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Yahoo
17-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Forever No. 1: The Beach Boys' ‘I Get Around'
Forever No. 1 is a Billboard series that pays special tribute to the recently deceased artists who achieved the highest honor our charts have to offer — a Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 single — by taking an extended look back at the chart-topping songs that made them part of this exclusive club. Here, we honor Brian Wilson, who died on Wednesday (June 11) at age 82, by looking at the first of The Beach Boys' three Hot 100-toppers: the irresistible pop smash 'I Get Around.' The Beach Boys had racked up four consecutive top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 (discounting B sides) prior to 'I Get Around,' but this ebullient song was their first single to reach No. 1. They recorded it in April 1964, making it the first song they recorded after The Beatles arrived in the U.S. that February. More from Billboard The 20 Best Beach Boys Songs (Staff Picks) Don Was Remembers Brian Wilson's 'Mystical' Genius: 'He Explored Creative Territory Where No Musicians Had Gone Before' How LadyLand, the Scrappy Festival That Could, Is Shaping Queer Culture & Live Music In NYC If The Beach Boys felt threatened by the Fab Four's explosive arrival, they were not going down without a fight. 'I Get Around' is chock-full of hooks – great harmonies, handclaps, twangy guitar work and the inspired 'round-round-getaround' hook. In his liner notes for the 1990 reissue of Little Deuce Coupe and All Summer Long, Beach Boys expert David Leaf said the track represented 'a major, revolutionary step in Brian's use of dynamics.' He added: 'From the opening note to the falsetto wail on the fade, this is one of the greatest tracks the Beach Boys ever cut. … Powered by the driving lead guitar break, the explosive harmonies and the handclaps, everything about this track was very spirited.' The song runs a highly efficient 2:14, making it the second-shortest No. 1 hit of 1964. The Beatles' 'Can't Buy Me Love' was a couple of seconds shorter. With this song, The Beach Boys continued to move away from the surf music fad that they rode in on, with such hits as 1962's 'Surfin' and 'Surfin' Safari' and 1963' 'Surfin' U.S.A.' and 'Surfer Girl.' Like its immediate predecessors 'Be True to Your School' and 'Fun, Fun, Fun,' 'I Get Around' has nothing to do with catching a wave, but instead is more generally capturing teen life in early-'60s California. (And, when you think about it, driving songs played nearly as big a part of the early Beach Boys success as surfing songs, between 'I Get Around,' 'Fun, Fun, Fun,' 'Little Deuce Coupe,' '409' and others.) Mike Love sang lead vocals on 'I Get Around,' with Brian Wilson contributing falsetto lead vocals on the chorus. All five members of the group – also including Al Jardine, Carl Wilson and Dennis Wilson – contributed harmony and backing vocals. The fabled Wrecking Crew of top Los Angeles session players, including Hal Blaine and Glen Campbell, played on the track. The song has a line that seems autobiographical, given the group's rising level of success over the previous two years: 'My buddies and me are gettin' real well-known.' The song also includes one of the most charming lines ever in a pop song: 'None of the guys go steady 'cause it wouldn't be right/ To leave your best girl home on a Saturday night.' The group projects a strutting confidence throughout. Biographer Mark Dillon compared the lyrics to 'the braggadocio of a modern-day rapper' — fitting that nearly 30 years later, one of the all-time most legendary MCs would recycle the title for his own cockiest hit. The song entered the Hot 100 at No. 76 for the week ending May 23, 1964. It was the week's fourth-highest new entry, behind hits by Elvis, Bobby Vinton and Lesley Gore, though it wound up eclipsing all of those. The song reached No. 1 in its seventh week, July 4, displacing Peter & Gordon's 'A World Without Love,' which was written by Paul McCartney (though officially credited to Lennon/McCartney.) McCartney and Wilson, two of the greatest songwriters of all time, spurred each other on to ever-greater heights for many years. The Beatles' 'Back in the U.S.S.R.' was clearly an homage to The Beach Boys' 'Surfin' U.S.A.' 'I Get Around' topped the Hot 100 for two weeks, before being displaced by The 4 Seasons' 'Rag Doll.' (These groups, representing the pinnacle of West Coast and the East Coast pop, respectively, were among the few American groups from the pre-Beatles era that continued to thrive after the British invasion.) 'I Get Around' also put The Beach Boys on the map in the U.K., becoming their first top 10 hit in that country. The B side of 'I Get Around' was the equally great 'Don't Worry Baby,' making this one of the strongest double-sided singles in pop music history. It ranks with Elvis' 'Don't Be Cruel'/ 'Hound Dog,' The Beatles' 'Penny Lane'/'Strawberry Fields Forever,' The Beach Boys' own 'Wouldn't It Be Nice'/'God Only Knows' and a handful of others. The song was the opening track on (and only single released from) the group's sixth album, All Summer Long, which reached No. 4 on the Billboard 200 in August 1964. In his liner notes to the 1990 reissue, Leaf noted, 'All Summer Long was the last regular studio album The Beach Boys recorded before Brian quit the touring band – the last complete Beach Boys album Brian cut before he suffered a nervous breakdown in late December of 1964.' Incredibly, 'I Get Around' didn't receive a single Grammy nomination. The Beach Boys' only songs to receive Grammy nods were 'Good Vibrations' and the 1988 Brian-less hit 'Kokomo.' The Recording Academy has since sought to make amends, awarding The Beach Boys a lifetime achievement award in 2001 and inducting five of their most classic works (including 'I Get Around') into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Wilson was initially the only songwriter credited on the song. In 1992, Mike Love sued to get a credit on this and many other songs. Love prevailed in December 1994, when he was awarded co-writing credits on 35 songs – as well as $13 million. In his series 'The Number Ones,' Stereogum writer Tom Breihan wryly summarized the dispute: 'Mike Love later sued Brian for a co-writer credit, and if he really did come up with the round round getaround part, he deserved it.' While there is no improving on The Beach Boys' recording of 'I Get Around,' several artists have taken a stab at it over the years. Red Hot Chili Peppers performed it at the 2005 MusiCares Person of the Year gala where Brian Wilson was honored. My Morning Jacket performed it on the 2023 special A Grammy Salute to the Beach Boys (which CBS re-aired on Sunday night). Billie Joe Armstrong posted his version of the song on Instagram on Wednesday (June 11), hours after the news of Wilson's death broke. 'Thank you Brian Wilson,' Armstrong wrote. 'I recorded a cover of 'I Get Around' a few years ago. ..never got to share it. One of my all time favorite songs ever.' Check back tomorrow and Wednesday for our Forever No. 1 reports on The Beach Boys' second and third No. 1 hits, 'Help Me Rhonda' and 'Good Vibrations.' Best of Billboard Chart Rewind: In 1989, New Kids on the Block Were 'Hangin' Tough' at No. 1 Four Decades of 'Madonna': A Look Back at the Queen of Pop's Debut Album on the Charts Chart Rewind: In 1990, Madonna Was in 'Vogue' Atop the Hot 100
Irish Daily Mirror
15-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Daily Mirror
God Only Knows what modern music would be without Beach Boy Brian Wilson
I remember the first time I heard Brian Wilson, the classical composer of our time who died last week. I was about five and the Beach Boys were on TV, their headphones on, singing Barbara Ann around a mic. The harmonies were exquisite, unique. If I could sing around a mic like that for the rest of my life, I thought, I'd be happy forever. Beach Boy Brian meant the world to me, so it was a hard blow to hear of his death on Wednesday, especially so soon after another musical titan, Sly Stone. What he leaves behind is the legacy of his work, the heart and soul he put into it, songs that 'make people feel something inside', as Wilson said himself. That Barbara Ann moment was just the beginning of a lifelong musical love affair with Wilson. I got into the Beach Boys big time - I loved the early California surf stuff like Help Me Rhonda and Little Deuce Coupe, and I Get Around is the prototype punk song. In My Room is a swirly ballad, loved by Kurt Cobain. Yet it wasn't until I discovered Pet Sounds that I fully realised the depth of Wilson's genius. I credit Lewis Clohessy for introducing me to it. He's my friend Helen's dad and one of the nation's great culture vultures. Lewis knew I loved the Pixies and the Beatles and he said to me: 'Well, if you like both of those, you must listen to Pet Sounds.' When Paul McCartney said it inspired Sergeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club, everyone took notice. God Only Knows is on it, which Macca called "the best song ever written". While much is made of Wilson's early influences such as Bach, Mozart, Gershwin and Bernstein, it was the Phil Spector production sound that was the most influential of all. Musically, it's obviously a triumph with its heavy-reverb combination of sound and layered vocals, inspired by Brian's favourite song Be My Baby by the Ronettes, which he used to listen to every day. Or: 'EVERY. DAY.' as his daughter Carnie pointedly recalled, in the documentary of his life I Just Wasn't Made For These Times, named after the track that sums up Brian more than any other. But it's the lyrics that get me: Brian Wilson is still the songwriter I most relate to, which sometimes feels like a strange thing to say, considering serious mental health conditions such as bipolar and schizo-affective disorder. He speaks to me like no-one else. I loved Brian's obsessions; the involved way he discussed music; his vulnerability; the funny way he had of talking out of the side of his mouth. He is the greatest influence on modern music today, inspiring bands such as the Ramones, The Pixies, the B52s, Weezer, Nirvana, even Fontaines DC. My favourite song is actually one of Brian's favourites too - Do It Again, from their 1969 album 20/20. I haven't even got to discussing their brilliant 1970's era, such as the brilliant Holland (music guru Dave Fanning's top choice) and Surf's Up. It was a dream come true when I interviewed Brian in 2018. He had cognitive issues, yet he was a fine conversationalist once the topic stayed on music. I still relish how he described I Get Around as "a rock n'roll salad". The last word will go to the great Tom Petty, who said of him: 'I think I would put Brian Wilson up there with any composer. I don't think you'd be out of line comparing him to Beethoven. His music is probably as good as any you could make.'
New Statesman
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- New Statesman
The genius of Brian Wilson
When David Bowie died in January 2016, much of the British media – which, by that point, was largely run by those who had grown up in his pop-cultural shadow – sank into that specific sort of mourning only fans are capable of: deeply felt, self-reflexive, nostalgic for what a stranger had brought into their lives. This included the New Statesman, where I was a staffer at the time. After the news broke, our focus in the office pivoted abruptly from whatever internal Labour Party matter was on the editorial planner (probably anti-Corbyn resignations) to Bowie's music, his persona, his influence not only on pop and rock but on the worldviews of generations. He became our cover story. It's hard to imagine the death of someone like the Beach Boys co-founder Brian Wilson, who passed away this week, receiving similar treatment outside the music press, even though he was once by far a bigger star than Bowie. That's understandable, in a way. The Beach Boys, a phenomenon in their long-ago prime, have for years been maligned with a reputation for being the antithesis of cool. They were America's biggest-selling and perhaps most acclaimed rock'n'roll group of the early-to-mid-1960s, whose chamber-pop masterpiece Pet Sounds still lurks near the top of countless 'greatest albums of all time' lists. (It has been at second place on Rolling Stone's for decades.) Yet, by the early 1970s, they were largely dismissed as burn-outs, eclipsed by more overtly introspective singer-songwriters, harder-edged bands such as The Doors and awesome hit-makers from the fast-evolving soul and disco scenes. If they prematurely turned into old news, a hangover from the past, it was perhaps because they had once helped to define an era, and that era was over. In effervescent songs such as 1963's 'Surfer Girl' and 'Little Deuce Coupe', they had not only reflected Californian preoccupations with surfing and cars but had also turned them into symbols of a very American fantasy of postwar freedom. Even their more personal pieces, such as 1965's 'Please Let Me Wonder', with its chorus that so perfectly captures the hopeful uncertainty of young love, had sold the decadence of an increasingly wealthy, ascendant America that could offer its people the precious luxury of introspection. The fraught, more paranoid decade that followed, which in the US probably began in earnest with the Watergate scandal in 1972, brought a new cynicism that made the innocent promises made by these teenage symphonies feel all of a sudden hollow, at least to many. The US mainstream eventually re-embraced the Beach Boys and, under co-founder Mike Love's stewardship, the group came to embody a kind of proto-normcore conformism. They never quite reclaimed coolness. In 1983, Ronald Reagan's then interior secretary, James Watt, nixed the band's Independence Day gig at the National Mall in Washington, DC, citing fears that rock music would attract 'the wrong element'. George HW Bush, who was vice-president at the time, personally intervened and forced Watt to apologise. The Beach Boys were friends, after all. In 2020, a later incarnation of the group accepted a booking to play at a hunting group event at which Donald Trump Jr was a scheduled speaker. Lame. None of this, of course, was Brian Wilson's doing. The genius behind the Beach Boys, who wrote, produced and orchestrated the band's most enduring records, had stepped back from his role as band leader as his mental health deteriorated, while working on what was intended to be Pet Sounds' follow-up, Smile. The increasingly strung-out Wilson abandoned that project in 1967, and his time at the top, competing with the likes of Paul McCartney, effectively came to an end. But his talent remained. In his more lucid moments, it would emerge in songs such as the haunting 1971 Beach Boys track ''Til I Die' and albums including his weird-and-wonderful 1995 Van Dyke Parks collaboration Orange Crate Art. Best of all was 1977's The Beach Boys Love You, a surprisingly lo-fi synth-pop record featuring songs about the solar system and 'honkin' down the gosh-darn highway'. In its own style, it's an equal of Pet Sounds or Smile, which itself was finally completed in 2004 as a solo album. Wilson's sad, well-documented struggles following his mental collapse had the effect of insulating him from Love's tarnishing of the Beach Boys brand, and critics have admitted the best of his work into the US rock canon. But his music is all too often afforded a different kind of appreciation to what Bowie's, say, or Bob Dylan's work enjoys. Where those singer-songwriters are considered heroes of their own creative destinies, Wilson has long been spoken of by many as a sort of victim of his own wild imagination, talent and mind – a savant, rather than a true master. In the studio as a young man, though, he was 'in charge of it all', as the session player Carol Kaye once recalled. And I don't think he ever lost that capacity to expertly make us feel and fantasise, and let us wonder. Like the most accomplished of his peers, he shaped our worldviews, in his case crafting a vision of a more playful, gentler America that should and could still exist. In these pretty dark times, surely there's not much cooler than that. [See also: Addison Rae and the art of AgitPop] Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe Related
Gulf Today
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Gulf Today
Beach Boys founder Brian Wilson dies at age 82
Beach Boys cofounder Brian Wilson, who created some of rock's most enduring songs such as "Good Vibrations" and "God Only Knows" in a career that was marked by a decades-long battle between his musical genius, drug abuse and mental health issues, has died at the age of 82. Wilson's family announced his death in a statement on the singer's website. "We are at a loss for words right now," the statement said. "We realise that we are sharing our grief with the world." The statement did not disclose a cause of death. Wilson had suffered from dementia and was unable to care for himself after his wife Melinda Wilson died in early 2024, prompting his family to put him under conservatorship. Starting in 1961, the Beach Boys put out a string of sunny hits celebrating the touchstones of California youth culture -- surfing, cars and romance. But what made the songs special was the ethereal harmonies that Wilson arranged and that would become the band's lasting trademark. The Beach Boys, Carl Wilson (left), Mike Love, Dennis Wilson, Bruce Johnston, and Al Jardine pose for a portrait in London in November 1966. File/AP Wilson formed the band with younger brothers Carl and Dennis, cousin Mike Love and friend Al Jardine in their hometown, the Los Angeles suburb of Hawthorne. They went on to have 36 Top 40 hits, with Wilson writing and composing most of the early works. Songs such as "Little Deuce Coupe," "Surfin' USA," "California Girls," "Fun, Fun, Fun" and "Help Me, Rhonda" remain instantly recognizable and eminently danceable. But there were plenty of bad vibrations in Wilson's life: an abusive father, a cornucopia of drugs, a series of mental breakdowns, long periods of seclusion and depression and voices in his head that, even when he was on stage, told him he was no good. "I've lived a very, very difficult, haunted life," Wilson told the Washington Post in 2007. The music group The Beach Boys are shown in this undated photograph. Shown are Mike Love, Al Jardine, Carl Wilson and Brian Wilson. Reuters In May 2024, a judge ruled the 81-year-old Wilson should be put under a conservatorship after two longtime associates had petitioned the court at his family's request, saying he could not care for himself following the death of his wife, Melinda. By 1966 touring had already become an ordeal for Wilson, who suffered what would be his first mental breakdown. He remained the Beach Boys' mastermind but retreated to the studio to work, usually without his bandmates, on "Pet Sounds," a symphonic reflection on the loss of innocence. The landmark "Good Vibrations" was recorded during those sessions, though it did not make it on to the album. Though "Pet Sounds" included hits such as "Wouldn't It Be Nice," "Sloop John B" and "God Only Knows", it was not an immediate commercial success in the United States. There also was resistance to the album within the band, especially from singer Love, who wanted to stick with the proven money-making sound. 'IT'S LIKE FALLING IN LOVE' "Pet Sounds", which was released in 1966, later would come to be recognized as Wilson's magnum opus. Paul McCartney said it was an influence on the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." "No one's musical education is complete until they've heard 'Pet Sounds'," McCartney said. In 2012 Rolling Stone magazine ranked it second only to "Sgt. Pepper" on its list of the 500 greatest rock albums. "Hearing 'Pet Sounds' gave me the kind of feeling that raises the hairs on the back of your neck and you say, 'What is that? It's fantastic,'" George Martin, the Beatles' legendary producer, said in the liner notes of a reissued version of the album. "It's like falling in love." Flowers and a note are kept on the star of band Beach Boys following musician Brian Wilson's death on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles, California, US, on Wednesday. Reuters Released as a single that same year, "Good Vibrations" drew similar plaudits. On hearing the song, which would become the Beach Boys' greatest hit, Art Garfunkel called his musical partner Paul Simon to say: "I think I just heard the greatest, most creative record of them all." Stars of the music world paid tribute to Wilson on Wednesday. "Anyone with a musical bone in their body must be grateful for Brian Wilson's genius magical touch!!," Fleetwood Mac drummer Mick Fleetwood said on social media. Nancy Sinatra, who recorded a cover of "California Girls" with Wilson in 2002, wrote on Instagram that Wilson's "cherished music will live forever." Sean Ono Lennon, a musician and son of John Lennon, called Wilson "our American Mozart" and "a one of a kind genius from another world." The Beach Boys sold more than 100 million records. Wilson's career would be derailed, though, as his use of LSD, cocaine and alcohol became untenable and his mental state, which would eventually be diagnosed as schizoaffective disorder with auditory hallucinations, grew shakier. He became a recluse, lying in bed for days, abandoning hygiene, growing obese and sometimes venturing out in a bathrobe and slippers. He had a sandbox installed in his dining room and put his piano there. He also heard voices and was afraid that the lyrics of one of his songs were responsible for a series of fires in Los Angeles. UNORTHODOX THERAPY Born in June 1942, Brian Wilson, whose life was the subject of the 2014 movie "Love & Mercy," had two controlling men in his life. The first was his father, Murry Wilson, a part-time songwriter who recognized his son's musical talent early. He became the Beach Boys' manager and producer in their early years but also was physically and verbally abusive toward them. The band fired him in 1964. About a decade later, as Wilson floundered, his then-wife, Marilyn, hired psychotherapist Eugene Landy to help him. Landy spent 14 months with Wilson, using unusual methods such as promising him a cheeseburger if he wrote a song, before being dismissed. Landy was rehired in 1983 after Wilson went through another period of disturbing behavior that included overdosing, living in a city park and running up substantial debt. Landy used a 24-hour-a-day technique, which involved prescribing psychotropic drugs and padlocking the refrigerator, and eventually held sway over all aspects of Wilson's life, including serving as producer and co-writer of his music when he made a comeback with a 1988 solo album. Wilson's family went to court to end his relationship with Landy in 1992. Wilson said Landy had saved his life but also would later call him manipulative. California medical regulators accused Landy, who died in 2006, of improper involvement with a patient's affairs. He gave up his psychology license after admitting to unlawfully prescribing drugs. A sunflower lies atop the Beach Boys' star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame after the announcement of the death of the band's main songwriter Brian Wilson at 82, in Los Angeles on Wednesday AP Wilson's return to music was spotty. He appeared frail, tentative and shaky and none of the post-comeback work brought anything close to the acclaim of his earlier catalog. One of the best-received albums of his second act was the 2004 "Brian Wilson Presents Smile," a revisiting of the work that had been intended as the follow-up to "Pet Sounds" but which was scrapped because of opposition from bandmates. Wilson's brothers had both died by the time of the Beach Boys' 50th reunion tour in 2012 but he joined Love, who became the band's controlling force, for several shows. At the end, Wilson said he felt as if he had been fired but Love denied it. Wilson last performed live in 2022. Wilson and his first wife, Marilyn, had two daughters, Carnie and Wendy, who had hits in the 1990s as part of the group Wilson Phillips. He and second wife Melinda, whom he met when she sold him a car, had five children. Reuters
MTV Lebanon
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- MTV Lebanon
Beach Boys founder Brian Wilson dies at age 82
Beach Boys cofounder Brian Wilson, who created some of rock's most enduring songs such as "Good Vibrations" and "God Only Knows" in a career that was marked by a decades-long battle between his musical genius, drug abuse and mental health issues, has died at the age of 82. Wilson's family announced his death in a statement on the singer's website. "We are at a loss for words right now," the statement said. "We realize that we are sharing our grief with the world." The statement did not disclose a cause of death. Wilson had suffered from dementia and was unable to care for himself after his wife Melinda Wilson died in early 2024, prompting his family to put him under conservatorship. Starting in 1961, the Beach Boys put out a string of sunny hits celebrating the touchstones of California youth culture - surfing, cars and romance. But what made the songs special was the ethereal harmonies that Wilson arranged and that would become the band's lasting trademark. Wilson formed the band with younger brothers Carl and Dennis, cousin Mike Love and friend Al Jardine in their hometown, the Los Angeles suburb of Hawthorne. They went on to have 36 Top 40 hits, with Wilson writing and composing most of the early works. Songs such as "Little Deuce Coupe," "Surfin' U.S.A.," "California Girls," "Fun, Fun, Fun" and "Help Me, Rhonda" remain instantly recognizable and eminently danceable. But there were plenty of bad vibrations in Wilson's life: an abusive father, a cornucopia of drugs, a series of mental breakdowns, long periods of seclusion and depression and voices in his head that, even when he was on stage, told him he was no good. "I've lived a very, very difficult, haunted life," Wilson told the Washington Post in 2007. In May 2024, a judge ruled the 81-year-old Wilson should be put under a conservatorship after two longtime associates had petitioned the court at his family's request, saying he could not care for himself following the death of his wife, Melinda. By 1966 touring had already become an ordeal for Wilson, who suffered what would be his first mental breakdown. He remained the Beach Boys' mastermind but retreated to the studio to work, usually without his bandmates, on "Pet Sounds," a symphonic reflection on the loss of innocence. The landmark "Good Vibrations" was recorded during those sessions, though it did not make it on to the album. Though "Pet Sounds" included hits such as "Wouldn't It Be Nice," "Sloop John B" and "God Only Knows", it was not an immediate commercial success in the United States. There also was resistance to the album within the band, especially from singer Love, who wanted to stick with the proven money-making sound.
