I feel that in the past, I have been a little bit harsh on The Beach Boys with my ‘Endless Bummer’ compilations. Some of the songs they have released are timeless classics. Their story is also one of the great soap operas in music with family feuds, drug abuse, mental health problems and Mike Love. Their story begins in the late 1950’s when a 16 year old Brian Wilson has been soaking up the piano playing of his father, Murray Wilson and the vocal harmony group, the Four Freshman. Brian would teach his family members how to sing the background harmonies, gaining experience for what he would do in the recording studio. In 1958, he received a reel-to-reel tape recorder which he used to overdub his voice along with the aforementioned family.
When his youngest brother Carl received a guitar for Christmas, the pair of them (along with Carl’s friend David Marks) would start playing together. Brian also started to write songs and other people who would become part of The Beach Boys family started to appear on the scene. These were Mike Love, cousin to the Wilson’s and Al Jardine who was a classmate of Brian. Brian suggested that he, Carl, Love and Jardine should team up as a group which was given the name, The Pendletones, a pun on Pendelton which was a style of shirt that was the fashion at the time.
This is where the third Wilson brother comes in to the picture. Middle brother Dennis was the only surfer in the group and it was on his suggestion that the group should write songs about the sport and the lifestyle it inspired. From this came the songs ‘Surfin’ and ‘ Surfin’ Safari’. Murray Wilson had had some experience of the music business and most importantly, some contacts. He introduced The Pendletones to publisher Hite Morgan which lead to the group recording a demo of ‘Surfin’. Murray shopped the demo to Herb Newman who owned the Candix Record label. Candix would release the song (backed with ‘Luau’) but had changed the name of the group to The Beach Boys because the labels promotion man felt it would associate them more directly with the surf-music genre. By the end of 1961, ‘Surfin’ had sold 40,000 copies.
Morgan asked some of The Beach Boys to add some vocals to some backing tracks he had recorded previously with some other musicians. These became the single credited to Kenny & The Cadets’ with Brian on lead vocals, backed with Carl and Jardine along with the Wilsons’ mother, Audree. Another member of Kenny & The Cadets was Val Polite who I believe was a member of the LA based vocal group, The Jaguars. Jardine would leave The Beach Boys to study dentistry and was replaced by David Marks. However, Candix had always struggled with cash flow problems and having a successful single actually didn’t help. Candix would go bankrupt and Murray Wilson tried to find the band a new label. Considering they had had a national hit, be it a small one (‘Surfin’ made number 75 in the Billboard top 100), labels such as Dot and Liberty turned them down feeling that the band where a one minor hit wonder.
Capitol Records eventually signed the group to a seven year contract and work began on their debut album, ‘Surfin’ Safari’ and it because that album is 60 years old this month that I have put together this collection. This project originally started out as deluxe edition of that album. The Beach Boys have been one of the few bands (in my opinion) that in recent years, have served their fans well by opening up the vaults to the gold contained within. However, what they did not do very often was focus on one album releasing session and live tracks for the period. This would have been the first of those deluxe editions but when it came to it, this actually proved to be a bit tricker than it would be for other bands. That is because The Beach Boys put out so much product in a relatively short time, even by the standards of the 1960s. Just to put this into context, they released ten albums between 1962 and 1965. That does not include the single only tracks and the work Brian completed with other artists. He was a very busy man for the majority of the 60s. No wonder he had a break down at the end of the ‘Smile’ sessions.
So instead of a deluxe edition of the albums, what I have put together instead is a collection that looks at a particular year, except with this first collection that covers the first three from their first home demos until the start of the sessions for their second album, ‘Surfin’ U.S.A.’. I have looked to include as many variations of a song that I could find. This includes demos, false takes and rehearsals. I took inspiration for these collections on the mighty fine compilation, ‘Becoming The Beach Boys – The Complete Hite & Dorinda Morgan Sessions’. This would take a song and have all of the versions of it before moving on to the next one. Granted, it does make it a bit of a heavy listen after the fifth breakdown of a take.
I would also not normally include any songs that had the hand of Brian Wilson in it that wasn’t released under The Beach Boys name but on this one occasion, I have included those Kenny & The Cadet recordings here. Therefore, all of the other Brian Wilson solo recordings and outside productions are not included here as I think they should have a box set all to themselves. These tracks have also not been presented in the order in which they were recorded. I have followed the running order of the parent albums and added songs that were unreleased at the time where there was space.
Disc 1 – 1960 Home Recordings
The first CD is a collection of home demos showing Brian getting use to working with the tape recorder as well as working out how to get the best performances out of the group. As a final note, it is interesting that there is a version of ‘Sloop John B’ on these early recordings as The Beach Boys would resist this around the time of their masterpiece ‘Pet Sounds’ LP.
All of the songs on this disc were taken from ‘The Garage Tapes’ bootleg, except for track 2 which came from the ‘Hawthorne, CA: Birthplace Of A Musical Legacy’ compilation and track 11 which comes from the ‘Rarities 1962-1968’ bootleg. Even though the years on that bootleg are later than the music contained on this disc, track 11 sounds like the other home demos the band recorded so it goes here instead of later.
- Vocal Rehearsal
- Happy Birthday Four Freshmen
- Surfin #1
- Surfin #2
- Surfin #3
- Surfin #4
- Surfin #5
- Surfin #6
- Surfin #7
- Surfin #8
- Surfin (Rehearsal)
- Bermuda Shorts #1
- Bermuda Shorts #2
- Sloop John B
- Good News
- Holly Gully
- Happy Birthday
- Dream
- To Spend One Night With You
- Brian At The Piano
- July 18th Celebration
- White Christmas
- Murray Directs Brian At The Organ
Disc 2
Discs 2 & 3 are from the ‘Becoming The Beach Boys – The Complete Hite & Dorinda Morgan Sessions’ with a couple of extra tracks from the earlier compilation ‘Studio Session 61-62*’ which included a couple of takes that were unavailable anywhere else. An alternative version of ‘Barbie’ is taken from the rare Japanese only compilation ‘Still I Dream Of You: Rare Works of Brian Wilson” from 1993 where it was listed at Take 2.
- Surfin’ (Demo)
- Surfin’ (Takes 1 & 2)
- Surfin’ (Take 3)
- Surfin’ (Take 4)
- Surfin’ (Take 5)
- Surfin’ (Take 6)
- Surfin’ (Take 7)
- Surfin’ (Take 8)
- Surfin’ (Master)
- Luau (Demo Take 1)
- Luau (Demo Take 2)
- Luau (Demo Take 3)
- Luau (Takes 1 & 2)
- Luau (Takes 3, 5 & 6)
- Luau (Take 7)
- Luau (Takes 8, 9, 10 & 11)
- Luau (Take 12)
- Luau (Master)
- Lavender (Demo)*
- Lavender (Rehearsal Take 1)
- Lavender (Rehearsal Take 2)
- Lavender (Rehearsal Take 3)
- Surfin’ Safari (Takes 3 & 4)
- Surfin’ Safari (Takes 5 & 6)
- Surfin’ Safari (Take 10)
- Surfin’ Safari (Overdub Take 1 On Take 6)
- Surfin’ Safari (Overdub Take 2 On Take 10)
- Surfin’ Safari (Master)
- Surfin’ Safari (Stereo Overdub)
Disc 3
- Surfer Girl (Take 1)
- Surfer Girl (Take 2)
- Surfer Girl (Take 3)
- Surfer Girl (Take 4)
- Surfer Girl (Take 5)
- Surfer Girl (Take 6)
- Surfer Girl (Master)
- Surfer Girl (Overdub Lead Vocal)
- Judy (Take 1)
- Judy (Take 2)
- Judy (Overdub Takes 1 & 2)
- Judy (Overdub Take 4)
- Judy (Master)
- Judy (Demo – April 1962 Guitar Solo)
- Beach Boys Stomp (A.K.A. Karate) (Take 1)
- Beach Boys Stomp (A.K.A. Karate) (Rehearsal Take 2)
- Beach Boys Stomp (A.K.A. Karate) (Overdub Take 1 On Take 1)
- Beach Boys Stomp (A.K.A. Karate) (Overdub Take 2 On Take 1)
- Beach Boys Stomp (A.K.A. Karate) (Candix Session)*
- Beach Boys Stomp (A.K.A. Karate) (Master)
- Barbie (Overdub Take 1) – Kenny & The Cadets
- Barbie (Overdub Take 2, 3 & 4) – Kenny & The Cadets
- Barbie (Overdub Take 5) – Kenny & The Cadets
- Barbie (Overdub Take 7) – Kenny & The Cadets
- Barbie (Mono Single Master) – Kenny & The Cadets
- Barbie (Mono Album Master) – Kenny & The Cadets
- Barbie (Alt. Version) – Kenny & The Cadets
- Barbie (Stereo) – Kenny & The Cadets*
- What Is A Young Girl Made Of (Demo) – Kenny & The Cadets
- What Is A Young Girl Made Of (Overdub Take 1) – Kenny & The Cadets
- What Is A Young Girl Made Of (Overdub Take 3) – Kenny & The Cadets
- What Is A Young Girl Made Of (Overdub Takes 4 & 5) – Kenny & The Cadets
- What Is A Young Girl Made Of (Overdub Take 6) – Kenny & The Cadets
- What Is A Young Girl Made Of (Overdub Take 7) – Kenny & The Cadets
- What Is A Young Girl Made Of (Mono Master) – Kenny & The Cadets
- What Is A Young Girl Made Of (Stereo) – Kenny & The Cadets*
Disc 4
Discs 4 & 5 cover the sessions for the ‘Surfin’ Safari’ along with any other song that was recorded in 1962. This does include some versions of songs that would appear on the album that came out the following year. This includes both the mono and duophonic mixes of the album.
** Surfin’ Safari
*** Surfin’ Safari (1990 Reissue)
****Surfer Girl
***** Little Deuce Coupe
^ Good Vibrations: Thirty Years Of The Beach Boys (Box Set)
^^ Unsurpassed Masters Vol.1 (Bootleg)
^^^ Unsurpassed Masters Vol.3 (Bootleg)
^^^^ In The Beginning (Bootleg)
- Surfin’ Safari (Mono)**
- Surfin’ Safari (Duophonic)**
- Surfin Sarafi (2021 Stereo Mix)+++
- Country Fair (Instrumental)^^
- Country Fair (Overdub 2, Take 13)^^
- Country Fair (Mono)**
- Country Fair (Duophonic)**
- Ten Little Indians (Mono)**
- Ten Little Indians (Duophonic)**
- Chug-A-Lug (Mono)**
- Chug-A-Lug (Duophonic)**
- Little Girl (You’re My Miss America) (Instrumental Takes 1 & 2)^^
- Little Girl (You’re My Miss America) (Instrumental Takes 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 & 8)^^
- Little Girl (You’re My Miss America) (Instrumental Takes 9, 10, 11 & 12)^^
- Little Girl (You’re My Miss America) (Instrumental Take 13)^^
- Little Girl (You’re My Miss America) (Instrumental Take 15)^^
- Little Girl (You’re My Miss America) (Mono)**
- Little Girl (You’re My Miss America) (Duophonic)**
- 409 (Mono)**
- 409 (Duophonic)***
- Land Ahoy (Instrumental Take 1)^^
- Land Ahoy (Overdub 1, Takes 2 & 3)^^
- Land Ahoy (Overdub 1, Take 4)^^
- Land Ahoy (Overdub 1, Take 5)^^
- Land Ahoy****
- The Surfer Moon (Instrumental Take 1)^^
- The Surfer Moon (Instrumental Take 2)^^
- The Surfer Moon (Instrumental Take 3)^^
- The Surfer Moon (Vocal Overdub, Take 19)^^^^
- The Surfer Moon (1st Stereo Mix, Vocal Take)^^^
- The Surfer Moon (2nd Stereo Mix, Vocal Take)^^^
- The Surfer Moon (Mono)****
- The Surfer Moon (Stereo)****
- Their Hearts Were Full Off Spring (Demo)^
Disc 5
** Surfin’ Safari
*** Surfin’ Safari (1990 Reissue)
****Surfer Girl
***** Little Deuce Coupe
+ Made In California (Box Set)
++ Hawthorne, CA: Birthplace Of A Musical Legacy
+++Sounds Of Summer: The Best Of The Beach Boys (Expanded Super Deluxe)
^ Good Vibrations: Thirty Years Of The Beach Boys (Box Set)
^^ Unsurpassed Masters Vol.1 (Bootleg)
^^^ Unsurpassed Masters Vol.3 (Bootleg)
^^^^ In The Beginning (Bootleg) Surfin’ (Mono)**
- Surfin’ (Duophonic)**
- Heads You Win, Tails I Lose (Overdub 1, Take 13)^^
- Heads You Win, Tails I Lose (Overdub 1, Take 14, 15 & 16)^^
- Heads You Win, Tails I Lose (Overdub 1, Take 17)^^
- Heads You Win, Tails I Lose (Mono)**
- Heads You Win, Tails I Lose (Duophonic)**
- Summertime Blues (Instrumental, Takes 1 & 2)^^
- Summertime Blues (Instrumental, Take 3)^^
- Summertime Blues (Instrumental, Take 4)^^
- Summertime Blues (Overdub, Take 5)^^
- Summertime Blues (Overdub, Takes 6 & 7)^^
- Summertime Blues (Overdub, Take 8)^^
- Summertime Blues (Overdub, Take 9)^^
- Summertime Blues (Overdub, Take 10)^^
- Summertime Blues (Overdub, Take 11)^^
- Summertime Blues (Overdub, Take 12)^^
- Summertime Blues (Mono)**
- Summertime Blues (Duophonic)**
- Cuckoo Clock (Instrumental)^^
- Cuckoo Clock (Overdub 2, Take 12)^^
- Cuckoo Clock (Mono)**
- Cuckoo Clock (Duophonic)**
- The Shift (Mono)**
- The Shift (Duophonic)**
- Cindy, Oh Cindy (Instrumental, Take 1)^^
- Cindy, Oh Cindy (Instrumental, Takes 2, 3 & 4)^^
- Cindy, Oh Cindy (Instrumental, 5, 6 & 7)^^
- Cindy, Oh Cindy (Instrumental, Take 8)^^
- Cindy, Oh Cindy (Vocal Take)^^
- Cindy, Oh Cindy***
- Lonely Sea (Mono)**
- Lonely Sea (Stereo)**
- Lonely Sea (Original Long Mono Version)+
- Surfin’ U.S.A. (Demo With Drums)++
The cover image was taken at the same photo session that produced the shot used for ‘Surfin’ Safari’ LP sleeve.