In honor of the official beginning of this miserably hot Summer, the Vinyl of the Day is ‘Endless Summer’ by the Beach Boys, 1974. A compilation of hits from the Beach Boys prime era of 1962-1965, "Endless Summer” is more than a truly essential compilation of the band; it turned the Beach Boys around at a time they were rapidly declining in popularity and relevance, and made them a beloved supergroup again to a whole new generation. The album is a true showcase of Brian Wilson’s brilliance which manifested itself in the euphoric, cheerfully square, sun-and-fun stuff heard here early on, before it got darker and more complicated. “Endless Summer” runs from the beginning of the Boys’ pinstriped career to 1965, right before the melancholy of “Pet Sounds”. You can hear a few hints of adolescent sadness and fear–“Help Me, Rhonda” is essentially a kids’ sing-along about a wrenching emotional rebound, and the shadow of death is hiding somewhere in “Don’t Worry, Baby”–but Wilson is mostly concerned with the cars, waves, and girls that made up the Boys’ public image, and his ingenious arrangements (coupled with the group’s inimitable harmonies) make everything go down as smoothly as lemonade. Let’s all join together and go back to the days of school spirit, young love, hot rods and hanging at the beach with these simple carefree songs of our misspent youth, when we actually still had hopes, dreams, and optimism for the future!
AllMusic Review by Bruce Eder
This was the album by which millions of sons of late baby boomers (and sons and daughters of the early ones) first really discovered the Beach Boys, beyond hearing the occasional oldie on the radio. It was the summer of 1974, and the Beach Boys were still trying to get themselves back on track commercially after a seven-year commercial dry spell, when this double LP of their 1963-1966 material (all but one cut pre-dating Pet Sounds) came along and did the job. Endless Summer, which was assembled in consultation with Mike Love, soared to number one and charted high over two subsequent summers (spending three years on the charts, the longest of any of the group’s albums), and attracted the enthusiastic attention of millions of listeners too young to have bought their singles back when. The programming was a little thin, not even running an hour total, spread among two LPs, but most of the group’s best loved singles were represented – no notes, not a word of historical context, just a great collection of songs that proved irresistible to many shoppers. The packaging was nigh perfect, a simple, celebratory sun-lit graphic that spoke volumes about the music.