The Beach Boys: Sounds Of Summer - The Very Best of The Beach Boys CD Track Listing

A list by checkmate

The Beach Boys Sounds Of Summer - The Very Best of The Beach Boys (2003)
Sounds Of Summer : The Very Best Of The Beach Boys\n2004 Capitol Records, Inc.\n\nOriginally Released as 'Sounds Of Summer' on June 10, 2003\nReleased as 'Sights And Sounds Of Summer' on June 15, 2004\n\nAMG EXPERT REVIEW: After gaining control of the Beach Boys' entire catalog (including all the band's post-1969 material), Capitol released two-fers covering their out of print '70s records and a Brian Wilson-selected compilation titled Classics, then later, a hits compilation -- the longest single-disc American collection ever seen. With all but five tracks coming from their 1962-1969 peak, and every one a Top 40 hit, Sounds of Summer: The Very Best of the Beach Boys is also the best, a worthy digital-age successor to previous classics like Endless Summer and Greatest Hits, Vol. 1. Though the songs don't appear in chronological order, the compilers improved the concept of a hits compilation by bunching the disc into minisets -- one of classic adolescence songs ("Be True to Your School," "When I Grow Up [To Be a Man]," "In My Room"), one of surfing songs ("Surfin' Safari," "Surfin' U.S.A.," "Surfer Girl"), one of frat-boy classics ("Dance, Dance, Dance," "Barbara Ann"), and another including selections from their masterpiece Pet Sounds ("God Only Knows," "Sloop John B.," "Wouldn't It Be Nice"). Nearly any compilation on an important artist can be argued, but it's the rare one that covers as many bases and leaves out so few classics as this one. [One year after the disc's original issue, Sights and Sounds of Summer followed, with the original CD bolstered by a ten-track DVD program. The DVD includes four songs from the group's 1964 appearance on The T.A.M.I. Show (excellent performances complicated by a wind tunnel of screaming girls) -- plus one song from The Lost Concert, the surreal promo videos for "Sloop John B." and Pet Sounds (the latter is a montage of songs), and both performances from the Beach Boys' 1968 appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show.] ~ John Bush\n\nAmazon.com Customer Review\nWorth it for the DVD alone! ALL 4 SONGS FROM THE TAMI SHOW!, August 24, 2004 \nReviewer: Bryan Barrow (Santa Cruz, CA USA)\nThe CD is another rehashed collection of Beach Boys hits, with a few uncommon tracks. If they had dumped Come Go With Me and Rock & roll music and added Sail On Sailor and Surf's Up, this would have been a near perfect collection. The DVD (only 10 tracks, not 20 as listed above) has ALL 4 SONGS FROM THE 1964 TAMI SHOW! It also has songs from the "Lost Concert" some Pet sounds promos, Ed Sullivan songs and a couple more. If they had added a few more promo videos, like the early tv appearances singing "Surfin" and "Surfin' Safari" with David Marks (pre Al Jardine) this would have been a 5 star set! \n\nAmazon.com Customer Review\nEven with its flaws, a classic..., June 30, 2004 \nReviewer: dvdtrkr (San Diego CA)\nFirst the bonuses... it's a decent overview that you not only get to hear but see the band as well. Considering how many repackages that have been done, I'd recommend this one out of them all. It's a great intro for a new generation to listen to, the ones that bought the Beatles and Elvis 1's. I like it better than both of the documentaries, and wish they would put out a full-length DVD of all their great songs and some of the promo videos they did in the 80s. Even the one they did with the Fat Boys. But I do feel that you get your money's worth with this collection. \n\nThe drawbacks are the songs that are missing, which would amount to a whole other CD. Maybe a "rock" CD and a "roll" CD... As a companion (even though there are songs on both) I'd recommend "Beach Boys Classics", a set handpicked by Brian that serves as a great companion to this one, or just get the "Good Vibrations" box set which covers a lot of territory. And "Pet Sounds" should have been in your collection anyway. \n\nAmazon.com Customer Review\nComprehensive, June 24, 2004\nReviewer: Richard Nelson (Chicago, IL)\nIt's possible to get through life with only two Beach Boys albums, but you've got to pick the one that isn't Pet Sounds pretty carefully. This is a perfect choice. Following the popular fill-the-disc format of recent greatest hits albums, it packs 30 tracks together on a single CD. What's impressive about this is that there's very little dropoff in quality between the very best songs in the collection and the few that might be less recognizable to a Beach Boys neophyte, like "Wild Honey," "Darlin'," and "Good Timin'." All the big hits are here, and they sound great thanks to good sequencing and a few new stereo mixes. You can't go wrong with this album.\n\nAmazon.com Customer Review\nTotal Madness!, July 1, 2003\nReviewer: Joseph Clark (Washington, D.C.)\nA maddening CD to listen to on headphones because of the constant alternating between stereo and mono mixes. Also, the stereo songs are louder so I was constantly adjusting the volume control. Not only is there a stereo/mono thing but also a difference between the original Sixties stereo mixes and the modern mixes. The original stereo mixes are used for the Surfer Girl LP songs that are here (Surfer Girl, Little Deuce Coupe & In My Room). These primitive mixes have the instrumentation in mono but the voices coming out of both left and right speaker channels as the vocals were double-tracked. These mixes highlight the vocals, burying the instrumentation. Surfin' USA is presented in its original stereo mix which shunts off the instrumentation to the right speaker and the vocals to the left. Shut Down has a new, echoey stereo mix which I don't like. It sounds like a digital extraction mix. California Girls, Dance Dance Dance and Heroes & Villains are presented in the stereo mixes presented on the Hawthorne double CD package. These mixes are outstanding. The Pet Sounds songs (Wouldn't It Be Nice, God Only Knows and Sloop John B.) are presented in the stereo mixes used on the most recent Pet Sounds reissue. Songs in mono are Surfin' Safari, Be True To Your School, Fun Fun Fun, Don't Worry Baby, I Get Around, When I Grow Up, Do You Wanna Dance, Help Me Rhonda, Barbara Ann, Good Vibrations, Darlin', Wild Honey and Do It Again. \nAlso annoying is the re-arranging of the songs. The neat thing about the early Beach Boys was how Brian Wilson and the group kept growing more sophisticated and daring from 1962 through 1967. Also, the later songs tell a story of how the group tried to change with the times in the late Sixties (Heroes & Villains, Darlin', Wild Honey) and later gave in to a retro sound (Rock and Roll Music, Come Go With Me, Getcha Back & Kokomo) With the songs jumbled up, Brian Wilson's artistic development and the group's story get lost. For those of you who wish to hear the songs in their chronological order, here goes: 3, 4, 9, 6, 8, 13, 11, 5, 7, 2, 12, 20, 22, 10, 1, 21, 15, 16, 14, 30, 23, 27, 28, 26, 29, 19, 24, 18, 17 and 25. This will also lessen the mono/stereo problem a bit.\n\nAlso, the title is misleading. It should be called 30 of the Beach Boys' Top 40 Billboard Magazine Chart Hits That We Could Fit Onto A CD, Although There Was Room For One More. Only three Top 40 songs are missing: The Little Girl I Once Knew #20, Caroline No #32, and It's OK #29. Why Wild Honey #31 was included and The Little Girl I Once Knew was left off seems rather arbitrary. Many of the hits don't have a Summer Sound. Many other classic Beach Boys songs that ARE truly Summery such as All Summer Long, Your Summer Dream, Keep An Eye On Summer, etc. are not here. That was Endless Summer, which was a superior package.\n\nThis gets 4 stars because the songs are great. But one is better off getting the three greatest hits CDs which give you the original Brian Wilson mono mixes for the early material, which ultimately is the best way to go until all the early stuff has been remixed to stereo. Also, one CD is not enough to represent all that the Beach Boys were about.\n\nAmazon.com Customer Review\nAnother Beach Boys Collection, June 12, 2003\nReviewer: A music fan\nIn the era of compact discs, Capitol has anthologized the Beach Boys no less than six times. This time, they attempt to do for the Beach Boys what 1 did for the Beatles, to provide a single disc introduction and provide new listeners with a good starting off point. \nA previous reviewer provided good information on the mono/stereo aspects of each song. I suspect that mono versions were used where true stereo versions were not available. Many of the mono songs were available on vinyl originally using "Duophonic Sound", a fancy term for echo enhancement. Mastering for this edition was done by Joe Gastwirt and production by Mark Linnett, who did the recent excellent CD transfers of the original albums. This differs from the mastering done for the 1999 Greatest Hits volumes, which tried to present the songs mostly as single, radio mixes. Gastwirt and Linnett have done extensive tape research and probably know as much about the sound of the Beach Boys songs as Brian Wilson, himself.\n\nA couple of gripes with this collection keep this CD from receiving the five star rating. I would have preferred that the running order was chronological. While most of the earlier songs are toward the beginning and the later songs toward the end, the differences in sound quality are drastic. Also, the song selection is questionable. I probably would have opted for Warmth Of The Sun, Caroline No, or Sail On Sailor instead of Getcha Back, Kokomo, or Wild Honey. The liner notes try to convey the impact of the Beach Boys on American life but really do not say anything insightful about the songs or the Beach Boys themselves. Finally, even with thirty songs, running time was a little less than 76 minutes, room enough for at least one more song. \n\nHowever, this is great music, great sound, and a good introduction to a bunch of guys who were groundbreakers forty years ago. Endless Summer brought the boys to new heights of popularity in the 70s and if Sounds Of Summer gets more than a few kids interested in the band, it will have served its purpose.\n\nHalf.com Album Notes\nThis release includes a bonus DVD featuring rare footage of early Beach Boys performances.\n\nThe Beach Boys: Dennis Wilson, Al Jardine, Mike Love, Brian Wilson , Bruce Johnston, Carl Wilson.\n\nLiner Note Author: Anthony DeCurtis.\n\nOne of the few acts to simultaneously challenge and inspire the Beatles, the Beach Boys continued making wonderful music long after the 1960s drew to a close. SIGHTS & SOUNDS OF SUMMER is the first single-disc hits package to comprehensively cover the Boys' entire career. Organized thematically rather than chronologically, the collection explores both the group's sun-soaked California teenage fantasies ("Surfin' Safari," "Little Deuce Coupe") and Brian Wilson's later, increasingly introspective and sophisticated pieces ("God Only Knows," "Heroes and Villains"). In addition, there is a healthy amount of running time devoted to the group's harder-edged, band-oriented '70s experiments ("Good Timin'") and '80s revivalist hits ("Kokomo"). One of the few best-of CDs that can boast 30 tracks of uniformly great music, SIGHTS & SOUNDS OF SUMMER will satisfy both nostalgia hounds and Beach Boys neophytes curious about why this ostensibly innocuous West Coast band is counted among pop music's greatest groups. YEAR: 2003
This rock cd contains 30 tracks and runs 75min 58sec.
Freedb: b311cc1e
Buy: from Amazon.com

Categories

Latest lists

The Beach Boys: Sounds Of Summer - The Very Best of The Beach Boys CD Track Listing

Category

Tags

cyList

Legal