To mark the Beach Boys’ 50th anniversary this year, the founding members of the group – Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine, Bruce Johnston and David Marks – have reunited to record an all-new studio album titled That’s Why God Made The Radio.
Written and produced by Brian Wilson (with Mike Love as executive producer), the new album will be released on June 5.
It is the Beach Boys’ first new studio album for over 15 years and the first album that all of the band’s surviving original members have recorded together since the early 1960s.
As the founding members of The Beach Boys finalise plans to celebrate their 50th Anniversary with a brand new studio album and a 50-date international tour in 2012, it was exactly 50 years ago today (31 December 1961) that the band performed on stage as ‘The Beach Boys’ for the first time.
The three teenage Wilson brothers – Brian, Carl and Dennis – their cousin Mike Love, and school friend Al Jardine had previously been known locally as The Pendletones. But they made their live debut under their new name as the support act to Ike & Tina Turner at a Ritchie Valens Memorial Dance at Long Beach Civic Auditorium, California.
In October 1961, The Pendletones had recorded the Brian Wilson song ‘Surfin’’ for a local label called Candix Records. A small number of 45s were pressed, but when the boys eagerly unpacked the first box of singles, they were stunned to find that the band’s name was shown on the disc as ‘The Beach Boys’. The record label’s promotion man, Russ Regan, had changed the name to help tie the group to other popular ‘surf rock’ bands of the time.
The rest, as they say, is history … Exactly 50 years later, The Beach Boys still hold the record as the all-time top-selling American band for albums and singles. They have also scored more US Top 40 chart hits (36) than any other American group.
The founding members of The Beach Boys have confirmed that they are to reunite for a series of global 50th Anniversary celebrations in 2012 – including a new Brian Wilson-produced album featuring brand new songs.
Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine, Bruce Johnston, and David Marks will come together for a new studio album and a 50-date international tour which will begin in April with a headlining performance at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.
Brian Wilson said: “This anniversary is special to me because I miss the boys and it will be a thrill for me to make a new record and be on stage with them again.”
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Music is sometimes called ‘the language of emotion’ because it has an amazing power to influence people’s emotions and behaviour. It can affect and stimulate many different parts of the brain and body, and can reduce stress, aid relaxation, and alleviate depression.
In fact, scientists have found that a piece of music can become so closely associated with an event from a person’s life that hearing the music again evokes powerful memories of the original experience.
A recent study revealed that the memories triggered by music – such as classic hits and golden oldies from the 1950s, 60s, 70s and 80s – tend to involve relationships with past or present lovers, or experiences with family and friends.
Most significantly, though, the study found a substantial bias towards music evoking memories of happy events that can cheer us up during these worrying economic times.
In 2008, researchers at the University of Leeds conducted a Magical Memory Tour during which they asked people to record their memories of the Beatles in an online survey. The study set out to use people’s autobiographical memories of Beatles songs, albums, movies, concerts, and news events to show how music — particularly the music of the most influential band of the rock ‘n’ roll era — can be used to retrieve memories that have been all but forgotten.
Most people who took part in the survey fell within the 55 to 65 age range, having been teenagers in the 1960s when the Fab Four were still together. The song that cued the most memories among middle-aged people was ‘She Loves You’, while ‘Love Me Do’ cued the most memories among the over-60s.
The researchers found that the memories evoked by the Beatles songs were surprisingly detailed and provided diverse snapshot images of long-forgotten times and places.
For one 57-year-old man, for example, ‘She Loves You’ triggered a memory of the weather on the first night he heard the song at the age of 11; another man remembered lying in the grass at age seven and playing with his toy soldiers as ‘Penny Lane’ played on the radio.
Another interesting finding of the study, say the researchers, was that most retrieved memories occurred during people’s early teenage years. The songs we hear when we’re growing up, it seems, shape the story of our lives.
One definition of ‘memory’ is that it is a mental system that receives, stores, organises and recovers information from sensory input. According to the Leeds University researchers, the results of their Magical Memory Tour study implied that music has a powerful influence on the storage and retrieval of long-term memories in particular.
As Oliver Sacks, the noted British neuroscientist and author, puts it: “Music brings back the feeling of life when nothing else can.”
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Which artist do you find most uplifting? Leave a comment below and let us know…
The colourful life story of Beach Boys founder Brian Wilson is to be turned into a major Hollywood film.
The producers say the biopic will take an ‘unconventional’ look at Wilson’s musical career and innovative creative processes, as well as his long struggle with mental health problems.
The script will be written by Oren Moverman, who created the screenplay for the unconventional Bob Dylan biopic I’m Not There.
In an unprecedented meeting of two legendary songwriters, Brian Wilson has recorded a 12-track album of classic songs by George Gershwin, titled Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin.
But it’s no ordinary collection of cover versions. Two of the tracks are rare, unfinished Gershwin songs from the 1920s which the Gershwin Estate allowed Brian Wilson to complete.
The ‘new’ songs – ‘The Like in I Love You’ and ‘Nothing But Love’ – have made history by effectively becoming unique Gershwin-Wilson collaborations … separated by 70 years!
The songs are featured on the album alongside Wilson’s Beach Boys-style vocal arrangements of standards like ‘Summertime’, ‘Someone To Watch Over Me’, ‘I’ve Got Rhythm’ and ‘They Can’t Take That Away from Me’. Also included is an outstanding a capella version of Gershwin’s 1924 orchestral piece ‘Rhapsody in Blue’.
The genius behind Pet Sounds says the new album is the “most spiritual” project he has ever worked on. “Along with Irving Berlin, Gershwin basically invented the popular song,” said Wilson. “But he did something more. He had a gift for melody that nobody has ever equalled, yet his music is timeless and always accessible.”
Last year, the Gershwin estate gave Wilson access to more than 100 unfinished or obscure songs and unpublished melodies left by George Gershwin when he died in 1937. Wilson narrowed these fragments down to two favourites, then created new songs blending the Wilson and Gershwin styles.
‘The Like in I Love You’ is drawn from ‘Will You Remember Me?’, a song Gershwin composed in 1924 for the musical Lady, Be Good! which never made it into the show. ‘Nothing But Love’ is based on ‘Say My Say’, a 1929 song fragment which the Gershwin brothers never fully completed.
“In every generation, music has been pushed forward by visionaries, from the Gershwin brothers to Brian Wilson,” said George Gershwin’s great-nephew Todd Gershwin. “This latest interpretation is a new opportunity to discover the magic of Gershwin music.”
Track Listing:
01 Rhapsody in Blue /Intro
02 The Like in I Love You
03 Summertime
04 I Loves You Porgy
05 I Got Plenty of Nothin’
06 It Ain’t Necessarily So
07 ‘S Wonderful
08 They Can’t Take That Away from Me
09 Our Love Is Here to Stay
10 I’ve Got a Crush on You
11 I’ve Got Rhythm
12 Someone to Watch Over Me
13 Nothing But Love
14 Rhapsody in Blue/Reprise
To mark the Beach Boys’ 50th anniversary this year, the founding members of the group – Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine, Bruce Johnston and David Marks – have reunited to record an all-new studio album titled That’s Why God Made The Radio.
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