Good Vibrations: Thirty Years Of The Beach Boys [Box set]

The Beach Boys | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 29, 1993)
• Number of Discs: 5
• Format: Box set
• Note on Boxed Sets: During shipping, discs in boxed sets occasionally become dislodged without damage. Please examine and play these discs. If you are not completely satisfied, we'll refund or replace your purchase.
• Label: Capitol
• ASIN: B000002UR4
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (104 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #17,419 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #18 in Music > Rock > Oldies & Retro > Surf Rock
  • #32 in Music > Miscellaneous > Comedy > Comedic Music > Novelty Music
  • #34 in Music > Miscellaneous > Nostalgia

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Surfin' U.S.A. (Demo Version) (Previously Unreleased)

2. Little Surfer Girl (Previously Unreleased)

3. Surfin' (Rehearsal) (Previously Unreleased)

4. Surfin'

See all 35 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. California Girls

2. Help Me Rhonda

3. Then I Kissed Her

4. And Your Dream Comes True

See all 29 tracks on this disc

Disc: 3

1. Heroes And Villains (45 Version)

2. Darlin'

3. Wild Honey

4. Let The Wind Blow

See all 29 tracks on this disc

Disc: 4

1. Sail On Sailor

2. California

3. Trader

4. Funky Pretty

See all 25 tracks on this disc

Disc: 5

1. In My Room (Demo)

2. Radio Spot #1

3. I Get Around (Track Only)

4. Radio Spot #2

See all 24 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

From "Surfin'" to "Kokomo," the first four discs of this box chart the Beach Boys' inimitable 30-year course. Here are all the hits and key album tracks, and an assortment of unreleased material that illuminates Brian Wilson and company's immense contribution to the development of pop music. (Especially fascinating are the assembled fragments from Wilson's abandoned 1966 masterwork, Smile.) A fifth disc features demos, radio spots, live tracks, and studio goodies for the hardcore fan. The set confirms Brian's hardworking genius, but also gives each member his due, especially the late Carl Wilson. Rock & roll music grew up with the Beach Boys, and this box is rock's best family album. --Ben Edmonds

Product Description

Awesome. 5 CDs, 141 songs, 40 unreleased, including 30 minutes of the most legendary unreleased album in rock: Smile . In between all the collector manna (including an entire "bootleg" disc of unreleased stuff), and in chronological order starting with their earliest demos (of Surfin' U.S.A. , etc.), are all the hits from the Capitol, Caribou, Brother and Colpix labels in original mono or stereo, all documented by a 60-page, full-color booklet.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

224 of 254 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Beware of the sound quality.... March 24, 2006

By Frank C.

Format:Audio CD

Before you hit the 'no' button on "was this review helpful ?", let me say up front that my review is based entirely on the *sound quality* of this set. It does not reflect the actual music itself, which has been described in detail in many other reviews here.

If you care about the sound of these songs, please be warned that the remastering job was horrendous. These songs have been remastered using a progam called No-Noise (or a similarly-like program) which basically acts as a Dolby system like we used to find on analog casettes. The life has been sucked out these recordings and they sound very compressed and quite "digital". If you want to hear this for yourself, please compare any song (try "In My Room" for example) from this set to the older 'Endles Summer' compilation disc. When the vocals enter on the older set, they sound rich, full, warm, etc. The same vocals on this set have zero impact - they are flat, cold, sterile, and lacking any sense of dynamics whatsoever. There is no comparison. The dynamics that are found on the older and frankly superior-sounding set are gone. There is no more warmth or excitement left in this newer set. It is a shame, since there is wonderful music here. The problem with noise reduction programs such as No-Noise is that when engineers try to remove the hiss from these older recordings, this hiss or "line noise" cannot effectively removed without affecting the entire signal. Some engineers DO take caution not to overdo this process, but on this recording it has been way overused - and consequently ruining this collection sonically.

I post this because I work hard for my $$$ and when the recording industry charges this amount of money for a set of music that they want us to believe is SUPERIOR sounding due to the fact that it is newly remastered, it is a crime. This is a poor remastering job and the public ought to be aware of it.

If sound quality does not interest you, then by all means go ahead and enjoy this set. But if you are a bit hesitant, please try to hear a friends copy to decide for yourself if 'Good Vibrations' is worth the $$$.

I hope this helps. I will never sell my 'Endless Summer' disc as it is sonically superior to this set in every musical aspect.

41 of 43 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential material-- incredible overview of the Beach Boys. March 9, 2005

By Michael Stack VINE™ VOICE

Format:Audio CD

This boxed set is suffering from mixed reviews, largely I suspect from reviewers who aren't considering the intent of the boxed set-- the set is a career overview, contains the hits as well as the important tracks, this means that much of it is going to drift outside of the listening experience of most listeners. The Beach Boys have a long and varied career and covered quite a bit of ground, and with patience and careful listening, I suspect nearly anyone will come to appreciate this material-- the genius of Brian Wilson and his brothers shines through readily . The tracks are organized chronologically and therefore provide a living history of the band. Track listing can be argued (and I will here), but the set is superb, for either the unitiated, the casual listener looking to dig deeper, or the dedicated fan seeking rarities.

The first CD covers the early days of the band, when surfing and cars ruled their music (although by the end of the CD, they'd started to move on, the period of 1961 to 1965. Opening with a stunning piano-and-vocal demo of "Surfin' USA" (out of order chronologically), this opens with some early demos and the band's first single, "Surfin'". Severak early surf and car hits ("Surfin' Safari", "409", "Surfin USA", "Shut Down", "Little Deuce Coupe", "Catch a Wave", "Fun, Fun, Fun", "I Get Around", "Little Honda" follow, but also present are some of the first introspective ballads by the Beach Boys-- largely featuring Brian Wilson's falsetto leads, songs such as "Surfer Girl", "In My Room", and "The Warmth of the Sun" painted the way for the direction the Beach Boys were heading. The CD wraps up with a handful of tracks from the great album, "The Beach Boys Today!", one of the finest albums the Beach Boys ever did, including the powerful ballad "Please Let Me Wonder". Also along the way are great covers of "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" and "Do You Wanna Dance', and great early tracks like "Don't Worry Baby" and "Wendy". Even during the time of this CD, you can see the evolution of the band into the direction they woudl next embark upon. Some songs that are noticably absent (in my assessment), "Keep An Eye on Summer", the Boys' cover of "Hushabye", "Kiss Me Baby" and "Let Him Run Wild" (the latter two from "Today!").

The second disc covers the legendary material of the Beach Boys, 1965 - 1967, picking up with the "Summer Days (and Summer Nights!!!)" album, the last single oriented album, then moving into "Pet Sounds" and bits of the unreleased "Smile" album. Two of the band's big hits, "California Girls" and "Help Me Rhonda" open the album, which moves into important songs in the development of Brian Wilson-- the start/stop motion of "The Little Girl I Once Knew" and the brilliant harmonies and a capella break of "Sloop John B". These paved the way for the stunning "Pet Sounds" album-- no less than 8 selections from that album are included here, including the singles (the aformentioned "Sloop John B", "Wouldn't It Be Nice", "God Only Knows", and "Caroline, No". This is the flowering into full bloom of the introspective side of the band, and is absolutey brilliant material. The remainder of the disc is devoted to "Smile"-- while the album was never released, the single, "Good Vibrations" (which of course shot to #1) preceeded it stylistically and is here adjacent to about 30 minutes of unreleased Smile tracks, including the legendary "cantina" version of "Heroes and Villains", the original takes on "Wonderful", "Vegetables", and "Wind Chimes" (vastly superior to the "Smiley Smile" versions), and a stunning piano-and-vocal only demo of "Surf's Up". While some of the sections and chanting may be a bit much for more casual listeners, again, this material-- while challenging, will find its way into you head. Given the recent release of Brian's "Smile" rerecording, this may actually serve to be more interesting to less fanatical listeners as well.

Any number of tracks from "Pet Sounds" or the aborted "Smile" sessions can be argued as being missing from this disc-- all of it is essential and important, but crucial and missing from "Summer Days" is "Let Him Run wild" and one of the late pop songs, "You're So Good to Me".

After the "Smile" disaster, the band was sort of floating, and this is where the third disc picks up, 1967 - 1971. While Brian was collapsing psychologically, he was producing some of the most stunning songs of his career. Scattered throughout this disc are great moments from him that are unrivaled in pop music (although admittedly some are leftover/recycled "Smile" songs)-- "Let the Wind Blow", "Cool Cool Water", "Meant For You", "Busy Doin' Nothin'", "Time to Get Alone", the incomparable "Breakaway", "This Whole World", "Add Some Music", Smile centerpiece "Surf's Up", and the stunning "'Til I Die". All of these are classic pieces deserving of reevaluation. Also during this period, Brian's brothers begin to flower, with some of Dennis' ("Little Bird", "San Miguel", and the nearly unparallelable "Forever") and Carl's (Carl's arrangement of "I can Hear Music" and "Long Promised Road") great early works contributing to this disc. Again, this material is far less commercial than what came before, but is extremely powerful and rewarding. Noticably absent are the beautiful but often overlooked Brian Wilson/Mike Love ballad, "All I Wanna Do" and Carl's great "Feel Flows", but really this disc is a great overview of this period in the Beach Boys' history.

The fourth disc picks up the rest of the Beach Boys' career, 1972 onwards. The 80s onward are lacking, with Brian all but exiting the band, Dennis' death in 1983, and Mike Love turning the touring band into a living jukebox of fun in the sun hits, but the mid-70s maintained a high level of creativity. Again, Brian's genius shine through-- much of the material here is his, and again his genius shines through on cuts like "Sail On, Sailor", "Funky Pretty", "Marcella", "Had to Phone Ya" (with lead vocal split amongst all five Beach Boys), the underappreciated and completely brilliant "The Night Was So Young" and "Good Timin'". Added to this are some great moments from the rest of the band, the swirling "All This is That", Carl's "Trader" and Dennis' stunning "Baby Blue", perhaps his best work. Absent from this one is quite a bit of Dennis Wilson material, its hard to take this period in an overview without "Cuddle Up", "Steamboat" or "Love Surrounds Me", or without Carl's "Angel Come Home", but I suspect theompilers were shooting to show us Brian's great work in the '70s.

The fifth disc is a bonus disc, most the material is really for collectors-- backing tracks, some live material, a couple demos. Not the kind of stuff for the casual fan.

Nonetheless, this compilation is a great introduction to the band's history and has quite a bit of great material, start to finish. Essential and recommended.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Solid gold. February 14, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Audio CD

I truly feel sorry for the fellow from Pleasanton, California. The whole appeal of this set is that the Beach Boys have too many greatest hits albums already, and the box has room to disseminate many lesser-know treasures. I shudder when I think of a listener "fast-fowarding to get to the songs I know" and skipping over masterpieces like "This Whole World".

Good Vibrations would probably bore a non-fan, but it's not intended for those who just want to hear "Surfin' USA" ad nauseum. It is nothing less than essential for a fan for the 30-minute psuedo-Smile album on Disc Two, the tracks from Brian's shelved solo album on Four, and the mislaid gems like "4th of July", "Baby Blue" and "Hang onto Your Ego" spread over the set. For a band with as many unissued-on-CD lps as this, who can complain about the selection of the glorious Warner-era tunes (their inclusion was a big reason for my purchase, as I'm a 17 year-old who missed the vinyl era and can't get these tunes elsewhere)? And as for the complaint about too many of these songs being redundant for fans; I had no idea you could actually get bored with songs like "Wouldn't it Be Nice?".

If you're a lover of pop music and willing to spent many hours alone and spellbound and gripping your headphones, buy this box and don't look back.