Disco de The Beach Boys: “Made in U.S.A.”

Two types of people will look at this: completists who want anything at all that says "Beach Boys" on it (for the rare performance w/Bob Dylan on "Rock and Roll to the Rescue" and the band's cover of Mamas and Papas classic "California Dreamin'") and casual fans who are looking for a cheaply priced greatest hits.

COMPLETISTS: "Rock and Roll to the Rescue" really is pretty boring once you get over the chuckle of how funny it is to hear His Bobness with the Hawthorne Five. "Cali Dreamin'" can be found on "Greatest Hits Volume 3" now as well. But heck it's under $3 used, so knock yourself out.

CASUAL FANS WANTING A SINGLE CD HITS DISC: It's this one or SOUNDS OF SUMMER. Let's compare, shall we?

PROS:

If price is the biggest factor, this one will be cheaper used (under a buck) for 25 cuts. It has "Caroline, No" which isn't on SOUNDS but since EVERYONE should own PET SOUNDS that doesn't matter in the end.

CONS: Lots of uninteresting tracks. You can do without "Rock and Roll to the Rescue","Come Go with Me" and "Rock and Roll Music". SOUNDS also has the benefit of having several big 'car songs' that aren't here ("Little Deuce Coupe" and "Shut Down"), their last big chart song ("Kokomo"),"In My Room", a fantastic cover of the Ronettes' "I Can Hear Music", and a couple little known gems that you may discover you like once you hear them ("Darlin'","Wild Honey").

BOTTOM LINE: If you're near broke or a competist, buy this one. If you want one CD with most of the best Beach Boys material on it, get SOUNDS OF SUMMER.

Made In U.S.A. was originally released in 1986 --- which was the group's 25th Anniversary --- and after all this time, it's STILL one of the stronger Beach Boys compilations to be put out (and there have been countless BB collections over the years). It features a lot of the group's best '60s material, a couple post-'60s hits, and also a couple of "new" (1986) recordings. It does somewhat strangely exclude many of the group's '60s hits, and it almost entirely overlooks the group's '70s material, which they did actually do a lot of. The only '70s tracks here are the hits "Rock And Roll Music" and "Come Go With Me" (although technically that one didn't become a hit until '81). The group also had a couple of other '70s hits, "It's OK" and "Good Timin,'" which aren't here. "Kokomo" isn't here, either, but that's perfectly understandable since it wasn't released until '88. I'm a bit puzzled by the inclusion of "409" and "Caroline, No," since the other songs here (except the "new" ones) were hits and those two weren't. But all of the tracks that are included are good ones (in fact, some of them are great). Capitol could have included a few of the tracks that weren't on the vinyl release when they put the comp on CD, but they didn't. Oh well. The two "new" recordings, "Rock 'N' Roll To The Rescue" and "California Dreamin'," were and still are welcome additions to the Beach Boys catalog. "Rock 'N' Roll To The Rescue" features some great lead vocals by Brian, who was soon to go solo (he wasn't on "Kokomo," which became the group's next and last #1 single). I only know of one other compilation that "Rock 'N' Roll..." appeared on, and I believe it was only released on vinyl. (That comp, released [I think] about the same time as this one, was 25 Years Of Good Vibrations, which was "presented" by Sunkist as part of a promotion.) "California Dreamin'," which is my favorite of the two "new" tracks, was originally recorded by The Mamas & The Papas, whose version I think pales greatly compared to the Beach Boys'! As good of a single-CD collection as Made In U.S.A. is, though, it HAS recently been surpassed by (yes, here I am promoting it yet again) the Sounds Of Summer compilation. It has most of the hits not included on Made In U.S.A., has a few more tracks overall (it has 30, to be exact), and plays for even longer (like 77 minutes). It also has excellent sound quality (not that the sound quality of Made In U.S.A. is really bad), and many of the '60s tracks on it are in stereo (all of the ones here are in mono on this comp). It doesn't have much of the group's '70s stuff on it, either, but it still outdoes this collection. About the only thing I really don't like about it is that it doesn't include "California Dreamin'." My advice would be to get Sounds Of Summer instead of Made In U.S.A., unless maybe you want "Rock 'N' Roll To The Rescue" and/or "California Dreamin'." (By the way, for those of you who have seen my review for the cassette version of this comp and may be wondering, I gave it four stars instead of three out of gratitude because it was what first got me really turned on to the Beach Boys.)

The Beach Boys Made in the USA is one of their best albums. It is dedicated to Dennis Wilson, who drowned in 1983, and contains many of the Beach Boys hits. One song that is tough to find is "Rock and Roll to the Rescue" and that is included on this album. Made in 1986, the CD has been out of print for over 5 years in 2005, but you can find reasonable prices on it. As of 2005, usually you can find it usually in good condition for under $10 including s/h. It is a good CD and is well worth your money, especially if you are a big fan of the Beach Boys.

I wanted this CD for quite a while its a nice mix of simple tounge and cheeck type 60's surfer music with a few 80's songs mixed in. Also worth having for the haunting masterpiece version of " California Dreamin" which was already a classic by the Mama's & the Papa's but made even better in my humble oppinion.

THIS WAS MY "RE INTRODUCTION" TO THE BEACH BOYS MUSIC BACK IN THE 80'S (PRIOR TO THAT, I HAD OWNED 'BEST OF THE BEACH BOYS). THIS COLLECTION INTRODUCED ME TO A LOT OF COOL SONGS THAT WEREN'T ON 'BEST OF' SUCH AS 'CAROLINE,NO','DO IT AGAIN','DON'T WORRY BABY'. THE ONE COMPLAINT AGAINST THIS COLLECTION IS THAT THE SONGS THEY PUT ON THERE FROM THE 70'S WERE NOT VERY GOOD AND THE BEACH BOYS DID A LOT OF GOOD STUFF IN THOSE YEARS TOO