Hollywood, U.S.A. – The Beach Boys’ 50th Anniversary reunion celebration is well underway with a major international tour, and the iconic band has another big reason to celebrate this week with their highest-ever Billboard albums chart debut. Their 29th studio album, ‘That’s Why God Made The Radio’, debuted at number 3 on Billboard’s Top 200 Albums chart. The acclaimed new album, released June 5th by Capitol/BRI, sold 61,000 copies in the U.S. during its first week.

While The Beach Boys have achieved Top 10 chart success with several albums, they have never had an album debut in Billboard’s Top 10 until now. The band’s last new studio album to peak in Billboard’s Top 5 was 1965′s ‘Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!!)’, which climbed to number two after its release, and their most recent Top 5 Billboard Albums chart hit was in 1974 for their ‘Endless Summer’ hits compilation, which topped the chart at number one.

Beach Boys Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine, Bruce Johnston, and David Marks came together earlier this year to record ‘That’s Why God Made The Radio’, the first studio album of new, original Beach Boys songs to feature all of the band’s surviving original members since 1989′s ‘Still Cruisin’’. Produced by Brian Wilson and executive produced by Mike Love, the album’s 12 new songs illustrate The Beach Boys’ unique and evocative West Coast story with the band’s timeless signature sound. The Beach Boys’ collaborative approach to writing and recording their new music is evidenced throughout the album, with all of the band members participating to create its glorious harmonies, lyrics, and arrangements.

The new music video for the album’s lead single, ‘That’s Why God Made The Radio,’ already had its debut on VEVO.

‘That’s Why God Made The Radio’ has been received with great excitement and praise from the world’s leading media outlets and fans old and new. In recent reviews, Rolling Stone magazine hails the album as “a breezy nostalgia trip” and “deeply touching work,” the New York Times describes it as “a reflection on aging and memory, on longing and mortality,” and the Associated Press says, “The songs harken back to a simpler time when people wore Huarache sandals, polished their surfboards, and raced their hot rods.” The Guardian says the album is “easily the best thing Brian Wilson has put his name to in the last 30 years,” People magazine says, “The Kings of California cool are celebrating their landmark year by delivering plenty of new, bright pop-rock tunes,” and praises the album’s “intricately layered, swoon-worthy harmonies,” and Time magazine calls the album “immensely satisfying,” affirming that “’That’s Why God Made The Radio’ proves harmony never gets old.”

The album’s gorgeous, melancholy closing suite of songs has drawn particularly high critical praise, with the Los Angeles Times calling the suite “a vital piece of the Beach Boys’ legacy” and PopMatters saying, “It’s neither a reach nor hyperbole to say this suite is among the strongest, most affecting music Wilson has ever recorded. It seems right that his old bandmates are a part of it.”

Currently traveling across North America on their hugely successful 50th Anniversary tour, the band’s first major outing to include Brian Wilson in more than two decades, The Beach Boys will hit the ‘Good Morning America’ Summer Concert Series stage in New York’s Central Park this Friday, June 15 for a special performance of the new album’s title track plus two of their classic hits. Tune in to “Good Morning America” on ABC at 8:30am ET/PT to watch the performance.

A new PBS special, ‘The Beach Boys: Doin’ It Again,’ begins airing this month in select markets with airdates scheduled through July for PBS stations across the country. The hour-long special takes viewers along for the exciting ride as the legendary group’s members reunite to celebrate their 50th anniversary, with a look back at their career featuring never-before-seen archival concert footage, performances from their anniversary tour, plus a behind-the-scenes look at the recording of their new album.

For five decades, America’s first pop band to reach the 50 year milestone has recorded and performed the music that has become the world’s favorite soundtrack to summer. Founded in Hawthorne, California in 1961, The Beach Boys were originally comprised of the three teenaged Wilson brothers: Brian, Carl and Dennis, their cousin Mike Love, and school friend Al Jardine. In 1962, neighbor David Marks joined the group for their first wave of hits with Capitol Records, leaving in late 1963, and in 1965, Bruce Johnston joined the band when Brian Wilson retired from touring to focus on writing and producing for the group.

The Beach Boys signed with Capitol Records in July 1962 and released their first album, ‘Surfin’ Safari’, that same year. The album spent 37 weeks on the Billboard chart, launching the young group known for its shimmering vocal harmonies and relaxed California style into international stardom. The Wilson/Love collaboration resulted in many huge international chart hits, and under Brian Wilson’s musical leadership, the band’s initial surf-rock focus was soon broadened to include other themes, making The Beach Boys America’s preeminent band of the 1960s.

In 1966, The Beach Boys were one of the first bands to found its own record label with the launch of Brother Records, Inc. (BRI), with the band’s members as its shareholders and Capitol Records as its distribution partner. BRI continues to manage The Beach Boys’ intellectual property, including the band’s catalog with Capitol/EMI and other label partners, as well as its name, logos, image and likeness.

The Beach Boys continue to hold Billboard / Nielsen SoundScan’s record as the top-selling American band for albums and singles, and they are also the American group with the most Billboard Top 40 chart hits (36). ‘Sounds Of Summer: The Very Best Of The Beach Boys’ has achieved triple-Platinum sales status, and ‘The SMiLE Sessions,’ released to worldwide critical acclaim in November, was heralded as 2011′s number one Reissue of the Year by Rolling Stone magazine.

Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988 and recipients of The Recording Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award, The Beach Boys are an American institution that is iconic around the world.

Image Courtesy of  The Beach Boys

Share This

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

About the author

TP Team

Related Posts

Beach Boys Celebrate 50th Anniversary in Reunion

The founding members of The Beach Boys, one of the world's most legendary bands in popular music history, will reunite for a global 50th Anniversary celebration in 2012. Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine,...