It’s official. The Beach Boys will reform with Brian Wilson for their 50th anniversary in 2012.
The Beach Boys Mike Love 2007 - Photo By Ros O'Gorman
A 50-date international tour has been locked in place starting in April at the New Orleans Jazz Festival.
The reunion will include a brand new album from Brian Wilson with the Beach Boys. Several songs have already been recorded. It will be the first Beach Boys album to feature all original surviving members in decades. The album is being produced by Brian Wilson and executive produced by Mike Love.
“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,” Brian Wilson said in a statement.
The line-up for the tour and album includes all surviving founding members Mike Love and Al Jardine with long-time Beach Boy Bruce Johnstone and the Wilson’s childhood next-door neighbour David Marks, who played on their first four albums.
“We got together at Capitol Records and re-recorded ‘Do It Again.’ Brian and I wrote that song which went to number 1 in Great Britain , Australia and elsewhere some 44 years ago. Brian paid me a compliment saying, ‘How can a guy sound that great so many years later?’ Later on, while working out some harmonies on a new song Brian had written, I got a chance to return the compliment. It was a thrill to be around a piano again with Brian, Alan and Bruce and experience firsthand the brilliance of Cousin Brian’s gift for vocal arrangements. I am very much looking forward to David Marks joining us and thrilling with his surf guitar licks. Music has been the unifying and harmonizing fact of life in our family since childhood. It has been a huge blessing that we have been able to share with the world. Wouldn’t It Be Nice to Do It Again? Absolutely!”
Al Jardine says, “The Beach Boys were recently inducted into the California Hall of Fame. From our humble beginnings as brothers, cousins and friends, we have been honored to sing the praises of California , and I’m really excited for our fans to be able to see us again in concert on the world stage, and to celebrate our 50th anniversary together with a new studio album.”
Bruce Johnston says, “I will be looking forward to singing Brian Wilson’s melodies and Mike Love ‘s lyrics once again in concert with many of the original band members, but imagine what we all could come up with vocally in a recording studio atmosphere under Brian’s musical direction.”
The following info on The Beach Boys is from Capitol Records:
Founded in Hawthorne, California in 1961, The Beach Boys were originally comprised of the three teenaged Wilson brothers: Brian, Carl and Dennis, their cousin Mike Love , and school friend Al Jardine . In 1962, neighbor David Marks joined the group for their first wave of hits on Capitol Records, leaving in late 1963, and in 1965, Bruce Johnston joined the band when Brian Wilson retired from touring to focus on writing and producing records for the group. For five decades, America’s first pop band to reach the 50 year milestone has recorded and performed the music that has become the world’s favorite soundtrack to summer.
The Beach Boys signed with Capitol Records in July 1962 and released their first album, Surfin’ Safari, that same year. The album spent 37 weeks on the Billboard chart, launching the young group known for its shimmering vocal harmonies and relaxed California style into international stardom. The Wilson/Love collaboration resulted in many huge international chart hits, and under Brian Wilson’s musical leadership, the band’s initial surf-rock focus was soon broadened to include other themes, making The Beach Boys America’s preeminent band of the 1960s.
In 1966, The Beach Boys were one of the first bands to found its own record label with the launch of Brother Records, Inc. (BRI), with the band’s members as its shareholders and Capitol Records as its distribution partner. BRI continues to manage The Beach Boys’ intellectual property, including the band’s catalog with Capitol/EMI and other label partners, as well as its name, logos, image and likeness.
The Beach Boys continue to hold Billboard / Nielsen SoundScan’s record as the top-selling American band for albums and singles, and they are also the American group with the most Billboard Top 40 chart hits (36). ‘Sounds Of Summer: The Very Best Of The Beach Boys’ is fast approaching triple-Platinum sales status, and ‘The SMiLE Sessions,’ released to worldwide critical acclaim in November, has been heralded as 2011’s #1 Reissue of the Year by Rolling Stone magazine.
Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988 and recipients of The Recording Academy’s Lifetime Achievement GRAMMY Award, The Beach Boys are an American institution that is iconic around the world.
