Customer Reviews

The Beach Boys All-Time Greatest Hits

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

The total time on this CD is about twenty minutes

That one star review really annoyed me. All this is is a cheap way to obtain ten of the Beach Boys classics on one CD. Their early surf period is when they did their best songs, after that Brian Wilson's creativity fizzled. I'd rather hear Fun, Fun, Fun, Barbera-Ann and Wouldn't It Be Nice than stuff like I Can Hear Music, Kokomo or Then I Kissed Her. These are pure classics, and to be honest if you think such a veteran band, now lacking all three Wilsons, would be able to match these records if they re-entered the studio, you're living in cloud cuckoo land. These could well be among the band's ten best songs, though why God Only Knows isn't hear I don't know, and for such a low price..... But hey, I was forgetting- 'About 90% of this album is from the early 60's surfing career, plus a few songs from Pet Sounds'. Aside from the shaky maths of that statement, teh fact is their best songs were from said early surf period, and almost everything after Pet Sounds was tripe. 20 Golden Greats is a better set, but for the price this is an ideal introduction.

Admittedly, I really used to like this album. It was this album that got me into The Beach Boys' music. I used to play it all the time in my car. Then, as I got more and more into their music and I heard stuff from "Pet Sounds", "Friends" and "Sunflower", I realized that this album was nothing more than a cheap way to cash in on the success of The Beach Boys.

For a greatest hits collection, the song selection can hardly be beat - "California Girls", "Surfer Girl", "Fun Fun Fun", "Wouldn't It Be Nice", etc. There all here. But the complaint is for what's not here. With 10 tracks that equal a running time of about 20 minutes, there was enough room to include "Little Deuce Coupe", "Shut Down", "Surfin' Safari", "In My Room", "God Only Knows", "Surfin'", "409", "Little Saint Nick", and "Sloop John B." to make it a much more complete collection of hits.

If you want a single disc collection of The Beach Boys' greatest hits, then seek out "Sounds Of Summer". It has all 10 of the tracks on this cd, as well as 20 other hit singles. It also has better sound and liner notesby an experienced rock and roll researcher. Take my advice (and the advice of every other reviewer who gave this a one or two star review) and skip this album.

This CD offers some great songs such as California Girls and Surfin' USA that can make anyones blue day good. This is a good album.

The first BEACH BOYS tape I ever heard! It's a wonderful tape (and I'm mad because there are two tracks on the CD edition that don't come with the tape--you see, I don't have a CD player....) But wonderful songs that really brighten your spirits, no matter how short it is!

Look, this may be the shortest review I've ever written. But all I will say for this compilation is that is yet another cash grab by the morons at Capitol Records, as are most of the entries in the useless 'Ten Best Series.' Yeah, 10 classic hits from The Beach Boys. The total time on this disc is barely over 20 minutes. That's right, about an hour's worth of music could fit on this disc IN ADDITION to what's already here. Go elsewhere. Seek out 'Sounds of Summer' if you really must have a Beach Boys compilation, otherwise buy 'Pet Sounds' and the twofer reissues of their studio albums and all three of their live albums, all of which (except for 1992's 'Summer in Paradise,' which sucked, but that's another review altogether) should be heard in their entirety.

Avoid this compilation like the plague.

This has got to be one of the lamest "best-of" packages I have EVER seen for ANY artist. It has a measly ten, that's right, TEN songs!! Sure, the songs are good (and in a couple of cases great). But they don't make this a good best-of CD, one reason being that the Beach Boys made so, so, soooo much more good (and great) music and had so many more hits, in the '60s and beyond. Also, CDs can hold 80 minutes of music. This one only plays, I think, for slightly over 20. Vinyl records, even in the old days, could hold more than that, so even if this were a vinyl record, it still wouldn't cut it, at least not in this day and age!! There are many better 1-CD Beach Boys comps out there, the best one, in my opinion, being Sounds Of Summer, which has three times the tracks (including all of the songs included here) and plays for 77 minutes or so. Probably just about ANY other 1-CD Beach Boys comp out there would be WELL more worth buying than this oh-so-pitiful excuse for a best-of, whether you're a long-time fan, or you're just getting into the group and/or looking for your first BB best-of. This CD MIGHT be worth it if you're on a REALLY tight budget and see it for REALLY cheap, but if you can afford a CD that's better, you should leave this one out of the question.

If so, then this Best Of The Beach Boys is for you (my copy is entitled Hits Of The Beach Boys is indentical) as it only runs to 25 mintues!
The 10 songs are from the 1963-66 era and could easily been in chronological order, but are not.
The quality of the tracks is not in question, they are the original classics which will always invoke careless days surfing, meeting girls and driving dragster cars.
Most fans will want much more than this offering, it certainly whets the appitite!

I grew up listening to the Beach Boys and watching movies about them and another group, "Jan & Dean".

As of this year, the Beach Boys have been together for 39 years. They have put out around 50 albums, not including greatest hits albums such as this. One of their albums has been called by MOJO magazine the best album of all time. All of their founding members, and two of the later members have put out solo efforts. They were in the top 5 best selling bands of the 60's, and have had many hits outside of the 60's. 10 songs?

If you want a greatest hits for the Beach Boys, try the Good Vibrations box set. That is about 8 hours of music, and it isn't nearly big enough. The best thing you can do is buy all the albums.

If you only want a slight intruduction, try something else. Anything else. About 90% of this album is from the early 60's surfing career, plus a few songs from Pet Sounds, the crowning achievement.

Capitol needs to learn to stop all these stupid greatest hits packages, and pressure the band to stop living off nostalgia and make a CD. At least Brian is still being productive, the genius that he is. It would be really cool if he formed a band.

Good luck Brian, and everybody out there, stay away from this and go buy Pet Sounds.