Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #83 in Digital Music Album
• Published on: 2003-06-10
• Released on: 2003-06-10
• Running time: 0 seconds

Customer Reviews

Great songs
If you are a fan of the Beach Boys but not enough of a fan to own all of their albums, then this one is for you. It has alot of their best hits. I enjoy the whole album and it always cheers me up when I listen to it. Very upbeat and fun.

The Teenage Declaration of Independence
Sounds of Summer, yes! Year-round summer is what California has always represented to the rest of the USA. The Beach Boys sang the surfer lifestyle into American and world consciousness, and doing so declared California's musical and cultural independence from the East Coast. The Beach Boys also sang the independence of teenagers of the Baby Boom, with cars and purchasing power, from their parents' generation of frugal, anxious conformists shaped by the Great Depression. They sang the primacy of summer and outdoor life over the stuffy classroom and grimy workplace. There's not a word of piety or propriety in any of Brian Wilson's songs; the Beach Boys were prophets of a life style free of shibboleths, in a world of sun-tanned smiles and endless summer. How could anyone not be thrilled by such a prospect?

Musically, the Beach Boys were tight, driving, innovative, the best dance music ever, and they never went noir on us, never wallowed, never whined. You might say they never grew up, they lived in a false paradise of surf boards and bikinis, but I'd say 'more power to 'em'. The Miwok Indians of California used to believe that dancing kept the world in balance, and if the dancing stopped, catastrophes would erupt. The Beach Boys kept the world dancing, at least for a few decades.

This is a great, ample, well-engineered collection of the Beach Boys' greatest songs from their golden times. I doubt we'll ever hear their like.

classic beach boys
listening to this music brings me back to my high school days in the 60's. Pure pleasure.