These guys formed in 1961, originally made up of three brothers, their cousin, and a friend. They're easily considered one of the most influential groups of the rock era, and I can see why (although Will disagrees). As kids, Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson would practice harmonies while sharing a room and Brian would start recording some of it. He also played piano, and started writing music. They teamed up with their cousin Mike Love and his friend Al Jardine to form a band, originally called The Pendletones, which is a pun about a popular shirt. Dennis is the one who surfed and suggested writing about that, so they gave it a shot coming up with Surfin'. A publisher heard it, and it was actually his wife that demanded it be recorded. After that their name was changed and the rest is history. They started doing gigs, and even did some stuff one the side as Kenny and the Cadets before Jardine left to become a dentist. So their old neighborhood friend David Marks joined in his stead. They got signed with Capitol Records, releasing their first album in 1962. Their branded as surf music, but their sound is apparently very different than other "surf music" of the time. It became a problem when they played for those crowds and they had to dodge projectiles. A year later they released the song Surfin USA and doubled vocals on the track. It exploded, hitting number two and launching them nationally. Their popularity continued to grow, and Brian expanded his reach by writing for some other groups like The Honeys. Then the British Invasion happened. They shared a label with The Beatles so there was some rivalry there affecting the members in different ways. This song came out in 1964 and was one of their last surf songs. Afterward Brian has a little mental breakdown and took a break from touring with the boys while he developed as an artist looking into new sounds and song types away from their notable beach culture. They next few years they managed to balance between what the studio wanted and what Brian experimented with pretty well, but when Brian showed the group the stuff he had for an album in 1966 there was some infighting, most thinking it just wasn't them. In the end Brian won, and the album was heralded one of the most innovative recordings of rock. He kept expanding and working on different sounds with new people which confused the rest of the guys when they saw it. By the beginning of 1967, Brian was spiraling, becoming increasingly paranoid and delusional, Carl was arrested for refusing enlistment, and eventually what they were working on at the time was scrapped. The label tried to drop them, but there was no sure information, so they remained in limbo. Some members left, but the brothers remained and the unreleased album became a bit of a cult legend. The group continued to flounder as they toured and faced obligations of an album, so they did a laid back version of the unreleased album which they all did together rather than just Brian. It missed the mark, and was their worst selling album to date, but it did get more appreciated as time went on. They're next album was a regroup for them to go back to basics with just one singer, and was unlike the music scene at the time, which made it unique. After that Brian stepped back a bit, their Capitol contract ran out so the label deleted their discography (to not have to pay more royalties) and rights sold to someone else. I might have to end it here because this is only about half their history, there's just so much. look up the rest if you're curious otherwise I'm done.
It’s also not the season for this, but we need a song that reminds us of winter. As you can tell mine does not make much sense, but that’s what happens sometimes. Sammy went more traditional with It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas by Bing Crosby, closely followed by my grandma with White Christmas by Elvis Presley. My mom chose a song called Fire And Rain by James Taylor, and lastly Will picked Voodoo by Godsmack.
Peace.
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