History Trivia / TheBeachBoys

** Carl and Dennis both hated ''M.I.U. Album'' with a passion. Dennis was so repulsed by the concept behind it (it was essentially Mike's paean to Transcendental Meditation) that he refused to participate in the recording sessions. He said of the album, "It should self destruct.. I hope that the karma will fuck up Mike Love's meditation forever."
** Carl absolutely hated the Andy Paley session songs and at one point walked out of the recording causing everyone doubts about the project.
* CreatorBreakdown: Probably the most famous musical one of all time: Music/BrianWilson. ''Music/{{Smile}}'', in both versions, is an incredible suite of music, but there's no way it could have been composed by someone with a stable mind. And the unstable mind prevented the Beach Boys version from being released as it was intended: once Music/TheBeatles' ''Music/SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand'' came out, Brian Wilson lost motivation. ''Smile'', which Wilson began working on in 1966, was finally released as a solo album in 2004.

** It is far from the only album that the band had issues with. In 1992, they got together to record what was to be another triumphant return for the band, ''Summer in Paradise''. Unfortunately, Brian Wilson was struggling with leaving the care of Eugene Landy at the time and couldn't make the recording sessions. This left notorious {{Jerkass}} Mike Love in charge of the recording. Love demanded synthesized drum and bass parts, prevented certain band members from being able to play on the album, insisted on allowing ''Series/FullHouse'' star John Stamos to sing on a track despite band member wishes, and made things a general living hell for those involved. The album barely sold 10,000 copies, was critically lambasted, was left out of the 2000-2001 reissues, and is [[CanonDiscontinuity seldom acknowledged by the band]], with not even [[OldShame Mike acknowledging it despite it supposedly being his pet project, as he only mentions it once in his entire biography.]]

** John Stamos is a huge fan, having toured with them as a drummer and performed a CoverVersion of "Forever".

* CreatorBreakdown: Music/BrianWilson is probably one of the most tragic examples in recent memory.

** ''Smile'', of course, is arguably the greatest What Could Have Been in rock history.[[note]][[http://cabinessence.net/essays/talesalt.html This]] AlternateUniverseFic gives us an idea of what could've happened if ''Smile'' had been released and the band stayed in vogue: a "Battle of the Bands" campaign set up by Capitol Records between The Beach Boys and Music/TheBeatles, with joint record store displays, combative television appearances, and the two bands vying for dominance of the charts. ''Yes''. Sadly, Brian still has his CreatorBreakdown in TheSeventies but makes a comeback [[spoiler: only to get assassinated by Mark David Chapman instead of Music/JohnLennon.]][[/note]]

** "Kokomo" hit #1 in 1988, mostly thanks to the ''{{Film/Cocktail}}'' soundtrack. The Beach Boys set a new record for longest gaps between #1 hits (over 20 years before this song was released) thanks to this song (a record since surpassed by Music/{{Cher}}, although the Beach Boys still hold the record for a ''band''). Despite its success, it does not get much love from critics and hardcore fans alike.

* AuthorExistenceFailure: Carl Wilson's 1998 death from lung cancer caused the band to splinter completely.

** Despite being well received, Mike Love's only solo album ''Looking Back With Love'' has been out of print for many years and is quite hard to find these days.

*** As time went on, Brian's mental health further declined and grew increasingly more eccentric and erratic. He shelved "Fire", believing that it was magically lighting fires throughout the town. When he walked into a theater showing the film ''Film/{{Seconds}}'' (which was partially financed by Brian's main inspiration, Music/PhilSpector), a character coincidentally said, "Come in, Mr. Wilson." [[ParanoiaFuel This convinced Brian that Spector was following him and made a movie about him.]] He cut off contact with one of his friends because he was convinced that his friend's girlfriend was using ESP to stop Wilson from making the album. He suspected that his [[AbusiveParents father]] was spying on him from behind the scenes, and at one point [[TheSchizophreniaConspiracy started to believe that Spector was leading a Jewish conspiracy against him]], hiring people to spy on Spector as a result and briefly driving away his friend David Anderle, himself Jewish (Brian would later go on to [[OldShame openly regret]] this display of antisemitism). As the recording sessions progressed, he even began hearing voices.

* BreakthroughHit: "Surfin' Safari".

* FranchiseKiller: The collective failures of 1992's ''Summer in Paradise'' and 1996's ''Stars and Stripes Vol 1.'' led to the shelving of any future Beach Boys projects (including a ''Stars and Stripes Vol. 2'' and an Andy Paley collaboration album) until 2012's ''That's Why God Made the Radio''.

** Brian himself regrets his belief in a Creator/PhilSpector-led Jewish conspiracy against him during the ''[=SMiLE=]'' sessions, describing himself as having become "fucked up" at the time out of jealousy towards both Spector and Music/TheBeatles.

* OldShame: The band seem to agree with the general public's opinion that ''Summer In Paradise'' is one of the absolute worst albums ever. Exactly one song from it remains in their setlist, Mike Love only mentions it once in his autobiography and it's never seen a digital release (which, considering the glut of outtakes, alternate takes, demos and other extra material that band has released, should tell you everything you need to know).
* OutOfOrder: The UK releases of their albums was in a particularly strange order. For example, Surfin' USA (from 1962) didn't come out in the UK till 1965, and Surfer Girl (from 1963) did not come out in the UK till 1967 - both after "Little Deuce Coupe", which included tracks that had been taken from those albums. In terms of singles, "Then I Kissed Her" (from 1965's "Summer Days And Summer Nights") came out in the UK as a single in 1967, to the confusion of the band, who were putting out more advanced singles such as "Good Vibrations", and "Do It Again" came out as a single before "Friends" (1968) despite being released afterwards in the US. As a result of this, the impression of The Beach Boys in the UK for years was that they had always been about surfing, cars and girls, despite having moved on from those subjects. "Pet Sounds", however, did come out in 1966 as scheduled, which is just as well, as it became a big influence on TheBeatles.

*** As time went on, Brian's mental health further declined and grew increasingly more eccentric and erratic. He shelved "Fire", believing that it was magically lighting fires throughout the town. When he walked into a theater showing the film ''Film/{{Seconds}}'' (which was partially financed by Brian's main inspiration, Music/PhilSpector), a character coincidentally said, "Come in, Mr. Wilson." [[ParanoiaFuel This convinced Brian that Spector was following him and made a movie about him.]] He cut off contact with one of his friends because he was convinced that his friend's girlfriend was using ESP to stop Wilson from making the album. He suspected that his [[AbusiveParents father]] was spying on him from behind the scenes, and at one point [[TheSchizophreniaConspiracy started to believe that Spector was leading a Jewish conspiracy against him]], hiring people to spy on Spector as a result and briefly driving away his friend David Anderle, himself Jewish (Brian would later go on to [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone openly regret]] this display of antisemitism). As the recording sessions progressed, he even began hearing voices.

*** As time went on, Brian's mental health further declined and grew increasingly more eccentric and erratic. He shelved "Fire", believing that it was magically lighting fires throughout the town. When he walked into a theater showing the film ''Film/{{Seconds}}'' (which was partially financed by Brian's main inspiration, Music/PhilSpector), a character coincidentally said, "Come in, Mr. Wilson." [[ParanoiaFuel This convinced Brian that Spector was following him and made a movie about him.]] He cut off contact with one of his friends because he was convinced that his friend's girlfriend was using ESP to stop Wilson from making the album. He suspected that his [[AbusiveParents father]] was spying on him from behind the scenes, and at one point [[TheSchizophreniaConspiracy started to believe that Spector was leading a Jewish conspiracy against him]], hiring people to spy on Spector as a result and briefly driving away his friend David Anderle (Brian would later go on to [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone openly regret]] this display of antisemitism). As the recording sessions progressed, he even began hearing voices.

* UrbanLegendOfZelda: The "Landlocked" album is a classic example of this as it did not exist (at least not in the form people thought it did), but if you didn't know any better you would think it did. The Beach Boys assembled a reference reel of "Sunflower" outtakes in order to potentially use them on their next album. Meanwhile, "Surf's Up" was going to be called "Landlocked" (and some early promotional ads) until Brian allowed them to use the title track (from the Smile era) in order to increase its commercial potential, and the title was changed accordingly. Many put the two together and assumed that this reel of outtakes was an unreleased album called "Landlocked". In fact, there are only two tracks in common: "Take A Load Off Your Feet" and "Til I Die". Several other tracks from that period did end up released later.

*** As time went on, Brian's mental health further declined and grew increasingly more eccentric and erratic. He shelved "Fire", believing that it was magically lighting fires throughout the town. When he walked into a theater showing the film ''Film/{{Seconds}}'' (which was partially financed by Brian's main inspiration, Music/PhilSpector), a character coincidentally said, "Come in, Mr. Wilson." [[ParanoiaFuel This convinced Brian that Spector was following him and made a movie about him.]] He cut off contact with one of his friends because he was convinced that his friend's girlfriend was using ESP to stop Wilson from making the album. He suspected that his [[AbusiveParents father]] was spying on him from behind the scenes. As the recording sessions progressed, [[TheSchizophreniaConspiracy he even began hearing voices.]]

* CreatorBacklash: Carl and Dennis both hated ''M.I.U. Album'' with a passion. Dennis was so repulsed by the concept behind it (it was essentially Mike's paean to Transcendental Meditation) that he refused to participate in the recording sessions. He said of the album, "It should self destruct.. I hope that the karma will fuck up Mike Love's meditation forever."

** Carl Wilson's death from lung cancer caused the band to splinter completely.

*** Bran was aware that Music/TheBeatles were working on [[Music/SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand their own ambitious concept album]], and felt like he had to race to get ''[=SMiLE=]'' on the street first. When they released "Strawberry Fields Forever", a song with a multifaceted modular structure not unlike the ''[=SMiLE=]'' music, as a single, it fed his paranoia. Then he heard rumors that the Boys' publicist, Derek Taylor (who previously worked for the Beatles), played the ''[=SMiLE=]'' tapes for the Beatles behind his back, and started doubting the people around him. When ''Sgt. Pepper'' was released first, he took it as a sign that the Beatles won, and it severely demotivated him to work on ''[=SMiLE=]''.

*** During the sessions for the song "Cabin Essence", Mike and Brian's lyricist Van Dyke Parks got into an argument over the lyric "Over and over, the crow cries uncover the cornfield" and its supposed meaning, to which Van Dyke [[ShrugOfGod argued there is none]]. From that point on, Van Dyke began to distance himself from the project, and he left altogether in mid-1967, close to the album's cancellation.
*** Brian basically recorded ''[=SMiLE=]'' in a race against Music/TheBeatles to beat ''Music/SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand'' to market. However, he heard rumors that the Boys' publicist, Derek Taylor (who previously worked for the Beatles), played the ''[=SMiLE=]'' tapes for the Beatles behind his back, and started doubting the people around him. When ''Sgt. Pepper'' was released first, he took it as a sign that the Beatles won, and it severely demotivated him to work on ''[=SMiLE=]''.
*** The final straw was when Van Dyke left the project over concerns that he was causing friction between members of the band. This left Brian without a direction for the album, and was unsure how to finish it.

*** During the sessions for the song "Cabin Essence", Mike and Brian's lyricist Van Dyke Parks got into an argument over the lyric "Over and over, the crow cries uncover the cornfield" and its supposed meaning, to which Van Dyke argued there is none. From that point on, Van Dyke began to distance himself from the project, and he left altogether in mid-1967, close to the album's cancellation.

** Capitol rushed 1967's "Wild Honey" out without doing a proper stereo mix (essentially the two versions were a mono mix and a fake stereo mix). In 2017, they finally produced a proper stereo mix from the masters, released as "Sunshine Tomorrow" along with a load of outtakes from it and "Smiley Smile" AND the unreleased live album "Lei'd In Hawaii".

** ''Summer In Paradise'' has never been reissued after it's first print bombed.

** ''Summer In Paradise'' was only given one print run which bombed so hard that the distributing label nearly went bankrupt. As such, it's never been reissued or released digitally and copies typically go for $100 on Amazon.

** The Beach Boys' Brian Wilson does not close games for the San Francisco Giants (or at the end of the 2013 season, the Los Angeles Dodgers), though he did at one point sport a rather scary-looking beard. There is also a crew chief for the Penske Racing team in [[UsefulNotes/NASCAR]] named Brian Wilson.

** The Beach Boys' Brian Wilson does not close games for the San Francisco Giants (or at the end of the 2013 season, the Los Angeles Dodgers), though he did at one point sport a rather scary-looking beard.