Good Vibrations: Thirty Years of the Beach Boys [Box] (CD - 1993)

This 5-CD box set contains 142 tracks with complete chart information and an introduction by Brian Wilson. Also included is a 60-page color booklet with extensive liner notes and a commemorative Beach Boys 30th Anniversary water decal. Four of the five discs are packaged in jewel boxes. The fifth comes in a special bootleg wrapping. The "bootleg" disc is composed entirely of previously-unreleased material. All songs originally released in mono are presented in their original form.

The Beach Boys: Brian Wilson, Dennis Wilson, Carl Wilson, David Marks, Mike Love, Al Jardine, Bruce Johnston.

Additional personnel includes: Glen Campbell, Tommy Tedesco, Jerry Cole, Barney Kessel, Billy Strange (guitar); Tommy Morgan (harmonica); Carl Fortina, Frank Marocco (accordion); Steve Douglas, Jay Migliori, Roy Caton, Lou Blackburn (horns); Al De Lory, Don Randi, Leon Russell (piano); Ray Pohlman, Carole Kaye, Lyle Ritz, Julius Wechter, Bill Pitman (bass); Hal Blaine (drums); Gene Estes, Frank Capp, Jim Gordon (percussion); The Sid Sharpe Strings.

Producers include: The Beach Boys, Hite Morgan, Dorinda Morgan, Nick Venet, Murry Wilson, Brian Wilson.

Compilation producers: Mark Linett, David Leaf, Andy Paley.

Engineers include: Larry Levine, Dave Hassinger, Armen Steiner.

Recorded between 1961 & 1988. Includes liner notes by David Leaf.

From a previously unreleased 1961 recording of their first single "Surfin" to their 1988 #1, "Kokomo," GOOD VIBRATIONS collects everything anyone would want to hear by The Beach Boys. The first disc in this 5-disc set collects the sun and surf hits like "Barbara Ann" and "Fun, Fun, Fun" that summed up the mythical California dream for generations of Americans. While The Beach Boys certainly created some wonderful rock and roll in their 1962-1966 heyday, it's for the brilliant music on discs two and three that they have become rock legends.

These two CDs capture Beach Boys leader Brian Wilson at the peak of his powers, creating still-astounding singles like "Good Vibrations" and the incomparable, otherworldly PET SOUNDS album. One of the real highlights of GOOD VIBRATIONS is that it features many of the fascinating, previously unreleased songs recorded for the aborted SMILE--the legendary unreleased album that allegedly drove Brian Wilson to his 1967 nervous breakdown. Though The Beach Boys were never quite the same after SMILE, this near-perfect box set contains plenty of songs that prove there was much more to the band than Brian Wilson's fragile genius. minimize