The Beach Boys Album: “Sights & Sounds of Summer [Limited]”

Description :

This release includes a bonus DVD featuring rare footage of early Beach Boys performances. <p>The Beach Boys: Dennis Wilson, Al Jardine, Mike Love, Brian Wilson , Bruce Johnston, Carl Wilson . <p>Liner Note Author: Anthony DeCurtis. <p>One of the few acts to simultaneously challenge and inspire the Beatles, the Beach Boys continued making wonderful music long after the 1960s drew to a close. SIGHTS & SOUNDS OF SUMMER is the first single-disc hits package to comprehensively cover the Boys' entire career. Organized thematically rather than chronologically, the collection explores both the group's sun-soaked California teenage fantasies ("Surfin' Safari," "Little Deuce Coupe") and Brian Wilson's later, increasingly introspective and sophisticated pieces ("God Only Knows," "Heroes and Villains"). In addition, there is a healthy amount of running time devoted to the group's harder-edged, band-oriented '70s experiments ("Good Timin'") and '80s revivalist hits ("Kokomo"). One of the few best-of CDs that can boast 30 tracks of uniformly great music, SIGHTS & SOUNDS OF SUMMER will satisfy both nostalgia hounds and Beach Boys neophytes curious about why this ostensibly innocuous West Coast band is counted among pop music's greatest groups.

First the bonuses... it's a decent overview that you not only get to hear but see the band as well. Considering how many repackages that have been done, I'd recommend this one out of them all. It's a great intro for a new generation to listen to, the ones that bought the Beatles and Elvis 1's. I like it better than both of the documentaries, and wish they would put out a full-length DVD of all their great songs and some of the promo videos they did in the 80s. Even the one they did with the Fat Boys. But I do feel that you get your money's worth with this collection.

The drawbacks are the songs that are missing, which would amount to a whole other CD. Maybe a "rock" CD and a "roll" CD... As a companion (even though there are songs on both) I'd recommend "Beach Boys Classics", a set handpicked by Brian that serves as a great companion to this one, or just get the "Good Vibrations" box set which covers a lot of territory. And "Pet Sounds" should have been in your collection anyway.

I own all the Beach Boys CD's prior to Pet Sounds plus Pet Sounds. I've listened to most of the "Brother Years" CDs, and I can say that sometimes I still like to crank up nothing but the big hits. This is an excellent "greatest hits" CD because with the exception of Sail On Sailer, which it amazingly does not include, it has all the "Brother Years" hits on it, including my favorite of that era "I Can Hear Music".

And, the DVD is a huge bonus. What a piece of history.

The only hits missing here are "The Little Girl I Once Knew" and "It's OK". It's nice to hear the alternate mixes, but a proper greatest hits album should have original mixes only. The videos are great.