track, alternate take)
- Let Him Run Wild - (stereo, bonus track, alternate take)
- Graduation Day - (bonus track, studio version)
Free Music Notes for Today/ Summer Days (and Summer Nights)
Free Music Review: The Beach Boys' masterpiece(s) before PET SOUNDS
Hit: 5 Stars
In 1964, California's own Beach Boys were famous for creating hit songs about surfing, cars, and girls. It was an indelible image that the Boys wanted to shake, but even 40 years later, some fans won't let them do that. While most of the Beach Boys' truly great albums are overlooked because they depart from that formula, two albums that were recorded at about the same time are recognized even by those traditional fans as masterpieces: 1965's TODAY! & SUMMER DAYS/SUMMER NIGHTS.
TODAY! was recorded shortly after a nervous breakdown forced Brian Wilson to retire from live performing. And the album is an early example of the production genius Wilson would use extensively throughout his studio-bound years. What may have been intended as just another Beach Boys album instead is recognized as one of their all-time greatest.
It was clear that Brian Wilson, a huge Phil Spector fan, had learned his lessons well, for he doesn't exactly copy the famous "Wall Of Sound" formula rather than create his own. His production on the opening cover of "Do You Wanna Dance" has a lot more echo than even Spector may have fathomed, and the result is a booming sound that if it doesn't make you wanna do what the title says, check your pulse. But TODAY! wasn't all about covers of famous songs. As a songwriter, Brian Wilson was growing even more with time, and TODAY! contains some of his most adult songs to date, which would give way to the fabulous PET SOUNDS. "Good To My Baby", "Don't Hurt My Little Sister" and "When I Grow Up [To Be A Man]" (a well-deserved top 10 hit) were certainly advanced enough for even the Beatles (no slouch as songwriters themselves) to think about whether their standing as pop royalty was about to be usurped. And that's just on side 1 of the original album. That closes out with another "get up and move" ditty, "Dance, Dance, Dance", which at just under 2 minutes is so infectious, you'll want to hit the repeat button just to keep on dancing after it's done. Side 2 contains by far Brian Wilson's most impressive songwriting to date. "Please Let Me Wonder" (deserves all the accolades it has received), "Kiss Me Baby", "She Knows Me Too Well" and "In The Back Of My Mind" even 35 years later stand as some of the wisest words ever put to pop music. And a cover of an old '50s song "I'm So Young" just adds to the overall power of that second side. Simply put, TODAY! was an early peak for the Beach Boys that even now deserves to be considered among their top 10 best albums ever.
SUMMER DAYS/SUMMER NIGHTS was a less personal, more commercial pop record that still had many things up on the average pop music coming out at the time. The main reason for this album was to capitalize on the #1 success of a re-recording of TODAY!'s "Help Me Rhonda". The new version was undoubtedly better than the bare-bones original on TODAY!, and is the centerpiece for this album filled with both hit singles and top-notch originals. At first, I thought "The Girl From New York City" was a gender reversal of that '60s classic "The Boy From New York City", but it turns out it was Brian's own answer to the song with his own words. A good ad lib (the name of the original group who recorded the song), nevertheless. The other cover was of "Then I Kissed Her" (i.e. The Crystals' "Then He Kissed Me") once again showing Brian's Phil Spector influence. But the rest is all original material, and some darn good ones at that. "California Girls" is along with "Rhonda" the best-known song from this album and maybe in all of Beach Boys history. Certainly, the orchestral opening to "California Girls" is nothing less than beautiful, like the sun rising on the water of a beach. It only hit #3 on the charts, but it certainly isn't that in the hearts of most Beach Boys fans. "Let Him Run Wild", "You're So Good To Me", "Girl Don't Tell Me" further make it known that the Beach Boys were moving on from their girls-and-cars early days, for better or worse. To show they hadn't totally abandoned those days, songs like "Amusement Parks U.S.A.", "Salt Lake City" and "I'm Bugged At My Ol' Man" (about the Wilson brothers' authoritarian father) still showcase the youthful drive that helped steer the Beach Boys to success in their early days. And with PET SOUNDS on the horizon, two more songs on SUMMER DAYS hint at the lush, well-crafted production of that classic, the instrumental "Summer Means New Love" and the a cappella closer "And Your Dream Comes True". While they may have seemed tossed-off at the time, they would certainly be a hint of things to come.
Two great albums on one CD may be enough to buy this, but then there's bonus tracks that prove even the Beach Boys' cast-offs were just as good as what they released. Most of them are alternate takes of songs, but the single-only "The Little Girl I Once Knew" was one of the Beach Boys' most important singles to date, for it once again foreshadows PET SOUNDS, and its stop-start sound probably was a big hinderance to it acheiving success. Top 40 radio stations certainly didn't like too much dead air. One of the Beach Boys' biggest inspirations was the old vocal group The Four Freshmen, and they pay tribute to them by covering the Freshmen's classic song "Graduation Day". An admirable job for a band who seemed to turn just about any song into a Beach Boys original.
TODAY & SUMMER DAYS/SUMMER NIGHTS was both the end of their fun-in-the-sun days, and the beginning of the more advanced, mature work that only now has been recognized as truly great music.
Today/ Summer Days (and Summer Nights) Poster
Two 1965 classics, garnished with alternate takes of Dance, Dance, Dance; I'm So Young , and Let Him Run Wild ; a studio version of Graduation Day , and the single version of The Little Girl I Once Knew .Put simply, this is the Beach Boys at their mid-'60s prime. Ironically, the band's greatest evolutionary leap was spurred by its leader, Brian Wilson, who decided to drop out of the band's live performances after a December 1964 nervous breakdown to concentrate on honing the Beach Boys' studio sound. With Wilson's productions gaining a significant new depth and confidence (note the innovative modulations on "Dance, Dance, Dance"), the first half of Today seems a logical, upbeat step forward from its predecessors. But it's the album's second act that steals the show, setting the stage for the triumph of Pet Sounds. Indeed, it's easy to imagine gorgeous, introspective tracks such as "Please Let Me Wonder," "She Knows Me Too Well," and "In the Back of My Mind" intertwined with the best of Sounds. Set against that standard, the follow-up, Summer Days, feels like a step backward, despite the presence of another Wilson world-beater production, "California Girls," and the band's second No. 1 single, "Help Me, Rhonda." Ever pressured by commercial concerns, Wilson and the band created what was in essence the true follow-up to the All Summer Long album. Still, there's a level of musical sophistication to tracks such as "The Girl from New York City," the Phil Spector tribute "Then I Kissed Her," and especially "Girl Don't Tell Me" and "Let Him Run Wild." Reissued (with 24-bit digital remastering) in a long out-of-print twofer edition to mark the band's 40th anniversary and Lifetime Achievement Grammy, this set features several bonus tracks as well as the insightful notes of David Leaf (The Beach Boys and the California Myth). Bonus cuts include the spectacular "The Little Girl I Once Knew" and revealing outtakes of "Dance, Dance, Dance," "I'm So Young," and "Let Him Run Wild," along with a studio version of a song previously only available on the Beach Boys Concert collection, "Graduation Day." --Jerry McCulley
Classic Rock Music CDs
Music Genres
Top music charts in Classic Rock Music CDs
Paul Mccartney, Wings - Wings at the Speed of SoundRelease date: 1996-09-24; Music CD
Best price: $149.99
Small Faces - BoxedRelease date: 1997-11-01; Music CD
Best price: $39.95
Dr John - Gris GrisRelease date: 1994-07-15; Music CD
Price in other shops:
![Eric Clapton: Live in Hyde Park [VHS] Image](/images/Eric-Clapton-Live-in-Hyde-Park-VHS-6304817037-X.jpg){kind=small}
Eric Clapton: Live in Hyde Park [VHS]Warner Bros / Wea; Release date: 1998-02-17; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $13.50
Price in other shops:
![Human Highway [VHS] Image](/images/Human-Highway-VHS-6303589219-X.jpg){kind=small}
Human Highway [VHS]Warner Bros / Wea; Release date: 1995-08-08; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $153.94
![The Monkees - Head [VHS] Image](/images/The-Monkees-Head-VHS-6303337023-X.jpg){kind=small}
The Monkees - Head [VHS]Rhino / Wea; Release date: 1995-01-25; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $14.40
Price in other shops:
![Live & Loud [VHS] Image](/images/Live-Loud-VHS-630276193X-X.jpg){kind=small}
Ozzy Osbourne - Live & Loud [VHS]Sony; Release date: 1993-05-25; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $3.96
Price in other shops:
![Unplugged [VHS] Image](/images/Unplugged-VHS-6302639859-X.jpg){kind=small}
Bruce Springsteen - Unplugged [VHS]Sony; Release date: 1992-12-15; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $2.75
Price in other shops:
![Peter Gabriel - P.O.V. [VHS] Image](/images/noimg.gif)
Peter Gabriel - Peter Gabriel - P.O.V. [VHS]Virgin Records Us; Release date: 1992-06-29; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
![Past to Present [VHS] Image](/images/Past-to-Present-VHS-6301817664-X.jpg){kind=small}
Toto - Past to Present [VHS]Sony; Release date: 1991-07-01; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $77.99
Top Rated Albums
Beach Boys - Beach Boys Concert / Live LondonRelease date: 2001-04-10; Music CD
Best price: $7.70
Price in other shops:
The Beach Boys - Carl & The Passions - So Tough / HollandRelease date: 2000-08-15; Music CD
Best price: $6.10
Price in other shops:
The Beach Boys - Pet SoundsRelease date: 1999-07-13; Published: 2006-10-27; Music CD
Best price: $4.63
Price in other shops:
The Beach Boys - Party / Stack-O-TracksRelease date: 2001-04-10; Music CD
Best price: $5.50
Price in other shops:
The Beach Boys - Smiley Smile / Wild HoneyRelease date: 2001-04-10; Music CD
Best price: $5.20
Price in other shops:
The Beach Boys - Friends / 20/ 20Release date: 2001-04-10; Music CD
Best price: $4.83
Price in other shops:
The Beach Boys - Surfin' Safari / Surfin' USARelease date: 2001-03-13; Published: 2001-09-17; Music CD
Best price: $5.50
Price in other shops:
The Beach Boys - Sunflower / Surf's UpRelease date: 2000-07-18; Music CD
Best price: $4.13
Price in other shops:
The Beach Boys - Surfer Girl/ Shut Down, Vol. 2Release date: 2001-03-13; Music CD
Best price: $5.20
Price in other shops:
The Beach Boys - Little Deuce Coupe / All Summer LongRelease date: 2001-03-13; Music CD
Best price: $5.41
Price in other shops: