| Beach Boys' Party! | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by The Beach Boys | ||||
| Released | November 8, 1965 | |||
| Recorded | September 8–27, 1965 | |||
| Genre | Rock and roll | |||
| Length | 31:10 | |||
| Label | Capitol | |||
| Producer | Brian Wilson | |||
| The Beach Boys chronology | ||||
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| Allmusic | [1] |
Beach Boys' Party! is an album of mostly 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.[2] It was The Beach Boys' tenth 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.[3]
In August, after the release of Summer Days (and Summer Nights!!), The Beach Boys' leader Brian Wilson was contemplating his next studio album, which would turn out to be Pet Sounds. Capitol Records requested a new album for the holiday season (and "Pet Sounds" could not be finished in time for that). Since a live album, Beach Boys Concert, had already been released the previous year, the "live party" idea was selected. (Also, the Beach Boys already had had a Christmas album, and it was felt that a "greatest hits" compilation would signal that the Beach Boys' career was coming to an end.) 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.[2]
The album included versions of The Beatles' "Tell Me Why", "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away" 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. Several other songs were also recorded, but not put on the album. This included a rendition of The Beatles' song "Ticket To Ride", three takes of The Rolling Stones "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction", a version of Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind" and the song "Riot In Cell Block #9" (which would later be played live in the early 1970s, and then became "Student Demonstration Time" on the Beach Boys' Surf's Up album), and several other songs, all of which can be found on bootlegs.
The new single's inventive use of silence was disliked by radio programmers,[4] 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 hit in early 1966.[2]
Beach Boys' Party! reached #6 in the US (though it never went gold). Beach Boys' Party! and the surprise hit single "Barbara Ann" became The Beach Boys' biggest successes yet in the UK, both reaching #3 in early 1966 and making them stars in The Beatles' homeland.
Contents |
| Side one | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Lead Vocals | Length | |||||
| 1. | "Hully Gully" | Fred Smith/Cliff Goldsmith | Mike Love | 2:22 | |||||
| 2. | "I Should Have Known Better" | John Lennon/Paul McCartney | Carl Wilson/Al Jardine | 1:40 | |||||
| 3. | "Tell Me Why" | Lennon–McCartney | Jardine/C. Wilson | 1:46 | |||||
| 4. | "Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow" | Carl White/Al Frazier/Sonny Harris/Turner Wilson Jr. | Brian Wilson/Love | 2:18 | |||||
| 5. | "Mountain of Love" | Harold Dorman | Love | 2:51 | |||||
| 6. | "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" | Lennon–McCartney | Dennis Wilson | 2:56 | |||||
| 7. | "Devoted to You" | Boudleaux Bryant | Love/B. Wilson | 2:13 | |||||
| Side two | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Lead Vocals | Length | |||||
| 1. | "Alley Oop" | Dallas Frazier | Love | 2:56 | |||||
| 2. | "There's No Other (Like My Baby)" | Phil Spector/Leroy Bates | B. Wilson | 3:05 | |||||
| 3. | "Medley: I Get Around/Little Deuce Coupe" | Brian Wilson/Mike Love/Roger Christian | Love | 3:12 | |||||
| 4. | "The Times They Are a-Changin'" | Bob Dylan | Jardine | 2:23 | |||||
| 5. | "Barbara Ann" | Fred Fassert | B. Wilson/Dean Torrence | 3:23 | |||||
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.