Last month, I posted a fake album called ‘Endless Bummer – Vol.1’ which was a collection of some of the worst tracks The Beach Boys released before they put out the glorious ‘Pet Sounds’. Well, I did feel a bit bad about posting that so I thought about what I could do to make up for that and this is it, a collection of their hits. This is not just any collection of their hits mind you. This compilation only includes the singles that were hits in the UK.
A lot of the material The Beach Boys recorded in their early career just did not translate to the record buying pubic in the UK. Songs about sunshine, surfing and hot rod cars didn’t have much of a market over here and out of the really early singles, only ‘Surfin’ U.S.A.’ would be a hit, and a minor one at that, only reaching number 34. It would take until ‘I Get Around’ in 1964 for their first top ten hit. Out of the 21 singles the band released in the US between 1961 and 1966, not all would see a release in the UK and out of those that were, only 10 managed a chart placing; Granted, by the time we get to ‘Good Vibrations’, they have scored their first UK number 1.
Their albums would also be released out of order as well. ‘Surfin’ U.S.A.’ would be released in 1963 in the US, but would only see the light of day in the UK in 1965. Therefore, I have a problem with any release that claims to be a Greatest Hits record in the UK. That is because they always contain songs that were not hits in the UK. That might be why the majority of them go under the Best Of tag.
I have decided to address this with a collection that only includes songs that were hits in the UK. There is just about enough to fit onto a double LP, or one CD. All of these songs were Top 40 hits and I have also looked to include the single versions. That means, most of them are in mono. It also means that the disco version of ‘Here Comes The Night’ is also a lot shorter at four and a half minutes, whereas the album version was over ten. The harpsichord intro to ‘Lovely Lynda’ is also absent. That only appeared on the album version.
There is also a bonus track (if you can call it that) for the CD version, which is the collaboration between The Beach Boys and Status Quo. Unlike the collaboration between The Beach Boys and the Fat Boys, this version of ‘Fun, Fun, Fun’ did not initially appear on a Beach Boys album. I only include it here because if this were a real record, there would be enough room on the CD for it. The joke being that when the original Beach Boys version of this song was released in the UK, it was not a hit. This inferior version with Quo, made number 24.
The songs are presented in the order in which they were hits in the UK.
Side A
- Surfin’ U.S.A
- I Get Around
- When I Grow Up (To Be A Man)
- Dance, Dance, Dance
- Help Me, Rhonda
- California Girls
- Barbara Ann
- Sloop John B
Side B
- God Only Knows
- Good Vibrations
- Then I Kissed Here
- Heroes & Villains
- Wild Honey
- Darlin’
- Friends
Side C
- Do It Again
- Bluebirds Over The Mountain
- I Can Hear Music
- Break Away
- Cottonfields (The Cotton Song)
- California Saga (On My Way To Sunny Californ-i-a)
Side D
- Rock & Roll Music
- Here Comes The Night
- Lady Lynda
- Wipe Out (with The Fat Boys)
- Kokomo
CD Bonus Track
Fun, Fun, Fun (with Status Quo)
The sleeve was taken from the a piece of artwork created by a user on the Smiley Smile message board.