Search - Beach Boys :: Summer Days

Though perhaps belied by hits like "California Girls" and "Help Me, Rhonda," this album (the second of no less than three the band released in 1965) actually marks the transition of Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys from their sun-'n'-fun heyday to the artistic flowering and emotional resonance of Pet Sounds. Indeed, it's the rich, almost inscrutable arrangements for songs like "California Girls" and "Let Him Run Wild" that made many a contemporary musician--John Lennon and Paul McCartney among them--and producer prick up their ears and pay closer attention to where Wilson was headed. Lyrically, the album often covers familiar territory ("Amusement Parks U.S.A.," "Summer Means New Love"); musically, it's the budding of one of America's most influential and important modern composers. --Jerry McCulley