The Beach Boys in 250 words (ish)
The Beach Boys are an American rock band from California formed in 1961. The original band members were Brain Wilson (vocals, bass, keyboard), Dennis Wilson (vocals, drums, keyboard), Carl Wilson (vocals, guitar, bass, keyboard), Mike Love (vocals, percussion, theremin, saxophone) and Al Jardine (vocals, guitar, bass, banjo).
Other members include Bruce Johnson (vocals, percussion, bass, keyboard) who joined in 1965, David Mark (vocals, guitar) replaced Al Jardine on rhythm guitar in 1962, Ricky Fataar (vocals, drums, guitar, flute) joined in 1971 and left in 1974, Blondie Chaplin (vocals, bass, guitar) was a singer and guitarist during the early 70s.
The Beach Boys have a very distinctive sound including vocal harmonies, 1950’s rock and roll style, R&B and classical elements. The Band have been active since 1961. They released 30 studio albums, 23 EP’s and 71 singles.
In the UK, The Beach Boys had 2 No.1 singles ‘Good Vibrations’ (1966) and ‘Do It Again’ (1968) as well as 11 singles in the UK top 10.
They also had 2 UK No.1 albums ’20 Golden Greatest’ (1976) and ‘The Very Best of the Beach Boys’ (1983). The band also had 13 albums in the UK top 10 including ‘Beach Boys Party’ (1966) at No.2, ‘Summer Days (And Summer Nights)’ (1966) at No.4 and ‘Summer Dreams’ (1990) at No.2.
The Beach Boys were given a Hollywood Walk of Fame star in 1980. In 2005 a Beach Boys landmark was revealed in California and in 2017 a street was renamed to Beach Boys Way.