Customer Reviews

Sights and Sounds of Summer (CD & DVD)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The CD is another rehashed collection of Beach Boys hits, with a few uncommon tracks. If they had dumped Come Go With Me and Rock & roll music and added Sail On Sailor and Surf's Up, this would have been a near perfect collection. The DVD (only 10 tracks, not 20 as listed above) has ALL 4 SONGS FROM THE 1964 TAMI SHOW! It also has songs from the "Lost Concert" some Pet sounds promos, Ed Sullivan songs and a couple more. If they had added a few more promo videos, like the early tv appearances singing "Surfin" and "Surfin' Safari" with David Marks (pre Al Jardine) this would have been a 5 star set!

First the bonuses... it's a decent overview that you not only get to hear but see the band as well. Considering how many repackages that have been done, I'd recommend this one out of them all. It's a great intro for a new generation to listen to, the ones that bought the Beatles and Elvis 1's. I like it better than both of the documentaries, and wish they would put out a full-length DVD of all their great songs and some of the promo videos they did in the 80s. Even the one they did with the Fat Boys. But I do feel that you get your money's worth with this collection.

The drawbacks are the songs that are missing, which would amount to a whole other CD. Maybe a "rock" CD and a "roll" CD... As a companion (even though there are songs on both) I'd recommend "Beach Boys Classics", a set handpicked by Brian that serves as a great companion to this one, or just get the "Good Vibrations" box set which covers a lot of territory. And "Pet Sounds" should have been in your collection anyway.

Well if "Elvis" and "The Beatles" can do it, "The Beach Boys" deserve a 30 track hits disc too. Even with this many songs, it still misses a few favorites, but it's hard to complain when you get "California Girls", "Surfin' U.S.A.", "God Only Knows" and "Kokomo" on the same disc, plus 26 others. It's amazing how many great songs they had, especially considering that half of them aren't on here. But to make up for the missing, this includes a DVD of numerous TV show appearances and film clips, hence the title "Sights AND Sounds Of Summer". Overall I'd say this will please any level of fan, and should give you "Good Vibrations".

I own all the Beach Boys CD's prior to Pet Sounds plus Pet Sounds. I've listened to most of the "Brother Years" CDs, and I can say that sometimes I still like to crank up nothing but the big hits. This is an excellent "greatest hits" CD because with the exception of Sail On Sailer, which it amazingly does not include, it has all the "Brother Years" hits on it, including my favorite of that era "I Can Hear Music".

And, the DVD is a huge bonus. What a piece of history.

The only hits missing here are "The Little Girl I Once Knew" and "It's OK". It's nice to hear the alternate mixes, but a proper greatest hits album should have original mixes only. The videos are great.