The Beach Boys Today!

The Beach Boys Today! is the eighth studio album by the American rock band the Beach Boys, released on March 8, 1965. The album signaled a departure from their previous records with its orchestral approach, intimate subject matter, and abandonment of themes related to surfing, cars, or superficial love. It peaked at number four on US record charts during a 50-week chart stay and was preceded by the top 10 singles "When I Grow Up (To Be a Man)" and "Dance, Dance, Dance", along with "Do You Wanna Dance?" which reached number 12. When issued in the UK one year later, Today! peaked at number six.

The Beach Boys Today!
Studio album by The Beach Boys
Released	March 8, 1965 (1965-03-08)
Recorded	June 22, 1964 (1964-06-22)–January 19, 1965 (1965-01-19)
Studio	United Western Recorders, Gold Star Studios, and RCA Victor Studios, Hollywood
Genre	Orchestrated rock[1]
Length	28:54
Label	Capitol
Producer	Brian Wilson
The Beach Boys chronology
The Beach Boys' Christmas Album (1964) The Beach Boys Today! (1965) Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!) (1965)
The Beach Boys UK chronology
Beach Boys' Party! (1966) The Beach Boys Today! (1966) Pet Sounds (1966)
Singles from Today!
"When I Grow Up (To Be a Man)" / "She Knows Me Too Well" Released: August 24, 1964 "Dance, Dance, Dance" Released: October 26, 1964 "Do You Wanna Dance?" / "Please Let Me Wonder" Released: February 15, 1965

The album was produced, arranged, and largely written by Brian Wilson with additional lyrics by Mike Love. Shortly before recording began, the group completed their album All Summer Long (1964), intended to be their final statement on beach-themed music. In December 1964, Brian Wilson had a nervous breakdown while on a flight, and resigned from touring with the group to focus solely on writing and producing. He began using marijuana, which he later said had profound effects on his musical conceptions.

Today! established the Beach Boys as album artists rather than just a singles band.[2] Side one features an uptempo sound that contrasts side two, which consists mostly of ballads. Author Scott Schinder referred to its "suite-like structure" as an early example of the rock album format being used to make a cohesive artistic statement.[3] In 2012, the album was voted 271 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.[4] In 2005, it was included in the musical reference book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Background

Performing on The Ed Sullivan Show in September 1964, three months before Brian's resignation from touring

By the end of a particularly stressful 1964, the Beach Boys had released four albums in 12 months, dismissed the Wilsons' father Murry from his managerial position and recorded the advance hit singles "When I Grow Up (To Be a Man)" and "Dance, Dance, Dance".[5] Mid-1964 also saw the divorce of Mike Love from his first wife Frances St. Martin whom he had married in 1961.[6] During the album's recording sessions, Love told Melody Maker that he and the band wanted to look beyond surf rock, wanting to avoid living in the past or resting on the band's laurels.[7] Brian Wilson had written his last surf song in April 1964,[8] intending All Summer Long (released July 1964) to be the group's final statement on beach-themed music.[9]

Wilson became physically and emotionally exhausted to a point that he suffered an anxiety attack on December 23, 1964, just hours after performing with the group on Shindig!. During the recording sessions of Today! in January 1965, he informed the band that he intended to retire from touring and focus his attention solely on creating and producing music, to which the band reluctantly agreed.[5] Wilson expressed regret over not having done this sooner so that he could do "justice" to the band's recordings, saying "I was run down mentally and emotionally because I was running around, jumping on jets from one city to another on one-night stands, also producing, writing, arranging, singing, planning, teaching – to the point where I had no peace of mind and no chance to actually sit down and think or even rest."[10][nb 1] According to Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, in early 1965, Wilson phoned the couple to congratulate them on their new song "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'", as Weil quotes Wilson: "Your song is the greatest record ever. I was ready to quit the music business, but this has inspired me to write again. I want to write with you guys."[12]

Music and lyrics

In songs like 'She Knows Me Too Well' and 'In the Back of My Mind', Wilson's dream lovers were suddenly no longer simple happy souls harmonizing their sun-kissed innocence and dying devotion to each other over a honey-coated backdrop of surf and sand. Instead, they'd become highly vulnerable, slightly neurotic and riddled with telling insecurities.

—Nick Kent, "The Last Beach Movie Revisited", 2009[13]

Today! marked a maturation in the Beach Boys' lyric content by abandoning themes related to surfing, cars, or teenage love. Some love songs remained, but with a marked increase in depth, along with introspective tracks accompanied by adventurous and distinct arrangements.[3][14] British rock critic Nick Kent explained: "What was really happening was Brian's approach to romance was becoming more and more personalized, more honest in a distinctly autobiographical way."[13]

According to author Scott Schinder, "Today!'s suite-like structure, with the album divided into a side of fast songs and a side of ballads, presented an early manifestation of the rock album format being used to make a cohesive artistic statement – an idea that Brian would soon explore more fully."[3] It was thus the band's first flirtation with the album-as-art form.[15] Brian's recent introduction to marijuana, which he used as a stress reliever,[16] greatly influenced the album's writing, as he later stated: "Pot made the music grow in my head."[17] Musicologist Philip Lambert disagrees with the notion that "Brian wrote B-side songs before his December catharsis and A-side songs in the sunny glow of his subsequent freedom", believing that the compositions which preceded his plane episode still showed evidence of progressive ingenuity.[18]

Side one

PopMatters notes that even though Today!'s A-side is filled with uptempo numbers, "it would be a mistake to assume that the ballads are more sophisticated. ... Wilson proves that he can be just as harmonically and structurally inventive with catchy dance songs as he can with emotional ballads."[19] On "Good to My Baby" and "Don't Hurt My Little Sister", the journal points out "deceptive simplicity" in its music and lyricism, with the latter "capturing the conflicting and tortured feelings Wilson was dealing with through this period" that may not be heard on a first listen.[20] The journal explains that "Don't Hurt My Little Sister" is commonly suspected to be autobiographical, with Wilson alluding to his conflicted, romantic feelings toward his sister-in-law.[20] According to Brian's later collaborator Van Dyke Parks, Brian had a "fervent desire to reinvent himself as an individual, not as a boy."[21] This culminated in "When I Grow Up (To Be a Man)", a song discussing his anxieties about becoming an adult.[22] Released as an A-sided single, it was one of the first rock songs to explore the subject of impending adulthood.[1] The next track, "Help Me, Ronda", would later be re-recorded as "Help Me, Rhonda" to deliver the Beach Boys their second number one hit in May.[23] Its riff was taken from Buster Brown's "Fannie Mae" (1959).[24] Unlike the later single edit, this version contains numerous false fade-outs.[25]

Side two

"Please Let Me Wonder" was claimed to be the first song Wilson had written under the influence of marijuana.[27] "Kiss Me, Baby" contains an expanded instrumental palette of three guitars, two basses, two pianos, two saxophones, and percussion, English horn and French horn.[28] Thomas Ward of AllMusic called the song a product of Wilson's "dense, multi-layered confessional songs, with adult themes and exploring issues previously only developed by performers such as Bob Dylan"[29] while biographer Jon Stebbins would refer to it as "the pinnacle of balladry ... one of the Beach Boys' most romantic and emotional songs."[28] In the book Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Story of Modern Pop, Bob Stanley of Saint Etienne wrote of the lyricism in "In the Back of My Mind":

"[The narrator's] emotions, whatever really was in the back of his mind, seemed to come out without any filter for what was deemed cool, or appropriate, or even musically acceptable ... The same album's 'She Knows Me Too Well' opened with 'Sometimes I have a weird way of showing my love', a line that wouldn't shock in the catalogues of Nick Cave or the Jesus and Mary Chain, but was pretty unsettling in the hands of the car-crazy Californians. Brian was aiming for Johnny Mercer but coming up proto-indie."[30]

The front cover lists nine of the album's 12 tracks, followed by "plus three great new songs written by Brian Wilson." However, of the remaining three tracks, only "In the Back of My Mind" was another original composition. "I'm So Young" is usually attributed to William H. "Prez" Tyus, Jr., and the other song, "Bull Session with the "Big Daddy"", is an informal interview with the band.

Recording and production

Begun on June 22, 1964 in between sessions for The Beach Boys' Christmas Album, "Don't Hurt My Little Sister" was the earliest song tracked for the album. August was devoted to the singles "When I Grow Up (To Be a Man)" and "She Knows Me Too Well"; followed by "I'm So Young", the outtake "All Dressed Up for School", and "Dance, Dance, Dance" in September.[nb 2] Only one session occurred in October for a remake of "Dance, Dance, Dance", being the first session date labelled for Today!, and the only session which was conducted at RCA Victor Studios.[nb 3] "Kiss Me Baby" was then tracked two months later in December.[nb 4] Following Brian's return to the studio on January 7, 1965, the rest of the album was completed in less than two weeks, ending on January 19.[11] As documented by Craig Slowinski, the extent of the album's instrumentation features:

• guitars
  • twelve-string, electric, and acoustic guitars; electric and six-string bass guitars
• keyboards
  • accordion, harpsichords, grand pianos, upright tack pianos, Wurlitzer electric piano, Hammond organ, Farfisa organs
• woodwinds
  • English horn, oboes, harmonicas, tenor, baritone, and bass saxophones
• strings
  • autoharp, violins, cellos, mandolins, electric mandolin, ukulele
• percussion
  • drums, wood blocks, tambourines, timpanis, congas, timbales, claves, sleigh bells, triangle, castanets, bell tree, vibraphones
• brass
  • French horn[1]

In comparison to previous albums, Today! necessitated Brian's use of session musicians to a greater extent. Despite this, Carl Wilson was still employed on lead guitar for many of the album's tracks, and usually played alongside these session musicians[1] which would later be informally known as the Wrecking Crew, comprising many of the same musicians who played on Phil Spector's Wall of Sound productions that Wilson idolized.[3] The recording process typically involved recording an instrumental on two tracks of 3-track tape with one remaining track left for the first vocal overdub. This tape was then dubbed down to a second tape for an additional layer of vocal overdubs. The LP was finally issued in mono, their first album not to be issued in stereo since Surfin' U.S.A. (1963).[1] In 2012, a complete stereo mix of Today! was released for the first time.[32]

Release and legacy

Professional ratings

Retrospective reviews
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[33]
Blender	[34]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[35]
MusicHound	4/5[36]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[37]

Despite being a departure from the Beach Boys sound that pervaded prior efforts, the album was a commercial success; Today! climbed to number four in the US chart during a chart stay of 50 weeks[38] and also reached number six in the British chart during the summer of 1966.[39][40] Singles "Do You Wanna Dance?", "When I Grow Up (To Be a Man)" and "Dance, Dance, Dance" had all charted.[41]

The album is described as a foreshadowing of the later Beach Boys' album Pet Sounds.[1][5][15][19] Alice Bolin of PopMatters writes: "Pet Sounds was released only a little over a year after Today!, and it can be hard to separate Today! from the masterpiece it led to—so much so that Today! can feel like a rehearsal for Pet Sounds, with its themes and ideas repeated and perfected in the later album."[15] Scott Interrante adds "Pet Sounds is about growing up and moving on, and as such, it’s melancholic and reflective. But Today! is about the optimism, not the sadness, of leaving adolescence. Even on the more sentimental b-side songs, there’s a sense of excitement and longing for what the future has in store."[19]

In 2005, Today! was included in Robert Dimery's 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.[42] In 2007, The Guardian named it one of "1000 Albums to Hear Before You Die".[43] In 2012, a variety of musicians and writers voted the album at 271 for Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list, with it stating: "Brian Wilson was already a genius. He writes sweet California tunes here, and the haunting 'She Knows Me Too Well' hits Pet Sounds-deep."[4]

Track listing

Lead vocals per Craig Slowinski.[1] Tracks marked with a (*) indicate that they were not credited to Mike Love until after his 1990s court case, Love v. Wilson.[44]

Side one

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Lead vocals	Length
1.	"Do You Wanna Dance?"	Bobby Freeman	Dennis Wilson	2:19
2.	"Good to My Baby" (*)	Brian Wilson, Mike Love	B. Wilson with Love	2:16
3.	"Don't Hurt My Little Sister" (*)	B. Wilson, Love	Love with B. Wilson	2:07
4.	"When I Grow Up (To Be a Man)" (*)	B. Wilson, Love	Love with B. Wilson	2:01
5.	"Help Me, Ronda" (*)	B. Wilson, Love	Al Jardine	3:10
6.	"Dance, Dance, Dance" (*)	B. Wilson, Carl Wilson, Love	Love with B. Wilson	1:59

Side two

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Lead vocals	Length
1.	"Please Let Me Wonder"	B. Wilson, Love	B. Wilson with Love	2:45
2.	"I'm So Young"	William H. "Prez" Tyus, Jr.	B. Wilson	2:30
3.	"Kiss Me, Baby"	B. Wilson, Love	B. Wilson with Love	2:35
4.	"She Knows Me Too Well" (*)	B. Wilson, Love	B. Wilson	2:27
5.	"In the Back of My Mind" (*)	B. Wilson, Love	D. Wilson	2:07
6.	"Bull Session with the 'Big Daddy'"		spoken word	2:10

2001 CD reissue bonus tracks

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Lead Vocals	Length
25.	"The Little Girl I Once Knew"	B. Wilson	B. Wilson, Jardine with C. Wilson	2:40
26.	"Dance, Dance, Dance" (alternate take)	B. Wilson, C. Wilson, Love	Love with B. Wilson	2:02
27.	"I'm So Young" (alternate take)	Tyus	B. Wilson	2:29
28.	"Let Him Run Wild" (alternate take)	B. Wilson, Love	B. Wilson	2:18
29.	"Graduation Day"	Joe Sherman, Noel Sherman	Love with B. Wilson	2:18

Some reissues of this album omit "In the Back of My Mind" and "Bull Session with the 'Big Daddy'". "Dance, Dance, Dance" was moved to the beginning of side two, and the album was issued under the title Dance, Dance, Dance.[45]

Personnel

Sourced from Musician's Union AFM contract sheets and surviving session audio.[1]

The Beach Boys

• Al Jardine – lead (5), harmony (1, 4, 6–10) and backing vocals (1–4, 6–10), electric rhythm guitar (6), bass guitar (3, 4, 8, 10)
• Mike Love – lead (2–4, 6, 9), harmony (1, 4–10) and backing vocals (1–10), spoken word (12)
• Brian Wilson – lead (2–4, 6–10), harmony (1, 4–7, 9, 10) and backing vocals (1–7, 9–11), spoken word (12), four (6) and six-string bass guitar (9), grand (1, 2), upright (3, 4, 7, 9, 10) and tack piano, Baldwin harpsichord (4), Farfisa (7) and Hammond organ (8), production (8, 11), mixing (8), conductor (11)
• Carl Wilson – harmony (1, 4–10) and backing vocals (1, 2, 4–11), spoken word (12), lead (all but 12), rhythm (1–4, 8, 10), and twelve-string guitar (1, 3, 5, 8), six-string bass guitar (8)
• Dennis Wilson – lead (1, 11), harmony (4–10), backing (2–10) and double-tracked vocals (11), spoken word (12), drums (4, 6, 8, 10), percussion (7), hi-hat (4), tambourine (3, 7), tom-tom (7)

Additional musicians and production

• Hal Blaine – drums (1–3, 5, 9, 11), woodblocks (1), sleigh bells (6), triangle (6), tambourine (6), castanets (6), temple block (9, 11), claves (1), timbales (5, 11)
• Chuck Britz – engineer (1, 3, 5, 8, 10, 11)
• Glen Campbell – 12-string acoustic guitar (5–7)
• Peter Christ – cor anglais (9, 11)
• Steve Douglas – tenor saxophone (1, 2, 5–7, 9, 11)
• David Duke – French horn (9)
• John Gray – grand piano (3)
• Carl Fortina – accordion (6)
• Plas Johnson – tenor saxophone (1, 2, 5, 7, 11)
• Carol Kaye – bass guitar (2, 7, 9, 11)
• Barney Kessel – classical guitar (7), twelve-string guitar (9)
• Larry Knechtel – bass guitar (1)
• Earl Leaf – spoken word (12)
• Larry Levine – engineer (1)
• Carrol Lewis – double-reed harmonica (4)
• "Louie" (last name unknown) – castanets
• Jack Nimitz – baritone saxophone (7)
• Jay Migliori – baritone saxophone (1, 2, 5, 6, 9, 11)
• Earl Palmer – drums (7), timbales (7)
• Don Randi – grand (7) and tack upright piano (2), organ (2, 7, 11)
• Bill Pitman – electric guitar (1, 2, 5), acoustic guitar (1, 2, 9, 11)
• Ray Pohlman – baritone guitar (3), bass guitar (3, 5, 6, 9)
• Billy Lee Riley – double-reed harmonica (5, 7, 11)
• Leon Russell – grand piano (5, 9), organ (1), vibraphone (11)
• Billy Strange – acoustic (7) and electric guitar (2, 9, 11), electric mandolin (1), ukulele (5)
• Ron Swallow – tambourine (2, 5, 7, 8), woodblock (7)
• Tommy Tedesco – autoharp (2, 11), baritone (1) and electric guitar (2, 3), mandolin (1)
• Russ Titelman – percussion (microphone boom hit with screwdriver) (10)
• Julius Wechter – vibraphone (9), bell tree (9), timpani (1), tambourine (1), congas (2), claves (5)
• Jerry Williams – vibraphone (7), timpani (7)
• Marilyn Wilson – harmony (1) and backing vocals (1), spoken word (12)
• unknown – oboe, cellos, violins, violas, English horn

Charts

Albums

Year	Chart	Position
1965	German Albums Chart[46]	14
1965	US Billboard 200 Albums Chart[38]	4
1965	UK Top 40 Album Chart[47]	6

Singles

Year	Single	Chart	Position
1964	"Dance, Dance, Dance"	US Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart	8
1964	"When I Grow Up (To Be a Man)"	US Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart	9
1965	"Do You Wanna Dance?"	US Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart	12
1965	"Please Let Me Wonder"	US Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart	52

References

Notes

1. Throughout 1965, Brian still performed live with the Beach Boys, but only on justified occasions during February, July, and October.[11]
2. The September sessions for "I'm So Young" and "Dance, Dance, Dance" were discarded alternate versions.[31] The versions of these songs which appear on the album were recorded in January 1965.[11]
3. The album was mainly recorded at United Western Recorders with some exceptions at Gold Star Studios.[1]
4. Craig Slowinski notes: "this is probably the most historically significant track on the Today! album, simply because Brian suffered his notorious in-flight nervous breakdown between the date of the session for the instrumental track and that for the vocals."[1]

Citations

1. Slowinski, Craig (2007). "The Beach Boys – The Beach Boys Today!" (PDF). Retrieved October 27, 2012.
2. Moskowitz 2015, p. 43.
3. Schinder 2007, p. 111.
4. "500 Greatest Albums of All Time: The Beach Boys, 'The Beach Boys Today'". Rolling Stone. Retrieved August 12, 2012.
5. Leaf, David (1990). Today/Summer Days (CD Liner). The Beach Boys. Capitol Records.
6. Doe, Andrew G. "1964". Bellagio 10452. Endless Summer Quarterly.
7. Welch, C (14 November 1964). "Beach Boys Brought their own vegetables — so audiences beware!". Melody Maker. p. 10.
8. Carlin 2006, p. 51.
9. Unterberger, Richie. "All Summer Long". AllMusic. Retrieved February 1, 2018.
10. Nolan, Tom (October 28, 1971). "The Beach Boys: A California Saga". Rolling Stone (94).
11. Doe, Andrew G. Doe. "GIGS65". Bellagio 10452. Endless Summer Quarterly. Archived from the original on 2014-10-06.
12. Myers, Marc (July 12, 2012). "The Song That Conquered Radio". The Wall Street Journal.
13. Kent 2009, p. 13.
14. Howard 2004, p. 58.
15. Bolin, Alice (July 8, 2012). "The Beach Boys Are Still Looking at an Impossible Future". PopMatters.
16. "A Boy's own story". theguardian.com. 2002-01-05. Retrieved 2015-04-22.
17. Hoskyns 2009, pp. 104–105.
18. Lambert 2007, pp. 180–182.
19. Interrante, Scott (March 31, 2014). "When I Grow Up: 'The Beach Boys Today!'". PopMatters.
20. Interrante, Scott (April 21, 2014). "When I Grow Up: The Beach Boys - "Don't Hurt My Little Sister"". PopMatters.
21. Priore 2005.
22. Interrante, Scott (April 28, 2014). "When I Grow Up: The Beach Boys - "When I Grow Up (To Be a Man)"". PopMatters.
23. Whitburn, Joel (2002) "Top Pop Singles 1955-2001"
24. Lambert 2007, p. 187.
25. Today! - The Beach Boys: The Guardian review, Saturday 17 November 2007
26. Interrante, Scott (June 9, 2014). "When I Grow Up: The Beach Boys - "She Knows Me Too Well"". Popmatters.
27. Greenwald, Matthew. "Please Let Me Wonder". AllMusic.
28. Interrante, Scott (June 2, 2014). "The Beach Boys - "Kiss Me, Baby"". Popmatters.
29. Ward, Thomas. "Kiss Me, Baby". AllMusic.
30. Stanley 2013, pp. 219–220.
31. Doe, Andrew G. Doe. "GIGS64". Bellagio 10452. Endless Summer Quarterly.
32. "Review: The Beach Boys Remasters, Part Two: The Album-by-Album Guide « The Second Disc". Theseconddisc.com. Retrieved 2012-11-09.
33. Unterberger, Richie. "Today!". AllMusic. Retrieved 2012-10-28.
34. "Blender review".
35. Larkin, Colin, ed. (2006). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (4th ed.). London: Oxford University Press. p. 479. ISBN 978-0-19-531373-4.
36. Graff, Gary; Durchholz, Daniel (eds) (1999). MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide. Farmington Hills, MI: Visible Ink Press. p. 83. ISBN 1-57859-061-2.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
37. Brackett, Nathan; with Hoard, Christian, eds. (2004). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). New York, NY: Fireside/Simon & Schuster. p. 46. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
38. "Today! - The Beach Boys: Awards". AllMusic.
39. "The Official Charts Company – Beach Boys Today by The Beach Boys Search". The Official Charts Company. 6 May 2013.
40. Brown, Tony (2000). "The Complete Book of the British Charts"
41. "The Beach Boys Billboard Chart History". billboard.com. Retrieved 2015-04-22.
42. Dimery, Robert (2005). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Universe. New York, NY. p. 910. ISBN 0-7893-1371-5.
43. "Artists beginning with B (part 1)". the Guardian. 17 November 2007.
44. Doe, Andrew G. "Album Archive". Bellagio 10452. Endless Summer Quarterly.
45. Doe, Andrew G. "Album Archive". Bellagio 10452. Endless Summer Quarterly.
46. "Album Search: The Beach Boys – The Beach Boys Today!" (in German). Media Control. Retrieved April 14, 2013.
47. "UK Top 40 Hit Database". EveryHit.

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• Hoskyns, Barney (2009). Waiting for the Sun: A Rock 'n' Roll History of Los Angeles. Backbeat Books. ISBN 978-0-87930-943-5.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Howard, David N. (2004). Sonic Alchemy: Visionary Music Producers and Their Maverick Recordings (1st ed.). Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Hal Leonard. ISBN 9780634055607.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Kent, Nick (2009). "The Last Beach Movie Revisited: The Life of Brian Wilson". The Dark Stuff: Selected Writings on Rock Music. Da Capo Press. ISBN 9780786730742.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Lambert, Philip (2007). Inside the Music of Brian Wilson: the Songs, Sounds, and Influences of the Beach Boys' Founding Genius. Continuum. ISBN 978-0-8264-1876-0.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Moskowitz, David V., ed. (2015). The 100 Greatest Bands of All Time: A Guide to the Legends Who Rocked the World. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-4408-0340-6.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Priore, Domenic (2005). Smile: The Story of Brian Wilson's Lost Masterpiece. London: Sanctuary. ISBN 1860746276.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Schinder, Scott (2007). "The Beach Boys". In Schinder, Scott; Schwartz, Andy (eds.). Icons of Rock: An Encyclopedia of the Legends Who Changed Music Forever. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0313338458.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Stanley, Bob (2013). Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Story of Modern Pop. Faber & Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-28198-5.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)