| Friends | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by The Beach Boys | ||||
| Released | June 24, 1968 | |||
| Recorded | February - April 1968 | |||
| Genre | Psychedelic rock | |||
| Length | 25:30 | |||
| Label | Capitol | |||
| Producer | The Beach Boys | |||
| The Beach Boys chronology | ||||
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Friends is the fourteenth studio album by The Beach Boys, released in 1968.
Contents |
As work on the album began in February 1968, Mike Love, a recent convert to transcendental meditation (TM), departed on a two week trip to India (alongside The Beatles and Donovan) to study TM further with his new master, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. In his absence, the remaining Beach Boys – Brian Wilson, Dennis Wilson, Carl Wilson, Al Jardine, and (now an official member) Bruce Johnston – recorded the bulk of Friends along with selected members of The Wrecking Crew.
Friends was the first Beach Boys album to feature significant songwriting contributions from Dennis Wilson, "Little Bird" and "Be Still"; the former's bridge incorporated elements of "Child Is the Father of the Man", a then-unreleased song from the aborted Smile. Although production was credited to the group as a whole, this was the band's last album until 1976's 15 Big Ones to feature Brian Wilson as a dominant creative force, writing or co-writing every song with the exception of "Be Still" (he went uncredited on "Little Bird" so that Dennis and Stephen Kainich could collect more royalties), and actively participating in recording sessions.
In mid-March, Mike Love returned from his TM retreat and contributed to the subsequent vocal sessions, with leads on the brief "Meant for You", which opens the album, and the understated "Anna Lee, the Healer", who was in reality a spiritual healer and not a masseuse as has been claimed (that was Marcella, on a later album). Almost immediately, the Beach Boys embarked on two US tours, one with the Strawberry Alarm Clock (resulting in the California Girls reprise at the end of the song 'Small Package'), and another with, most controversially, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi himself (as a lecturer). Both were commercial failures, and were swiftly canceled (after they famously drew only 200 people in New York City).
The first Beach Boys album to be released only in stereo (and their first release in true stereo since 1964's The Beach Boys' Christmas Album), Friends was issued in June. It reached only #126 on American charts, as an indication of the band's depleted commercial fortunes at the time, but its later UK release was more popular, reaching #13.
| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | link |
| Blender | link |
| Rolling Stone | link |
| Side one | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Lead Vocals | Length | |||||
| 1. | "Meant for You" | Brian Wilson/Mike Love | Love | 0:38 | |||||
| 2. | "Friends" | B. Wilson/Carl Wilson/Dennis Wilson/Al Jardine | C. Wilson | 2:30 | |||||
| 3. | "Wake the World" | B. Wilson/Jardine | B. Wilson/C. Wilson | 1:28 | |||||
| 4. | "Be Here in the Morning" | B. Wilson/C. Wilson/Love/Jardine | Jardine/B. Wilson/C. Wilson | 2:16 | |||||
| 5. | "When a Man Needs a Woman" | B. Wilson/D. Wilson/C. Wilson/Jardine/Steve Korthof/Jon Parks | B. Wilson | 2:06 | |||||
| 6. | "Passing By" | B. Wilson | B. Wilson | 2:23 | |||||
| Side two | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Lead Vocals | Length | |||||
| 1. | "Anna Lee, the Healer" | B. Wilson/Love | Love | 1:51 | |||||
| 2. | "Little Bird" | D. Wilson/Steve Kalinich | D. Wilson/C. Wilson | 1:57 | |||||
| 3. | "Be Still" | D. Wilson/Kalinich | D. Wilson | 1:22 | |||||
| 4. | "Busy Doin' Nothin'" | B. Wilson | B. Wilson | 3:04 | |||||
| 5. | "Diamond Head" | Al Vescovo/Lyle Ritz/Jim Ackley/B. Wilson | Instrumental | 3:37 | |||||
| 6. | "Transcendental Meditation" | B. Wilson/Love/Jardine | B. Wilson | 1:49 | |||||
The Australian release of Friends had "Good Vibrations" replace "Diamond Head" on side two.
The Japanese release of Friends added "Do It Again" as the first song on side two.
Friends is now paired on CD with the Beach Boys' 1969 album 20/20, along with bonus tracks from that period. Bonus tracks include their hit single "Break Away", as well as "Celebrate the News", "We're Together Again", "Walk on By", and a medley of "Old Folks at Home / Ol' Man River".