Beach Boys' Party!

Infobox Album | Name = Beach Boys' Party!
Type = studio album
Artist = The Beach Boys


Released = 8 November 1965
Recorded = 8-27 September 1965
Genre = Rock
Length = 31:10
Label = Capitol Records
Producer = Brian Wilson
Reviews =
*Allmusic Rating|4|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:jep1z81ajyvn link]
*"warr.org" Rating|2|5 [http://www.warr.org/brian.html#Party link]
Last album = "Summer Days (and Summer Nights!!)"
(1965)
This album = "Beach Boys' Party!"
(1965)
Next album = "Pet Sounds"
(1966) |

"Beach Boys' Party!" is an album of cover songs (featuring acoustic instruments) by American rock and roll band The Beach Boys that was marketed during the lucrative Christmas season. The original album release included a sheet of photographs of the band 'appearing' to be at the party at hand. It was The Beach Boys' eleventh album release, and their third in 1965. Although it was recorded in a music studio, it is presented as an impromptu live recording of a party.

In August, after the release of "Summer Days (and Summer Nights!!)", The Beach Boys' leader Brian Wilson was contemplating his next studio album. Capitol Records requested a new album for the holiday season. Since a live album, "Beach Boys Concert", had already been released the previous year, the "live party" idea was selected. Sporadically during September, the band and their friends rehearsed current and older hits (including revisiting The Rivingtons' "Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow"). Although presented as a live recording, the individual songs were recorded carefully, and laughter and background chatter was mixed in during post-production.Fact|date=July 2008

The album included versions of The Beatles' "Tell Me Why" and "I Should Have Known Better", The Everly Brothers' "Devoted To You", Phil Spector's "There's No Other (Like My Baby)" and a send-up of their own "I Get Around" and "Little Deuce Coupe". "Beach Boys' Party!" was meant as a fun album created without a single, because Wilson was readying "The Little Girl I Once Knew" for single release concurrently with the album.

The new single's inventive use of silence was disliked by radio programmers, causing "The Little Girl I Once Knew" to stop at US #20. The last track of "Party!", a cover of The Regents' "Barbara Ann", which radio disc jockeys around the country had started playing straight off the "Party" album and getting good listeners response was promptly issued as a single by Capitol when they started hearing from radio programmers, and became a #2 smash in early 1966.

"Beach Boys' Party!" reached #6 in the US (though it never went gold). "Beach Boys' Party!" and its surprise hit single became The Beach Boys' biggest successes yet in the UK, both reaching #3 in early 1966 and making them stars in The Beatles' homeland.

Track listing

#"Hully Gully" (Fred Smith/Cliff Goldsmith) – 2:22
#* "Lead Vocal - Mike Love
#"I Should Have Known Better" (John Lennon/Paul McCartney) – 1:40
#* "Lead Vocal - Carl Wilson and Al Jardine
#"Tell Me Why" (John Lennon/Paul McCartney) – 1:46
#* "Lead Vocal - Carl Wilson and Al Jardine
#"Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow" (Carl White/Al Frazier/Sonny Harris/Turner Wilson Jr.) – 2:18
#* "Lead Vocal - Brian Wilson, with Mike Love (bass)
#"Mountain of Love" (Harold Dorman) – 2:51
#* "Lead Vocal - Mike Love
#"You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" (John Lennon/Paul McCartney) – 2:56
#* "Lead Vocal - Dennis Wilson
#"Devoted To You" (Boudleaux Bryant) – 2:13
#* "Lead Vocal - Mike Love and Brian Wilson
#"Alley Oop" (Dallas Frazier) – 2:56
#* "Lead Vocal - Mike Love
#"There's No Other (Like My Baby)" (Phil Spector/Leroy Bates) – 3:05
#* "Lead Vocal - Brian WIlson
#"Medley: I Get Around/Little Deuce Coupe" (Brian Wilson/Mike Love/Roger Christian) – 3:12
#* "Lead vocals by Dennis, Mike, Brian, Al, Carl
#"The Times They Are a-Changin'" (Bob Dylan) – 2:23
#* "Lead Vocal - Al Jardine
#"Barbara Ann" (Fred Fassert) – 3:23
#* "Lead Vocal Brian Wilson and Dean Torrence of Jan and Dean

ingles

* "The Little Girl I Once Knew" (non-LP track) b/w "There's No Other (Like My Baby)" (Capitol 5540), 8 November 1965 #20::"The Little Girl I Once Knew" would not appear on a Beach Boys LP until 1968 as part of the Best of The Beach Boys Vol. 3 compilation"
* "Barbara Ann" b/w "Girl Don't Tell Me" (from "Summer Days (and Summer Nights!!)" (Capitol 5561), 20 December 1965, US #2; UK #3

"Beach Boys' Party!" is now paired on CD with "Stack-O-Tracks" with bonus instrumental tracks.

"Beach Boys' Party!" (Capitol (D) MAS 2398) hit #6 in the US during a chart stay of 24 weeks. It reached #3 in the UK in March 1966.

Influence

In 1997, the Canadian Indie Rock group Sloan, released an EP entitled "Recorded Live at a Sloan Party! (AKA The Party Album)" as a bonus disc to the U.S. release of "One Chord To Another" in homage to The Beach Boys' Party! LP, Like the Beach Boy's Party! LP, Live At A Sloan Party! mixes acoustic versions of old classics and songs originally written and recorded by other artists, and presents a supposed gathering that was actually constructed in the studio.

ources

* "Beach Boys' Party!"/"Stack-O-Tracks" CD booklet notes, David Leaf, c.1990.
* "The Nearest Faraway Place: Brian Wilson, The Beach Boys and the Southern California Experience", Timothy White, c. 1994.
* "Wouldn't It Be Nice - My Own Story", Brian Wilson and Todd Gold, c. 1991.
* "Top Pop Singles 1955-2001", Joel Whitburn, c. 2002.
* "Top Pop Albums 1955-2001", Joel Whitburn, c. 2002.
* Allmusic.com

External links

* [http://www.surfermoon.com/lyrics/party.html "Beach Boys' Party!" lyrics]