| Endless Summer | ||||
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| Greatest hits album by The Beach Boys | ||||
| Released | 24 June 1974 (US) | |||
| Recorded | April 1962 - June 1965 (CD bonus track, "Good Vibrations": February–September 1966) |
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| Genre | Surf rock, Sunshine Pop | |||
| Length | 51:09 | |||
| Label | Capitol | |||
| Producer | Brian Wilson and Nick Venet |
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| Professional reviews | ||||
| The Beach Boys chronology | ||||
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Endless Summer is a rock compilation album by The Beach Boys, released on June 24, 1974.
A collection of hits from the pre-Pet Sounds period, Endless Summer (reportedly named by Mike Love) was compiled by their old label Capitol Records while The Beach Boys were contracted with Reprise Records. The compilation displays a number of oddities, including album versions of "Be True to Your School", "Help Me Rhonda", and "Fun, Fun, Fun" instead of the hit-single versions, a difference which is subtle in the last case, but more prominent in the first two. Initial pressings of this album contained a poster depicting an airplane flying a Beach Boys banner. While the album is limited entirely to the band's sixties material, the cover artwork reflected the Beach Boys' seventies appearance. With vegetation in the foreground, it also seems to evoke images of the band's late 1960s Smiley Smile album, although none of the songs on the original pressing are from Smiley Smile ("Good Vibrations" was added to the 1980 CD edition).
Endless Summer is notable, however, for reclaiming the band's commercial glory at home, spending 155 weeks on the Billboard album chart, and peaking at #1, selling over three million copies.
Although released as a 'double album' (two LPs in a gatefold sleeve) in the USA, in the UK, the album was released on one LP with ten songs on each side.
Contents |
All songs by Brian Wilson/Mike Love, except where noted.
Endless Summer (Capitol SVBB 11307) hit #1 in the US during a chart stay of 155 weeks.
The 2-record set was pressed with Side 1 backed with Side 4 and Side 2 backed with Side 3
The cassette version differs slightly as to the sequence of tracks. Side 1 features all tracks from Sides 1 & 2 in the same order plus "I Get Around" from Side 3. Side 2 includes the remaining tracks from Sides 3 & 4 in the same order with the exception of "Girls On The Beach" and "Wendy" which were 'swapped'.
The song "Help Me, Ronda," retitled "Help Me, Rhonda" when included in this album, was also featured as one of 2 Beach Boys tracks in a promotional-only various artists compilation album issued by Capitol records entitled The Greatest Music Ever Sold (Capitol SPRO-8511/8512), that was distributed to record stores during the 1976 Holiday season as part of Capitol's "Greatest Music Ever Sold" campaign, which promoted 15 "Best Of" albums released by the record label. The song was once again retitled "Help Me, Rhonda," for this compilation album. "Dance, Dance, Dance" from Spirit Of America was the other Beach Boys song to be included.
| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 1974 | Billboard 200 | 1 |
| Preceded by Bad Company by Bad Company |
Billboard 200 number-one album October 5–11, 1974 |
Succeeded by If You Love Me, Let Me Know by Olivia Newton-John |