Classic rock fans will be having fun, fun, fun on Monday, Jan. 26, when one of the bands that helped shape rock and roll surfs into town for two shows at the Ponte Vedra Concert Hall. Mike Love and The Beach Boys will bring back the iconic harmonies and timeless, upbeat themes of their greatest hits for performances at 5 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.
A founding member of the legendary band, Love said he likes to start his shows with those retro hits everyone knows, songs like “Surfin’ U.S.A.” The concert shifts gears then to what he calls the car songs: “409,” “Little Deuce Coupe,” “Shut Down,” “I Get Around” and, of course, “Fun, Fun, Fun.”
And this being the 60th anniversary of the “Pet Sounds” album, songs like “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” “Sloop John B” and “God Only Knows” will be featured.
With songs like “Surfin’ Safari,” “Help Me, Rhonda,” “California Girls,” “Summer in Paradise” and the 1988 smash hit “Kokomo,” it’s bound to be a night fans will long remember.
“We’ve got a lot of songs that people sing along with,” said Love. “‘Kokomo’ is probably the biggest.”
That song, the band’s top-selling single, spent eight weeks at number one in Australia — so long that Love jokes that he was almost tempted to move there.
Founded in Hawthorne, California, in 1961, The Beach Boys were originally made up of three teenaged brothers, Brian, Carl and Dennis Wilson, and cousin Mike Love. But to get those famous harmonies meant adding one more member.
“My cousin Brian would sing the high part,” Love recalled. “I’d sing the bass part or the lead. My cousin Carl would sing a part. We were always looking for someone who could blend. Not just sing a note, but actually blend. There’s an art to it. We tried and tried, and we finally found a guy named Alan Jardine, who sang and blended with us, and he was a really good singer.”
The Beach Boys signed with Capitol Records in July 1962 and their first album, “Surfin’ Safari,” came out that same year.
It was the beginning of a monster wave of success. The band has sold more than 100 million records worldwide. More than 80 of their songs have charted, 36 in the U.S. Top 40 and four at the top of the Billboard Hot 100. The Beach Boys were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1988.
Currently, the lineup includes Brian Eichenberger, formerly of The Four Freshmen, a band Love credits with inspiring the famed Beach Boys four-part harmony; Love’s son Christian; Tim Bonhomme; Jon Bolton; Keith Hubacher (formerly of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons); Randy Leago; and John Wedemeyer.
The group maintains a rigorous touring schedule, averaging 150 shows a year. It’s a work ethic that harkens back to the early days when Brian Wilson “worked us hard in recording,” according to Love.
It’s uncommon for a band to perform twice in a single day, in part because concerts can be physically taxing. But a solid work ethic, can-do attitude and genuine joy in performing — three qualities that one detects when speaking with Love — can make a difference.
Between shows, “we’ll have a break, get to meditate and rest up and eat a little something,” Love said. And with that, The Beach Boys are ready to take the stage again.
Love recalled a pair of performances the band gave one Independence Day. First, they played to a crowd of 900,000 in the streets of Philadelphia; that was followed by a free concert in Washington, D.C., for half a million fans.
“That was phenomenal,” Love said.
Over the years, The Beach Boys have garnered fans from the world over. Love recalled speaking with a Saudi ambassador who shared that, while attending school in England, he would sit in his Austin-Healey and listen as their songs played on the radio.
“We’ve been blessed to have a fantastic career,” Love reflected.
He cited one performance that especially stood out.
In December 1967, The Beach Boys played at the UNICEF Variety Gala in Paris. It was a show that also included performances by Lena Horne and Victor Borge and was famously attended by actors Marlon Brando, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, among others.
But Love never forgot the moment the curtain opened.
“It was our turn to play a few songs, and in the front row was Maharishi,” Love said. “And on one side of him was John Lennon, and on the other side of him was George Harrison. It was amazing.”
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi was popular with several musical artists of that era.
In fact, Love flew to India at the invitation of Maharishi, and when he arrived at the ashram, he found the Beatles there. They performed a birthday song for Love, who then learned that Harrison’s birthday was only a couple of weeks prior to his own. Remembering this later, he wrote “Pisces Brothers,” a tribute to Harrison, in 2004.
One of the hallmarks of The Beach Boys’ music is its positivity. In constructing a scientific formula to determine just how happy a song made its listeners, a psychologist recently ranked one particular Beach Boys song at the very top.
Love recalled how that piece came about.
“I always accentuated the positive,” he said. “Even when the Vietnam War was cooking, I wanted to do a song about a girl who was into peace and love and flower power and all that good stuff — not the war and all that horrible stuff.”
That’s how he wrote the lyrics to “Good Vibrations.”
It’s no surprise that the song is a favorite of fans everywhere, and it’s one that is sure to occupy an important part of the show’s program.
Love marvels at the band’s longevity and laughs when he talks about one tune that returns to the airwaves each holiday season.
“Every Thanksgiving, they start playing ‘Little St. Nick,’ our big Christmas hit,” he said. “It’s perennial. … These things are going to outlast me!”
If any rock-and-roll band can be said to represent America on the world stage, it’s probably The Beach Boys. Later this year, the band will perform at the Hollywood Bowl for three nights in July during a celebration of nation’s 250th birthday.
For those wanting to see the band at the Ponte Vedra Concert Hall, tickets can be purchased at pvconcerthall.com, AXS.com or at the box office between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. daily.
The concert hall is located at 1050 A1A North, Ponte Vedra Beach.
NEW BOXED SET
The Beach Boys concert comes just prior to a six-disc (CDs and LPs), 73-track boxed set of recordings from the band members’ 1976-77 period. “We Gotta Groove: The Brothers Studio Years” includes a newly remastered edition of “The Beach Boys Love You” as well as the first-ever official release of the long-shelved, near-mythical “Adult/Child” sessions.
Fans will find 35 unreleased and 22 newly mixed tracks, including outtakes, alternate mixes, instrumentals, Brian Wilson’s unvarnished studio-cassette demos and more. There are unreleased cover tunes, a touch of swing and a song written for, but never recorded by, Frank Sinatra.
The set also includes a 40-page booklet that contains liner notes, rare photos, tape box images and artifacts of the era, as well as a complete sessionography detailing when and where each recording was made.
The boxed set will be released Feb. 13 via Capitol/UMe. The Grammy Museum in Los Angeles will host a special evening in celebration of the release on Feb. 12.
For further information, go to thebeachboys.com.
