Top 10 Beach Boys Songs You've Never Heard

When most people think of The Beach Boys, it’s still all about summer fun, long days at the beach, surfing, girls, cars and being true to your school. But as most fans of the group can tell you, they are about much more than that.

To your average listener, The Beach Boys’ catalog begins with “Surfin’ Safari,” ends with “Good Vibrations” and has “Kokomo” as a nice comeback single. If that’s all you know, then you are missing out on some fantastic music. Between 1967 and 1975, the group continued pushing the creative envelope as far as they could, even without Brian Wilson’s creative genius to help them out.

They slowed down around 1975, and their work through the ‘80s is pretty unremarkable. During the ‘90s, new music was practically nonexistent. But in 2012, Mike Love and Wilson put their differences aside to finally make That’s Why God Made The Radio, the group’s first album of original material since 1992. Sadly, the group’s 50th anniversary celebration didn’t really end with a high note in 2013, so it looks like we should be happy that That’s Why God exists at all.

The Beach Boys are again in the sunlight thanks to more work from Wilson, the last surviving Wilson brother. His life is the focus of the wonderful biopic Love And Mercy and he has a new album, No Pier Pressure, coming out next Tuesday.

With all that in mind, let’s take a look at some lesser known corners of The Beach Boys’ incredible discography.

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Here Comes The Night,” Wild Honey (1967)

“Good Vibrations” changed the world in October 1966, but after SMiLE collapsed in 1967, the Boys’ career did as well. Suddenly, they were already has-beens when the lo-fi Smiley Smile hit stores. Strangely, that lo-fi, back-to-basics sound dominated the group’s next two albums - Wild Honey and Friends.

Wild Honey is the R&B album you never expected to come from The Beach Boys. It’s almost impossible to believe that these are the same guys who made Pet Sounds not even two years before. The best example of the album’s sound is the original version of “Here Comes The Night.”

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Goin’ South,” L.A. (Light Album) (1979)

L.A. (Light Album) is better than it has any right to be, especially considering that it contains the insane, 10-minute disco version of “Here Comes The Night.” But the nine tracks surrounding it are pretty night. “Goin’ South” is a nice late track that proves that Carl Wilson’s incredible voice never waned. It might put you to sleep, but if you’re awake, those vocals are worth paying attention to.

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The Little Girl I Once Knew,” single (1965)

Going way back to 1965, “The Little Girl I Once Knew” is one of their most underrated single-only tracks. It never fit on an album, although it could have made Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!). The song really announced Brian’s experimental and adventurous period, as the track includes several long breaks of complete silence.

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You Need A Mess Of Help To Stand Alone,” Carl and the Passions - So Tough (1972)

By 1972, it seemed that the group couldn’t get anything right... even though they were getting everything creatively right. Even by then, people would go to their concerts to see the old stuff, not the new stuff.

That new stuff went in a very different direction. Carl took a bigger role in the group by then, as reflected by the title of 1972’s Carl and the Passions - So Tough. It was clear that they wanted to step away from the clean-cut image they still had. There was no better announcement than Carl’s gruff vocal on the opening cut.

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Our Sweet Love,” Sunflower (1970)

Pet Sounds might be the best evidence of Brian’s genius, but there’s a good argument to be had that 1970’s Sunflower is the best album by The Beach Boys as a group. Brian is still contributing, but Carl, Mike and even Dennis Wilson are finally taking the reigns here. “Our Sweet Love” is one of the many great, lovely little tunes on the record.

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The Night Was So Young,” The Beach Boys Love You, 1977

The Beach Boys Love You is probably the strangest record ever released by a major pop group (if you think the Boys were still a “major pop group” by 1977, that is). It was completely the brainchild of Brian and nearly all the instrumentation on the record comes from synthesizers. Still, the vocals on the album are often incredible. “The Night Was So Young” is one of those examples.

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The California Saga,” Holland, 1973

Holland has some really interesting things going on in it, including the noteworthy single “Sail On Sailor,” sung by Blondie Chaplin. But the centerpiece on the record is Al Jardine and Mike’s “The California Saga.” Sure, Al’s spoken word bit in “The Beaks of Eagles” is painful to listen to repeatedly, but he makes up for it with the third part, “California.”

The saga begins with “Big Sur,” a countrified track featuring a great Mike vocal, then segues into “The Beaks of Eagles.” Brian then pops in for the opening line in “California.”

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Be With Me,” 20/20 (1969)

On 1968’s Friends, Dennis announced that he suddenly had some things to say. He kept the momentum going on 20/20 with “Be With Me” and “Never Learn Not To Love” (a song reportedly written with the Charles Manson). “Be With Me” is an interesting Spector-esque production, with full blown strings and horns. He clearly learned something from Brian.

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Soulful Old Man Sunshine,” recorded in 1969 and released in 1998

“Soulful Old Man Sunshine” is one of the many tantalizing “what ifs” in Beach Boys history. Sure, but 1969, their career was so far in the pits that one song might not have saved them, but it would have been interesting had it come out when Brian first recorded it. Instead, the song sat shelved until the Endless Harmony album in 1998. It’s a wonderfully upbeat track and probably one of the best lost songs from the group outside of the SMiLE material.

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‘Til I Die,” Surfs Up (1971)

This is really hard, since there’s so many Beach Boys songs that more people need to hear. But “‘Til I Die” has always felt like a song that meant so much to the group. It’s an important song for Brian, who wrote it at another difficult point in his life and it is featured in Love And Mercy.

On Surf’s Up, the song is just at the end of the album, seguing into “Surf’s Up,” a SMiLE track. This is one of those tracks that usually would have gotten turned down for being too dark, but it survived and made the album. Brian sees himself as disparate objects, at the mercy of the ocean or the wind and each time, he is doomed. It captures his mindset at the time, but the fact that he did survive makes it more powerful to hear today.

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