THE BEACH BOYS - LITTLE SAINT NICK

We've posted on the Beach Boys a few times now and you can find those posts using the Google Search feature on the blog!

"HARMONY" EXPLAINED BY ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANICCA

BRITANICCA HARMONY link

"Harmony, in music, the sound of two or more notes heard simultaneously. In practice, this broad definition can also include some instances of notes sounded one after the other. If the consecutively sounded notes call to mind the notes of a familiar chord (a group of notes sounded together), the ear creates its own simultaneity in the same way that the eye perceives movement in a motion picture. In such cases the ear perceives the harmony that would result if the notes had sounded together. In a narrower sense, harmony refers to the extensively developed system of chords and the ... "  (If you subscribe to the encyclopedia there are another 10,000 words or so to define the word!)

We're bringing this up because HARMONY was an important aspect to the music of the early to mid 1960's.   Think BACKGROUND SINGERS. Think Everly Brothers,  Righteous Brothers, The Beach Boys, The Mamas and the Papas, and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young...

(451) THE BRITISH INVASION OF AMERICA and THE AMERICAN INVASION OF BRITAIN CONTINUE

So now that we've said what we've said about hits and charts, we looked at a number of charts for the year 1966 saw discrepancies about what number a song or three achieved. We were reminded of personal favorites and looked for songs we remember hearing that we expected to see.  Could be some of the songs we remember were on albums. 

For American songwriters, the mid 1960's were competitive and anxious times because of the success of bands like the Beatles of Great Britain and the Beach Boys of the United States were writing and performing their own songs and didn't need us.  There was an emphasis with the record companies that bands should have their own songs and with fewer hit makers looking to us to write songs for them, and a feel of change in the air, a lot of people in the business began to change their careers.

Even Phil Spector and his Wall of Sound that had put so many songs on the charts was loosing.  (Sonny Bono talks about that in his memoir, having to break the news to Phil, who he worked for prior to Sonny and Cher making it, that the Sound was beginning to be dated.)

What we see overall is evidence that the British Invasion of America is ongoing.  It's not all about the Beatles.  It's also about British hit makers Petula Clark, Paul Revere and the Raiders, The Rolling Stones, Donovan, and Peter and Gordon, on the same American charts as The Mamas and the Papas, The Lovin' Spoonful, The Supremes,  Nancy Sinatra, Johnny Rivers, and the made for television competition for the Beatles, The Monkees.

BEACH BOYS : LITTLE SAINT NICK : AFTER THEIR AMERICAN INVASION OF EUROPE

From 1965, a best selling Christmas album, the Beach Boys use their harmonies so well.


BEACH BOYS 50th ANNIVERSARY OFFICIAL SITE link here!

THE GRAMMY MUSEUM GIFT STORE : BEACH BOYS - DICK DALE - PHIL SPECTOR - RONETTES - RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS - RITCHIE VALENS

WOW!  Christine here.  You know how I looove the Grammy Museum!  I usually post after a visit there. 

Here are some great CDs and one pressed vinyl album that you can buy at the GRAMMY MUSEUM shop.  We're pretty sure that you can go to the shop to shop without paying to tour the museum if you just want to shop and make a visit another time and there are always greeters at the door so ask!

 
BEACH BOYS PET SOUNDS
Includes A 180 gram VINYL RECORD LIMITED EDITION from the Capitol Records Vault!

THE VERY BEST OF DICK DALE  (Surf Music!)

PHIL SPECTOR - WALL OF SOUND - 1961-1966 includes
DARLENE LOVE
THE RONETTES
THE CRYSTALS
THE RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS

THE COMPLETE RITCHIE VALENS includes unfinished songs and live at Pacoima High School - 35 songs!

If you're interested in reading past posts here at WES BRYAN - MY LIFE IN MUSIC about any of these artists, please use the Google Search feature to bring them up! 

(424) SINGER SONGWRITER BOBBY FREEMAN : DO YOU WANNA DANCE?: COVERED BY SO MANY ARTISTS!

With a song writer like Brian Wilson in your group, why cover a tune written by someone else? Because some songs are hits, and a hit is a song that's hard to resist. It can bring in a fortune. This is the 1965 recording.

For the SUMMER FUN of it, here are a number of other covers of the same Bobby Freeman song.

First BOBBY FREEMAN'S ORIGINAL! "Release in April 1958 while Bobby was still in High School and he became a singing sensation which helped this song moved right up the charts to Billboards Top 10." Thanks to the Youtuber who posted this one!

(UPDATE JULY 2012: Sadly we must remove the historical music Bobby Freeman Video as Frank Sinatra enterprises owns the video and made claims on it... We still want everyone to know how great Bobby was and were thrilled to have found the video in the first place! But now I, Christine, making it up to you by presenting the RAMONES version! Beleive it or not, I like it as much as I like Johnny Rivers!)

WHO COULD FORGET my old friend Johnny Rivers' slow, romantic version?



Did you ever think we'd post the Ramones on this blog? Surprise! Surprise!

The great thing about this Bobby Freeman song is that you can listen to all these versions and want more!

Linking to the BBC Music bio of Bobby Freeman!

2012 : LAST NIGHT'S GRAMMYS : BEACH BOYS, GLEN CAMPBELL, PAUL McCARTNEY

THE GRAMMY AWARDS, which takes place at Staples Center, near the heart of downtown Los Angeles, is definitely one of those nights that brings excitement into those of us who live in Southern California, the way football brings excitement to residents in other cities.

In many ways, though filming and recording take place all over the United States and the world, this is still a company town. Angelenos take pride in bringing entertainment to the world. The excitement that it was Grammy time was felt everywhere. People were talking about it in coffee houses, on phones, and a lot of parties were celebrated at home as people watched the tube. This is our way of participating. We're still talking about it today.

Last year, we embedded some YouTube videos of the Grammy Awards 2011, and very soon they were taken down from YouTube as copyright violations, so we aren't going to embed any videos from last night's performance.

Christine and I were interested in the performances of the Beach Boys, Glen Campbell and Paul McCartney, since they are artists we blog about here at WES BRYAN-MY LIFE IN MUSIC. (The news here on the West Coast is dominated by the death of the long term drug embattled but superior songstress Whitney Houston.)

The Beach Boys, all the original band members who remain alive, performed "Good Vibrations." That includes songwriting genius Brian Wilson, 70, who had his own long battle with drugs and mental illness but has recovered and reemerged to perform over the last few years.

Glen Campbell, 75,who toured with them for a year or so many years ago - as a Beach Boy - jumped up from his seat to the music. Glen, who now suffers from Alzheimer's and who has won five previous Grammys, was honored with a LIFE TIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD. He performed "Rhinestone Cowboy, his hit from the 1970's. We're attaching to an article that has a video of Glen about his Alzheimer's from CNN on line.

Paul McCartney, 70, sang an original song he wrote for Valentine's Day, which appears on his new album of classics, and some Beatle's songs of the slow variety. He can be heard in a radio promo for the album saying he's channeling Fats Waller and Fred Astaire.

Christine feels that none of these artists were in fine voice, that it was Glen Campbells' voice that still has some of the resonance that it used to. After years of performing, and with age, many artists do loose their voices. What can help, sometimes a whole lot, is practicing vocalizations, in other words, voice lessons. That's the way to keep and improve what you've got. Still, we have to appreciate that they lost their voices performing, for the fans, the audience.

This post was reposted due to configuration errors that were out of control. Thanks for your patience.

BEACH BOYS 1964 ON BRITAINS READY STEADY GO SHOW!

(367) 1964 MY FRIEND ERSEL HICKEY'S CROOKED LITTLE MAN BECOMES A CLASSIC : SERENDIPITY SINGERS

Ersel Hickey, one of the first friends I made in my New York days, wrote this song called "Crooked Little Man" /"Don't Let The Rain Come Down, and in 1964 the Serendipity Singers had a top ten hit with it. Before you know it, the Beach Boys recorded it too. The Serendipity singers were considered a folk group, in the tradition of Peter, Paul, and Mary. And in 1964 they performed at the Democratic National Convention.

This song was also recorded by Johnny Rivers. Trini Lopez performed it and so did many other performers. We've even heard a punk rock version. It's called a "classic" now. Back then the song writing residuals bought Ersel got a house.


The Serendipity Singers have had many changes through the years. Some incarnation of the group was performing through the 1990's.

(254) SURFIN' SAFARI RELEASED SUMMER 1962 on CAPITOL

The Beach Boy's Surfin Safari album, released in the summer of '62 by Capitol Records, was probably one of the biggest album's besides Dick Dale's. It introduced the Beach Boys and their marketing concept - that they were surfers (when one of them had actually surfed and Brian Wilson was a "in my room" person - to the world.)

Christine here : The Beach Boy's also, I believe, marketed the concept of a new kind of woman to the nation "The California Girl." She was/is fresh faced, long haired, blond, thin, athletic, casual, friendly.

BEACH BOYS SURFIN USA

I believe this was their first Ed Sullivan appearance...

(250) I MEET BRIAN WILSON

One day in the studio I met Brian Wilson, of the Beach Boys, who showed me some of the lyrics he was writing, wanting my opinion. I was honored when anyone asked my opinion. I thought Brian was insecure about his talent. And today I know that Brian has struggled for years to overcome so much, I can admire him as much for his ability to persist as I can his musical genius.

At the time what we had around the studio was fun working. His wife Marilyn, used to drive by me as she dropped Brian off or picked him up from the studio, and she'd give me the finger - along with a big smile and a laugh!

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