History YMMV / TheBeachBoys

* SignatureSong: Many, but "Wouldn't It Be Nice", "Good Vibrations", "Surfin' USA" and "God Only Knows" are the ones that tie for gold.

* TooCoolToLive: Dennis and Music/CarlWilson, noted for making some of the best creative contributions to the band outside of Brian's involvement and for dying prematurely.

* ArchivePanic: '''27''' studio albums, a massive supply of unreleased songs and outtakes, hours of studio sessions, a frankly absurd amount of ''Smile'' material, and an endless deluge of illuminating footage of concerts, interviews, promos, and other assorted segments. And people keep discovering new stuff all the time. In recent years, the group has released a series of 'copyright extension' archive releases consisting of outtakes, demo and live material. Despite releasing a whole host of rarities on other releases, these are still full of songs they never previously released. And to make matters more complicated, some are digital only and some are not.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: In spades. Most people think of the Beach Boys as a campy baby-boomers boy band, and even when ''Music/PetSounds'' is brought up, the impact and innovation of the album can be lost on many young listeners unless they're familiar with the era it was recorded in.

* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: Despite its critical acclaim, a good chunk of the band's main audience, who were mainly exposed to the sun, surf and girls imagery of their earlier work, didn't know what to make of ''Music/PetSounds''' orchestrations and introspective lyrics when it was first released. By the same token, the concept could just as easily apply to fans who did not take to the Beach Boys' music regardless of quality without Brian Wilson's involvement or his studio experimentations.

** By 1971, Brian had almost completely withdrawn his involvement in the band, and by 1973, Carl and Dennis's leadership diminished due to substance abuse and Dennis's struggling battle with his own inner demons. In 1974, their original label Capitol Records released ''Endless Summer'', a compilation of their old hits which quickly became one of the best-selling albums of the 70s, easily outselling their other 70s efforts, and cementing the band's status as an oldies band. To ride off of this, an attempt was made to bring Brian back to the band's forefront in 1976, which included making him tour with the Beach Boys again (he previously quit touring with them in 1965 due to mental health issues) and produce several more albums. The result was the underwhelming ''15 Big Ones'', the [[BrokenBase divisive]] ''The Beach Boys Love You'', and the [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes unreleased]] ''Adult/Child''. Brian quickly receded back into the background as it quickly became clear that he was in no shape to continue touring or produce anymore Beach Boys albums, and spent the remainder of the 70s and most of the 80s undergoing therapy by the [[ControlFreak infamous]] [[PsychoPsychologist Eugene Landy]].

** In short, the Beach Boys slowly went from one of the most critically acclaimed rock acts of all time to industry laughingstocks and back again, and is presumed to be the reason why so many Beach Boys fans ''deeply'' resent Mike Love. While the albums that came after ''Pet Sounds'' and before ''15 Big Ones'' went on to become cult classics ([[BrokenBase again, YMMV on]] ''[[BrokenBase Love You]]''), people prefer to forget about anything they did after that. However, they finally started to reverse their decline with the well-received 2012 reunion album ''That's Why God Made the Radio''. Unfortunately, [[HappyEndingOverride this victory was short-lived,]] as Brian, Al, and David Marks (who re-joined for the reunion after decades of absence) were kicked out of the band by Mike Love, and the Beach Boys went back to being a live band.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: In spades. Most people think of the Beach Boys as a campy baby-boomers boy band, and even when ''Music/PetSounds'' is brought up, the impact and innovation of the album can be lost on many young listeners who didn't grow up during the era.

** "Kokomo" is one of the band’s most divisive songs. Is it a fun, catchy song that harkens back to their early work, or an annoying and repetitive sellout song that betrays the innovation of the band?

* FaceOfTheBand: Brian. Though Dennis and Carl both have a lot of fans. For the first couple of years, it was Mike.

* NeverLiveItDown:
** [[https://youtu.be/oZSAQX2uuUY?t=227 Mike Love's infamous acceptance speech]] at the 1988 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. Music/CarlWilson was so horrified that he handed his award over to musical director Paul Shaffer and said, "Our career is over".
** Another infamous piece of history that Mike will forever be associated with is saying "don't fuck with the formula", whether or not Mike actually said it (he claims he didn't). Hell, [[Website/{{Wikipedia}} The Other Wiki]] had an entire ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_fuck_with_the_formula page]]'' (since reduced to a subsection on an article about the collapse of ''Music/{{Smile}}'') dedicated to it.
** "Darlin'" is sadly going to spend a ''long'' time being known as "the Shamy song" due to it being featured on an episode of ''Series/TheBigBangTheory''. Just look up any upload of the song on Website/YouTube and look at the comments.
** The constant association with Creator/JohnStamos due to Stamos infamously covering "Forever" on the equally hated ''Music/SummerInParadise''. Although this can be more applicable these days to Mike Love since Stamos tends to appear in his solo stuff, in particular with his ''Unleash the Love'' album.

* TooktheBadFilmSeiously: Even as the quality of their music began to decline, Carl Wilson could always be counted on to deliver a [[StealthPun passionate]] vocal performance.

* TookTheBadFilmSeiously: Even as the quality of their music began to decline, Carl Wilson could always be counted on to deliver a [[StealthPun passionate]] vocal performance.

* CommonKnowledge: Brian's CreatorBreakdown after failing to deliver ''Smile'' marked the start of his estrangement from his bandmates and the music business more generally. In fact, Brian was still heavily involved in the writing and production of the band's "lo-fi" trilogy (''Smiley Smile'', ''Wild Honey'' and ''Friends''). It was only around the time of the [=''20/20''=] sessions in late 1968 when the demands of Capitol records and the disappointment of the Beach Boys' dwindling commercial prospects really began to take their toll on his mental health.

* MemeticMolester:
** Music/MikeLove because [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBFsJk6PWu0 it's a love thang]].
** Likewise, here's him [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CevS-GwsCPU wanting to change a little tomboy for... reasons....]]

* BetterThanCanon:
** Even with the official release of both Brian's and The Beach Boys' versions of ''Smile'', there are still some fans who prefer various bootlegs and fanmixes, particularly those that combine the two.
** Though ''Sunflower'' was never considered for release as a double album (though the sessions produced enough material for it), this hasn't stopped people coming up with their own 2-LP versions of it.

*** ''SurferGirl'': the TitleTrack, "In My Room" and "Little Deuce Coupe" (and the latter also counts as the signature song of its eponymous album).

** Likewise, here's him [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjDh5h3iRNQ wanting to change a little tomboy for... reasons....]]

* {{Jerkass}}: Mike Love has this reputation, deserved or not. Murry Wilson, definitely. Those who knew David Marks in the early days of the band also seem to agree that he was one, although he's mellowed out a great deal with age.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: In spades. Most people think of the Beach Boys as a campy baby-boomers boys band, and even when ''Music/PetSounds'' is brought up, the impact and innovation of the album can be lost on many young listeners who didn't grow up during the era.

** ''Music/SummerInParadise'', the band's only album not to involve Brian Wilson and which cemented their reputation as a washed-up act trying to coast by on [[NostalgiaFilter selling nostalgia back to their original fans]] and failing to appeal to children with [[WereStillRelevantDammit out-of-touch musical trends]] like {{piss take rap}}ping and synth-heavy pop production, was released one month after Music/BarenakedLadies' ''Gordon'', the debut of a young, new band (who'd later become popular for their dorky raps) and one of the earliest albums of [[AlternativeRock a genre that]] ''[[AlternativeRock was]]'' [[AlternativeRock popular and growing in popularity at the time]], and which features both one song about Brian Wilson ("Brian Wilson") and another about a washed-up pop star struggling to keep their career afloat with nostalgic rebranding and shameless trend-riding ("Box Set"). And it leads the new band to a long, prosperous and highly respected career while the old one shoots itself in the foot with their album a month later, ending their good reputation forever. It's both eerily prophetic and kind of meta.

** At this point, Mike Love has taken role of the leader, and many fans agree that the band quickly went downhill under his leadership. Throughout this period, the Boys released a series of increasingly hated and poorly selling albums [[WereStillRelevantDammit (including a thinly-veiled attempt at catering to the disco crowd during the disco backlash)]], while their 1960s chart-toppers (with occasional songs from ''Pet Sounds'') dominated their live set to attract the nostalgic crowd. The death of Dennis Wilson in 1983 also served to be a serious blow to the band. Their reputation rapidly declined further, and by the end of the 70s, the Beach Boys were looked down upon by the mainstream as a [[AccidentalPun washed-up]] oldies band.

----

** Another infamous piece of history that Mike will forever be associated with is saying "don't fuck with the formula", whether or not Mike actually said it (he claims he didn't). Hell, [[Wiki/{{Wikipedia}} The Other Wiki]] had an entire ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_fuck_with_the_formula page]]'' (since reduced to a subsection on an article about the collapse of ''Music/{{Smile}}'') dedicated to it.

* AscendedFanon: The band finally made "Landlocked" canon - sort of - with the vinyl edition of the Feel Flows box set. The 3rd and 7th sides of the album are designed to be outtakes albums for Sunflower and Surf's Up respectively, with the 4th and 8th sides also featuring the occasional one. The CD box set doesn't follow this due to containing a lot more tracks.