[www.billboard.com]

Beach Boys Beat the Beatles for Billboard 200 Record

The California surfers splash past the Fab Four for the longest span of top 10 albums among groups in the Billboard 200's history.

Fifty years into their career, the Beach Boys are still making waves on Billboard charts.
This week, they best the Beatles for a Billboard 200 album chart record.
As their reunion set, "That's Why God Made the Radio" (their first album of all-new material since 1992), bursts onto the chart at No. 3, the Beach Boys break a record by expanding their span of Billboard 200 top 10s to 49 years and one week. They first graced the top 10 with "Surfin' U.S.A." the week of June 15, 1963.
The Beach Boys' stretch between their first week in the Billboard 200 top 10 to their most recent is now the longest among groups, passing the Beatles, whose top 10 span covers 47 years, seven months and three weeks. The Fab Four first entered the top bracket when "Meet the Beatles" rocketed from #92 to #3 on the Feb. 8, 1964, chart at the blastoff of Beatlemania. The group most recently appeared in the top 10 with "1" the week of Oct. 1, 2011.
The Rolling Stones are pushed to third among groups with the longest top 10 span on the Billboard 200. Their 45-year, six-month top 10 span ranges from the week of Dec. 12, 1964 (12 x 5), through June 12, 2010 (Exile on Main St.)
Among all acts, Frank Sinatra boasts the longest top 10 span on the Billboard 200: 52 years, two months and one week. Sinatra first entered the top tier with "Songs for Swingin' Lovers!" the week of April 7, 1956, and last ranked in the region on June 14, 2008, with "Nothing But the Best."
The Billboard 200 launched as a weekly chart in the pages of Billboard magazine the week of March 24, 1956.
Upon its arrival, "Radio" becomes the Beach Boys' highest-charting album since 1965's "Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!)," which reached No. 2. The new release is their 14th top 10 and first since 1976's "15 Big Ones." The Beach Boys have topped the Billboard 200 with two titles: 1964's "Beach Boys Concert" (for four weeks) and 1974's "Endless Summer" (one).



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2012-06-16 03:09 by tatters.

Happy for the Beach Boys but the top ten ain't what it used to be!

The new album sucks unfortunately.

Drake

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flacnvinyl
The new album sucks unfortunately.

Care to break that down for us? Oh and before you go straight for the Mike Love penned songs as the album's soft spots..let's just assume you hate those songs and just move on to other things.

Good for the Beach Boys! One of my favorite bands as a kid. Saw them live in 1964. This news should provide inspiration for the Stones. Storm clouds are gathering!

The new album's classic Beach Boys, I love it.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012-06-16 14:27 by shadooby.

I played it yesterday,for the first time.It sounded great ,a stoners album.

Vintage Brian Wilson for the most part. The new album has tracks that can hang with their best work. I can't help but think that anyone who would make the blanket statment that it "sucks" is just not a fan to begin with. Why even bother to comment?

It is a great record especially the last 4 songs.

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flacnvinyl
The new album sucks unfortunately.

What're ya talkin' 'bout? One fan loves it so much, he spared no expense making this great video!

I saw them in AC a few weeks ago and they were amazing. Brian is an American treasure. And bonus, even at 44, I was the youngest "kid" in the room.

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shadooby
The new album's classic Beach Boys, I love it.

This is great news not only for Beach Boy's fans (I am one) but great news for Stones fans (I am one) also. No way is Mick gonna let Mike Love have the "last laugh"! Let it be written: "There shall be a new classic Stones album and world tour!"

Stones clouds are gathering!

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jazzbass
I saw them in AC a few weeks ago and they were amazing. Brian is an American treasure. And bonus, even at 44, I was the youngest "kid" in the room.

To think that the two best bands on the west coast are still rollin 50 years later is amazing! The Sonics of course being the other.

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donvis
It is a great record especially the last 4 songs.

It's called, "saving the best for last"! Lucky for us, Mick knows exactly of what I speak!

My copy is in the mail -- from what I can gather (I frequent two Beach Boy boards) it is neither sucky nor a classic but as decent as one could hope for at this stage minus two Wilsons. The title track has grown on me and though I'd prefer Brian producing in mono at Western Studios, the modernity of the sound isn't bugging me too much. As a solo artist Brian has released good ("That Lucky Old Sun" ) and sucky ("Getting In Over My Head" ) -- we won't count the brilliant "Brian Wilson Presents Smile". The window of brilliance has long since closed for all our heroes of that era -- a good tune or listening experience or show here and there is wonderful icing on the cake at this late date. Think Sinatra in his golden years.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012-06-16 19:13 by Wry Cooter.

I like Brian Wilson's music, and the album is full of good songs, but man, how I hate Auto-Tune.

I really hate AUTO-TUNE

THE @#$%& WITH AUTOTUNE

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"I'm gonna walk... before they make me run"

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Autotune and stupid *&^%ing videos with models in bikinis with surfboards. I know we like bikinis but the band's mindless adherence to the sun and fun image has long been a thorn in their artistic acknowledgment, not to mention a few decades beyond creepy.

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Wry Cooter
Autotune and stupid *&^%ing videos with models in bikinis with surfboards. I know we like bikinis but the band's mindless adherence to the sun and fun image has long been a thorn in their artistic acknowledgment, not to mention a few decades beyond creepy.

Yeah, but that's the fantasy they're selling and the one people like me, in the landlocked American midwest, are buying.

I thought it was going to be a hideously awful album, but I bought it, took it home, played it, and, above all, enjoyed it. Ok, so it's not Pet Sounds, Sunflower, or Surfs Up, or Smile, but it has a charm of its own, and is far better than MIU, Light Album, Keeping the Summer Alive, Beach Boys 85, Still Cruisin, Summer In Paradise, Stars & Stripes Forever.

At the risk of being Devil's Advocate, it is better than Love You, but only just, and it totally knocks 15 Big ones into a cocked hat.

It's a nice little stat for The Beach Boys but it doesn't really mean a whole lot.
It kind of reminds me of that movie Summer School where the kid left the room to go to the bathroom on the first day, disappeared and suddenly reappeared the last day just in time to graduate.

The Beach Boys as a musical force have been pretty much absent over the last forty years except for a few highlights here and there. That said I guess even at their ripe old age they can still teach a thing or two to the young whippersnappers that don't know what music is all about.

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Wry Cooter
My copy is in the mail -- from what I can gather (I frequent two Beach Boy boards) it is neither sucky nor a classic but as decent as one could hope for at this stage minus two Wilsons. The title track has grown on me and though I'd prefer Brian producing in mono at Western Studios, the modernity of the sound isn't bugging me too much. As a solo artist Brian has released good ("That Lucky Old Sun" ) and sucky ("Getting In Over My Head" ) -- we won't count the brilliant "Brian Wilson Presents Smile". The window of brilliance has long since closed for all our heroes of that era -- a good tune or listening experience or show here and there is wonderful icing on the cake at this late date. Think Sinatra in his golden years.

What we are witnessing is a glorious sunset. The musical heroes of our youth coming back for one last wave goodbye. Enjoy it, because soon the twilight will fade to darkness.

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Wry Cooter
Happy for the Beach Boys but the Top 10 ain't what it used to be!

Considering that the new album has already charted higher than Pet Sounds (which peaked at #10), I'd have to agree!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012-06-17 08:11 by tatters.

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MightyStonesStillRollin50

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Wry Cooter
My copy is in the mail -- from what I can gather (I frequent two Beach Boy boards) it is neither sucky nor a classic but as decent as one could hope for at this stage minus two Wilsons. The title track has grown on me and though I'd prefer Brian producing in mono at Western Studios, the modernity of the sound isn't bugging me too much. As a solo artist Brian has released good ("That Lucky Old Sun" ) and sucky ("Getting In Over My Head" ) -- we won't count the brilliant "Brian Wilson Presents Smile". The window of brilliance has long since closed for all our heroes of that era -- a good tune or listening experience or show here and there is wonderful icing on the cake at this late date. Think Sinatra in his golden years.

What we are witnessing is a glorious sunset. The musical heroes of our youth coming back for one last wave goodbye. Enjoy it, because soon the twilight will fade to darkness.

Strainsteen reminds me of Sinatra in his golden years, although Frank could still actually sing! Springsteen sounds like a man trying to blow cement out of his ears and spit out marbles from his mouth. Nice fellow and a good performer though.

Finally got my pics from the meet and greets I did on this tour. I think they turned out alright!

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Justin
Finally got my pics from the meet and greets I did on this tour. I think they turned out alright!

Pretty cool. What'd they charge you for that?

$450....but it was a steal compared to shelling out $1500 which is what they charged for the meet and greet at the Hollywood Bowl. This was in Santa Barbara, CA so it was significantly cheaper. We also got soundcheck access which was right before we took this picture. Well worth it for me!

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Justin
$450....but it was a steal compared to shelling out $1500 which is what they charged for the meet and greet at the Hollywood Bowl. This was in Santa Barbara, CA so it was significantly cheaper. We also got soundcheck access which was right before we took this picture. Well worth it for me!

I think $450 is very reasonable considering that's exactly what the Stones charged just for a seat on the playing field in the middle of a baseball stadium on their last tour.

Love the new album! Here are some songs from this tour.

[www.npr.org]

Listening to the Beach Boys is an exercise in longing. Their best songs are usually set in a magical, parallel time and place...it is almost always the summer of 1965 and we are all 16 and buff, live on the beach in California, and have a groovy, blonde, super-gone girl and a red hot-rod with a surfboard plopped on top in the driveway. Their dramas always play on a variation of this fantasy.

That's Why God made The Radio has some songs that directly relate and hearken back to that world. The opening track quietly brings us into a melancholy cathedral choir of harmony, eliciting dawn over a still ocean...the Beach Boys vocalizing like God's angels...and then the gorgeous (title track) single kicks in and it's Summer again. I think it is their best and most iconic single since the 60's -- a song so exuberant and melodic that it (almost) makes you forget the schmaltzy lyrics...but then, it is a summer single after all, and the harmonies alone transport you into your mythic hot rod, cruising the seaside strip with your beach-blonde babe at your side...

The subsequent songs follow this blueprint, but with a twist...they are wistful, all about "turning back the pages" and "remembering photographs" and "how the world used to be when it was just about you and me" and doing it "just like yesterday". This album is one long pensive look back at better times, when we were all strapping and vital, the darkness was only to be found in hidden corners, and the summer sun burned away all doubts and fears. The melodies are impeccable (obviously very well produced to the point of being processed...but then these guys are all around 70 years old so we'll cut them a break) and the more one listens to these songs the more one sinks into the soaring harmonies like settling into a favorite sofa. In a better world there are 3-4 classic Beach Boys hit singles here...

...and then come the last 4 songs and the entire mood suddenly changes. This is the soul of the album -- a suite of melancholy and yearning -- and it is quite stunningly beautiful. Strange World kicks it off with a deceptively cheerful mood, but the message is all about alienation from this present-day "strange world" and being grateful for having someone to love that helps you "getting through it". And then the album deepens into something absolutely stunning...

...From There To Back Again is probably their most glorious song since their Pet Sounds heyday...a mini-pop-opera in the inimitable style the Beach Boys made famous. Al Jardine sings the beautifully simple lyrics ("Why don't you run away and spend some time with me, on this summer's day, there's nowhere else I'd rather be..." / "...you're been thinking about some things we used to do, thinking about when life was still in front of you...", cushioned by flutes, smooth harmonies and a wistful piano. The song contains a sound that brings back memories of the best melodies of The Carpenters and even The Rascals...and then as Al Jardine implores his love to come with him Brian Wilson swoops in with "If you'd just call..." and the Boys go into a swooning harmony and Brian takes the song home, singing about "another place in time...". Pure Beach Boys magic.

The last two songs -- Pacific Coast Highway and Summer's Gone -- are beautiful beyond words..."sunlight's fading and there's not much left to say...", while "...dreams go on for those who still have more to say." Brian sings "Summer's gone, gone like yesterday, the nights grow cold, it's time to go...". His way of saying "Goodbye" and an elegiacal lament and benediction to all that has come before and that will never be again. If the Beach Boys never record another sound again, these last songs are the perfect bookend of the Beach Boys legacy...a legacy is so rich and deep that listening to the best of it is like (as they sing on the single That's Why God Made The radio) "receiving a signal like a prayer...", and it reminds us that all Brian ever wanted was to make us...Smile.

Perfect time to listen to the album: A hot summer day is ending...sunset over the beach...looking over a balcony at the calming waves...the horizon turning to amber...heaven...