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Шаблон:Short description Шаблон:Good article Шаблон:Use mdy dates Шаблон:Infobox album

All Summer Long is the sixth album by American rock band the Beach Boys, released July 13, 1964 on Capitol Records. Regarded as their first artistically unified collection of songs, as well as one of the first true concept albums, it marked the Beach Boys' first LP that was not focused on themes of cars or surfing. Instead, the songs are semi-autobiographical and relate to the experiences of a typical Southern Californian teenager, a theme encapsulated by the title track, "All Summer Long", and the often-imitated front cover, a modernist style photo collage depicting the band members fraternizing with young women on a beach.

The album was recorded between April and May 1964 during the height of Beatlemania and the British Invasion. It was produced and largely written by Brian Wilson, who sought to raise the quality of his group's repertoire and sound following the disappointing results of Shut Down Volume 2. Also intended as a riposte to the Beatles, All Summer Long contained the band's most complex arrangements and refined vocal performances on a record to date. Among the included songs are "Wendy", "Drive-In", "Don't Back Down", and a rendition of the Mystics' 1959 hit "Hushabye".

Heralding the album era, All Summer Long reached number 4 in the US during a 49-week chart stay and yielded one single, "I Get Around", the band's first number-one hit in the US, cementing the group's sustainability in a market then dominated by British acts. To support the album, the group embarked on their first extended tour, playing about 70 shows over the course of the summer. A version of "Little Honda" by the Hondells became a top 10 hit, while "Girls on the Beach" later served as the theme for the 1965 film of the same name. In the UK, All Summer Long was issued in June 1965 and failed to chart. By then, it had been certified gold by the RIAA, indicating 500,000 units sold.

Wilson later cited All Summer Long as "a turning point" for the band, and his first LP that could compete against Phil Spector and the Beatles. Subsequent to this album, the Beach Boys rarely recorded songs about cars or surfing, but continued to be stereotyped as a group who exclusively sang about such subject matter, even as their musical sophistication continued to grow with such releases as The Beach Boys Today! (1965) and Pet Sounds (1966).

Background

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Early in 1964, the Beach Boys completed their fifth album, Shut Down Volume 2, and embarked on their first tour of Australia and New Zealand, lasting from January 13 to February 2.Шаблон:Sfn The tour was highly successful, but led to the dismissal of their manager, Murry Wilson, who had frustrated the group with his overbearing practices and his disruptive behavior at recording sessions.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn Concurrently, the band were conscious of a new rival group, the Beatles, whose "I Want to Hold Your Hand" topped the U.S. charts on February 1.Шаблон:Sfn The Beach Boys' latest single, "Fun, Fun, Fun", then stalled at number five, with the Beatles occupying the top three positions.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn The fourth position was held by the Four Seasons, the act that most closely rivaled the Beach Boys before this point.Шаблон:Sfn

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The Beach Boys in 1964. From left: Mike Love, Brian Wilson (back row), Al Jardine, Dennis Wilson, and Carl Wilson (front row).

By February 7, the British Invasion had officially commenced with the Beatles' arrival in New York City.Шаблон:Sfn Mike Love recalled, "To varying degrees, all of us in the Beach Boys were rattled, but most of all Brian [Wilson], who saw the Beatles as a challenge to his emerging position as a leader in pop music."Шаблон:Sfn Wilson said in a 1966 interview, "I knew we were good but it wasn't until the Beatles arrived that I knew we had to get going.Шаблон:Nbsp[...] When we saw how everybody was screaming for the Beatles, it was like, 'Whooa!' We couldn't believe it. I was shook up as hell."Шаблон:Sfn His 1991 memoir, Wouldn't It Be Nice, states that he had "suddenly felt unhipШаблон:Nbsp[...] as if we looked more like golf caddies than rock and roll stars" and considered scrapping Shut Down Volume 2.Шаблон:Sfn After discussing the matter with Love, they concluded that competing with the Beatles in terms of public image was a pointless pursuit, leading them to concentrate their efforts on trying to outdo their rivals in the recording studio.Шаблон:Sfn

Capitol Records, whose roster included both the Beach Boys and the Beatles, responded the next month by rush-releasing Shut Down Volume 2, becoming the first Beach Boys LP to miss the top 10 since their second, Surfin' U.S.A. (1963).Шаблон:Sfn Moreover, the record company had begun allocating much of their marketing resources to the Beatles. Band promoter Fred Vail recalled, "The Beach Boys had been it for two years, but now people thought the Beatles were the future. And loyalties ran thin at Capitol. Now they didn't have to cater to Murry and the Beach Boys, and so they didn't."Шаблон:Sfn In the meantime, Wilson continued working freelance, writing and producing several singles for other acts, none of which became hits.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:SfnШаблон:Refn

Style and production

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Entrance of Western Studio on Sunset Boulevard (2019)

All Summer Long was largely recorded between April 2 and May 19, 1964, at United Western Recorders in Hollywood.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Refn According to music historian Keith Badman, Wilson had been disappointed by the simplicity, reliance on filler, and overall rushed quality of Shut Down Volume 2, and endeavored for All Summer Long to be a more refined and sophisticated effort.Шаблон:Sfn The album marked the band's most complex arrangements on a record to date, as well as their first that was not focused on themes of cars or surfing.Шаблон:Sfn Wilson remarked, "We needed to grow. Up to this point we had milked every idea dry. We milked it fucking dry. We had done every possible angle about surfing and then we did the car routine. But we needed to grow artistically."Шаблон:Sfn

Academic Kier Keightley writes that All Summer Long consists of seven "up-tempo/dance numbers", four "ballads", and one "novelty sound collage", with subject matter ranging from "car and motorbike racing" and "teen romance" to "the consumption of mass media forms of entertainment" and "various other forms of summer fun".Шаблон:Sfn None of the songs are about cars (although one track, "Little Honda", is about a motorcycle), and the only reference to surfing is in "Don't Back Down".[1]

Biographer Mark Dillon states that the album generally projects "a whole season of teenaged good times" with the exception of "a couple of numbers that threaten to kill the buzz", listing "We'll Run Away" and "Wendy".Шаблон:Sfn He goes on to describe the lyrical content as "the entire scrapbookШаблон:Nbsp[...] of mid-'60s SoCal teenage life", a theme that is reinforced by the front cover.Шаблон:Sfn Biographer David Leaf referred to the album as "more autobiographical" than previous records and "the first time the Beach Boys recorded a complete album about their own Southern California lifestyle."[2] He suggested that the album qualified as one of "the first real concept albums".Шаблон:Sfn

Production-wise, the album introduced exotic textures to the band's sound as exemplified by the use of piccolo and xylophone in the title track.Шаблон:Sfn The majority of the instrumentation was provided by the band members themselves, with Carl Wilson and Al Jardine on guitars, Brian on bass, and Dennis Wilson on drums.Шаблон:Sfn Studio musicians augmented their sound on select tracks.[3] At Brian's behest, the group also spent many more hours than usual refining their vocal performances.Шаблон:Sfn Biographer Jon Stebbins writes,

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It was their last album mixed in true stereo until Friends (1968).Шаблон:Sfn "Let's Live (Before We Die)", a discarded track, was released on the 2014 compilation Keep an Eye on Summer – The Beach Boys Sessions 1964. The compilation also included many alternate versions and session highlights of other tracks, sourced from the All Summer Long sessions.[3]

Content

Side one

"I Get Around" is an autobiographical song that describes the group's reaction to their newfound fame and success.Шаблон:Sfn Mike Love said that it was "really about our own experiences: how we had this instant fame, some fortune, had traveled all over the country, but did any of that bring us happiness? Maybe we needed to find a different kind of place."Шаблон:Sfn Biographer Peter Ames Carlin distinguished the song for its "jarring rhythmic shifts, fuzz guitar, off-kilter organ riffs, and Brian's own wailing falsetto",Шаблон:Sfn while Leaf called it "a major, revolutionary step in Brian's use of dynamics".[2]

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"All Summer Long" encapsulated the album's general theme, with the lyrics offering a list of activities, events, and feelings associated with summertime.Шаблон:Sfn The line "Remember when you spilled Coke all over your blouse?" is a reference to Wilson's first meeting with singer Marilyn Rovell, his girlfriend at the time, although in real life, he had accidentally spilled hot chocolate on her.Шаблон:Sfn The song later became popularly known for its use in the ending credits of George Lucas's 1973 film American Graffiti.Шаблон:Sfn

"Hushabye", the album's only cover song, is a rendition of the Mystics' 1959 doo-wop standard, written by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman.Шаблон:Sfn

"Little Honda" is about Honda-brand scooters, which are also mentioned in "All Summer Long" ("miniature golf and Hondas in the heat").Шаблон:Sfn The song contains pioneering usage of guitar fuzz tone.Шаблон:Sfn It was briefly considered for release as a Beach Boys single. After Capitol voiced objections, Wilson gave it to his collaborator, Gary Usher, who produced a version that became a hit for the Hondells in late 1964.Шаблон:Sfn

"We'll Run Away" portrays a young couple wishing to elope while their respective parents warn them against such an impulse.Шаблон:Sfn It was the last song that Wilson co-wrote with Gary Usher for many years,Шаблон:Sfn and had likely been written in 1962.Шаблон:Sfn Leaf notes that the "church-like sound of the Hammond organ", heard prominently at the end, was an unorthodox application of the instrument on a rock record.[2]

"Carl's Big Chance", recorded to showcase Carl's guitar-playing, is the album's only instrumental track and the final surf instrumental released on any of their studio albums.Шаблон:Sfn It serves as a companion piece to "Denny's Drums" from Shut Down Volume 2.[2] Musicologist Philip Lambert speculates that the track was based on "Can I Get a Witness", a recent hit for Marvin Gaye.Шаблон:Sfn

Side two

"Wendy" portrays a man's dejection after discovering that the woman whom he thought was his girlfriend was actually romantically involved with somebody else.Шаблон:Sfn Wilson, who later named his second-born child "Wendy", stated that the song was musically influenced by the Four Seasons.[4] Leaf suggests that the song has "one of the most unusual introductions of any record from the rock era", making it "one of the most distinctive Beach Boys tracks ever."[2]

"Do You Remember?" is a celebration of 1950s rock 'n' roll performers such as Little Richard, Chuck Berry, and Elvis Presley.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Refn It is essentially a revision of "The Big Beat", a song that Wilson had written and produced for Bob & Sheri in 1963.[5]

"Girls on the Beach" is a ballad in a similar vein to Wilson's 1963 song "Surfer Girl", but more musically complexШаблон:Sfn and sexualized.Шаблон:Sfn Stebbins cited the line "the sun in her hair / the warmth of the air", sung by Dennis, as "[o]ne of the most perfect uses of [his] sexy voice", and the closing block harmonies as "one of the group's finest moments".Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Refn The song later served as the theme to the 1965 Paramount Pictures film The Girls on the Beach, where the Beach Boys made a cameo appearance as themselves.Шаблон:Sfn Although the plot centered on the Beatles, the film featured scenes in which the Beach Boys lip sync to this song, "Little Honda", and the Surfin' U.S.A. track "Lonely Sea".Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn

"Drive-In" was inspired by the group's outings at the Studio Drive-In in Culver City, California.Шаблон:Sfn The song gives the listener advice on how to enter a drive-in theater without paying for admission, among other things, and climaxes with a line alluding to contraception ("If you say you watched the movie, you're a couple of liars / And remember, only you can prevent forest fires").Шаблон:Sfn During the filming of the 1995 documentary Brian Wilson: I Just Wasn't Made for These Times, director Don Was attempted to coax Wilson into discussing the unfinished album Smile. To achieve this, he approached Wilson by asking him what he considered to be "the heaviest work" that he had ever done. Wilson suddenly became excited by the question and proceeded to give vivid recollections of the tracking date for "Drive-In", which he considered to be the best record he had ever made. The footage was not used in the documentary.[6]

"Our Favorite Recording Sessions" is a collage of outtakes and studio chatter culled from the album's recording sessions.Шаблон:Sfn According to biographer Timothy White, it distinguished itself from the similar Shut Down track "'Cassius' Love vs. 'Sonny' Wilson" by being "truly spontaneous. As such, it came closer than anything previously available to disclosing the Boys' taut tête-à-tête (Mike jesting edgily about throwing Brian across the room) as tensions in their relentless studio regime escalated."Шаблон:Sfn

"Don't Back Down" is the last surfing-themed song that the Beach Boys recorded during this early era of the band's history.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn Initial pressings mislabeled the title as "Don't Break Down".Шаблон:Sfn

Packaging

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The photos on the album cover were taken at Paradise Cove in Malibu, California (pictured 2014)

The front cover of All Summer Long is a modernist style photo collage that depicts the band members fraternizing with young women on a beach.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:SfnШаблон:Refn The photo shoot, conducted by Capitol art directors and photographers George Jerman and Ken Veeder, was held at Paradise Cove in Malibu, California, the same setting used for the cover photo of the band's debut album Surfin' Safari (1962).Шаблон:Sfn Dillon wrote in 2012 that the All Summer Long cover art remained "much imitated to this day",Шаблон:Sfn although Kieghtley notes that the design was itself heavily indebted to the work of visual artist Piet Mondrian.Шаблон:Sfn Music historian Luis Sanchez comments,

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The back of the sleeve included written comments from each of the band members.[2] Dennis wrote: "They say I live a fast life. Maybe I just like a fast life. I wouldn't give it up for anything in the world. It won't last forever, either. But the memories will."Шаблон:Sfn Brian answered a frequently asked question about "how I come up with my ideas" by explaining that he drew inspiration from the "feelings" associated with common teenage experiences. He then remarked, “A sociologist might say I am trying to generate a feeling of social superiority."Шаблон:Sfn

Release

Commercial performance

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The Beach Boys performing "I Get Around" on The Ed Sullivan Show (September 27, 1964)Шаблон:Sfn

Lead single "I Get Around" was issued on May 11, 1964, and subsequently became the Beach Boys' first chart-topping U.S. hit, as well as America's first number-one hit by a native group since November 1963.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Refn In the UK, the single was released in June 1964 and reached number 7 on the Record Retailer chartШаблон:Sfn – the band's first UK hit to breach the top ten.Шаблон:Sfn The single represented both a successful response by Wilson to the British Invasion, and the launch of an unofficial rivalry between him and the Beatles.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn

Released on July 13, All Summer Long debuted on the U.S. Billboard charts on August 1 and remained there for 49 weeks, peaking at number 4 on August 22.Шаблон:Sfn On September 21, Capitol issued the extended play record Four by the Beach Boys, a truncated version of All Summer Long that consisted of "Little Honda", "Hushabye", "Don't Back Down", and "Wendy". It sold at underwhelming volumes, charting at number 44.Шаблон:Sfn

All Summer Long was certified gold by the RIAA in February 1965.Шаблон:Sfn In the UK, the album was issued in June that year, accompanied in March by the single "All Summer Long", both of which failed to chart.Шаблон:Sfn

Touring and Beach Boys Concert

From July 3 to August 8, 1964, the Beach Boys embarked on a 36-date "Summer Safari" tour of the U.S., followed by a 30-date regional tour that lasted from August 21 to September 30.Шаблон:Sfn This was the band's first extensive tour, as their prior public appearances had been limited by the scholastic obligations of one or more members (Carl Wilson, the final hold-out in the group, graduated from high school that June).Шаблон:Sfn The setlists at these concert dates included three All Summer Long selections: "I Get Around", "Wendy", and "Little Honda".Шаблон:Sfn At least two concert reviewers referred to the Beach Boys as "America's answer to the Beatles".Шаблон:Sfn Every date was sold out, earning the group approximately $20,000 per show (equivalent to $Шаблон:Inflation in Шаблон:Inflation-year).Шаблон:Sfn From the second summer tour alone, they grossed a total of $328,693 (equivalent to $Шаблон:Format price in Шаблон:Inflation-year).Шаблон:Sfn

On September 27, the band made their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, where they performed "I Get Around" and "Wendy".Шаблон:Sfn Two days later, the band concluded their tour with a performance at the Memorial Auditorium in Worcester, Massachusetts, however, the show was cancelled after 15 minutes due to fan bedlam that had surrounded the venue.Шаблон:Sfn Brian felt that audiences at Beach Boys concerts had become more uproarious as a result of the excitement that had been generated by the Beatles. He said, "[W]e'd do a concert and the kids would scream at us but we'd think, 'Hey, wait a minute. You're screaming for the Beatles through us.Шаблон:'"Шаблон:Sfn

In October, recordings from the band's August 1 performance at the Civil Memorial Auditorium in Sacramento, California were released as the live album Beach Boys Concert – their first LP to top the national charts. The album included only one All Summer Long track: "I Get Around.Шаблон:Sfn An expanded reissue, Live in Sacramento 1964 (2014), added performances of "Wendy" and "Little Honda".[7]

Critical reception

Contemporary

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Paul McCartney and John Lennon were reportedly amazed by All Summer Long.Шаблон:Sfn

A reviewer from the magazine Record Mail wrote of the album, "With their surfing and high pitched harmony sounds they have become extremely distinctive along with some kooky lyrics".Шаблон:Sfn In Britain, NMEШаблон:'s reviewer stated, "The Beach Boys are an acquired taste which I don't have, but at least they produce some solid 'beatful' sounds."Шаблон:Sfn

Actress Peggy Lipton told Teen Set that John Lennon and Paul McCartney had been "infatuated with the Beach Boy sound.Шаблон:Nbsp[...] They played All Summer Long all night long and asked me many questions about them. Paul and John were fascinated by Brian’s style of composing and arranging."Шаблон:Sfn

Retrospective

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AllMusic reviewer Richie Unterberger wrote that All Summer Long was the band's best album of the early 1960s, though he lamented the inclusion of "disposable filler" in the form of "Our Favorite Recording Sessions" and "Do You Remember?".[8]

Icons of Rock co-editor Scott Schinder praised All Summer Long as an improvement over their previous LP and "the most consistent and satisfying Beach Boys album to date", affording highlights to the title track, "I Get Around", "Wendy", and "Don't Back Down".Шаблон:Sfn Mike Segretto, author of 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Minute: A Critical Trip Through the Rock LP Era, said that the album marked the point when the band "really entered the game" and delivered a "completely solid" album.Шаблон:Sfn

Among biographers, Jon Stebbins cited All Summer Long as one of the band's "strongest LPs ever".Шаблон:Sfn Mark Dillon opined that Wilson "took a Beach Boys album to new heights" and successfully "held his own against the Beatles", with "Our Favorite Recording Sessions" being the only weak track.Шаблон:Sfn In John Tobler's 100 Great Albums of the Sixties (1994), All Summer Long is praised for its "fine harmonies".Шаблон:Sfn

Luis Sanchez, author of the 33⅓ book about Smile, wrote of All Summer Long, "None of the group's previous albums come close to the unity of vision and feeling they show here.Шаблон:Nbsp[...] The brilliance of All Summer Long is in the way it enlarges the outlook of the group's brand of California pop to the point where genre labels seem unable to contain it."Шаблон:Sfn

Impact and legacy

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The Beach Boys accepting gold record sales certifications at the Capitol Tower (December 1966)

In the estimation of music historian Larry Starr, Wilson had entered "a period of aggressive experimentation" by mid-1964, and, by raising his creative ambitions with the Beach Boys, had established a successful career model that would itself be followed by the Beatles and other British Invasion acts throughout 1965 and 1966.Шаблон:Sfn Starr additionally writes that "I Get Around" and the Shut Down Volume 2 track "The Warmth of the Sun" reflected "the beginnings of a significant trend: namely, the increasing importance of album tracks, and eventually of albums themselves, in the development of adventurous popular music. Rock 'n' roll was on its way to becoming rock."Шаблон:Sfn

Wilson's 1991 memoir states of All Summer Long, "I finally felt the Beach Boys had put out an LP that was competitive with [Phil] Spector and the Beatles. The vocals were tight, the production was sharper and more inventive than anything we'd done previously. We were in a higher harmonic place and generally more exciting musically."Шаблон:Sfn His 2016 memoir, I Am Brian Wilson, calls it "a turning point for me and for the band—or maybe it makes more sense to say it's a turning point for how I understood how to write for the band."Шаблон:Sfn

Subsequent to this album, the Beach Boys rarely recorded songs about cars or surfing, but continued to be stereotyped as a group who exclusively sang about such subject matter.[2]Шаблон:Refn Their 1965 release The Beach Boys Today! was their first album that completely avoided those subjects, and like All Summer Long, represented another leap forward in the group's musical sophistication, later to culminate with the 1966 album Pet Sounds.Шаблон:Sfn

Track listing

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Notes

  • Mike Love was not originally credited for "I Get Around", "All Summer Long", "Wendy", "Do You Remember?", "Drive-In", and "Don't Back Down". His credits were awarded after his songwriting credits lawsuit in 1994.[9] Keightley states, "the fact that collaborators (including Love himself on 'Little Honda') were indeed listed on this LP in 1964 should give us pause when we read the songwriting credits on post-1994 releases that may seek to rewrite history."Шаблон:Sfn

Personnel

Per Craig Slowinski. These credits are incomplete, having been amalgamated from all tracks except "Drive-In", "We'll Run Away", "Carl's Big Chance", "Do You Remember?", and "Our Favorite Recording Sessions'.[3]

The Beach Boys

Session musicians (later known as "the Wrecking Crew")

Technical staff

  • Bob (surname unknown) – engineer on "Girls on the Beach"
  • Chuck Britz – engineer

Charts

Chart (1964) Peak
position
Canadian CHUM's Album Index[10] 2
U.S. Billboard Top LPsШаблон:Sfn 4
U.S. Cash Box Top 100 Albums[11] 4
U.S. Record World Top 100 LPs[12] 3

Notes

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References

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Bibliography

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Further reading

External links

Шаблон:All Summer Long Шаблон:The Beach Boys main Шаблон:Authority control