Beach Boys
Classics: Selections By Brian Wilson  
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2008-06-03
Beach Boy Best of's are only good for grabbing a better master of something and this offers only a new stereo remix of heros and Villians. The single version has been out in stereo for over 10 years on a boxed set.

If you are new to the Beach Boys, buy the following albums in this order:
Pet Sounds (The 1996 remaster -stereo and mono.)
Wild Honey (as good as Pet Sounds, but diffrent)
20/20
The Beach Boys Today!
Friends
Summer Days and Summer Nights
Shut Down
All Summer Long
Surf's Up
Sunflower

The other albums I recomend only for the most die-hard fan as they don't come close to the above.

I love listening to Brian working in the studio with the great musicians who made these records: Hal Blaine, Carol Kaye, Lyle Ritz, Don Randi, Glen Cambell, Barney Kessel, etc. For this, the box sets are nice.

From assorted source you can assemble 80% of the orginal Smile. It's far better than the overly slick remake. The Beach Boy voices had a magic. Combined with the great arangements and musicians it adds up to something that will never be reproduced.
2006-11-29
Everytime I saw a new Beach Boys Greatest Hits come out I would get so excited. Everytime I read the song selection my excitement would turn to bewilderment. I was bewildered for one reason (is this proper english), where the heck was "Sail On, Sailor". The Greatest track ever written by the Beach Boys. I can not beleive that the one person to get the comp right was Brian Wilson - this without a doubt comfirms his genius status. All kidding aside - this is one great album, and thank you Brian. (I was starting to think you really did'nt like this song - and that would make you crazy!) By the way - the mastering is superb and look at the used cd prices - crazy.
2006-09-17
After listening to the Beach Boys for nearly fifty years, if I just wanted one heartfelt compilation, this is it. It embraces the music and outlines a journey. It is wonderful.
2006-04-12
THE BEACH BOYS CLASSICS SELECTED BY BRIAN WILSON is a compilation album with a difference. This set reflects his own personel favorites (as of Febuary 11, 2002 as he admits in the liner notes); it may not comprise a Beach Boys "Greatest Hits" collection, but it does give the listener another window into the briliant, dark, troubled inner world of Brian Wilson.

From the outset, it is clear that Wilson percieves of the Beach Boys as much more than just a rock band. The Beach Boys is his own private symphonia. The priceless liner notes constanly refference the orchestrations, the lyrics, and the arangements of what most outsiders might see as some deceptively straightforward pop songs. His is the genius that clearly propelled the Beach Boys durring their greatest days; anyone who ever dismissed them as an act of lightweights needs to listen carefully to CLASSICS. There is some very beautiful music here.

The disc opens with "Surfer Girl" and includes some better known hits as "I Get Around," "California Girls" and "Good Vibrations." It also includes the wistful "The Warmth of The Sun" (dedicated to JFK, and written on November 22, 1963), the questioning and questing "Don't Worry Baby" and "God Only Knows," and a series of other lesser-known peices, all remarkable for their artistic depth if not their longevity as popular songs.

Listening in sequence, one hears the musical and emotional evolution and maturation of the Beach Boys. One also hears Wilson's increasingly desparate voice seeking apotheosis and inner peace through experimentation and creative expression.

Mad like Mozart, Brian Wilson touches us profoundly even as he transcends the narrow boundaries of rock music. Eleanor Rigby move over.
2005-09-27
Absolutely the best Beach Boys "best of" I've heard. If you're going to get one Beach Boys CD, this is the one.
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  Editorial Review           
Just when you thought that the Beach Boys canon was complete, the band's mad genius, Brian Wilson, has taken it upon himself to compile his 20 favorite hits from his band's oeuvre, and believe me his favorites are as idiosyncratic as you might think. Fortunately for fans, Wilson has also chosen some of the band's best-beloved songs for this collection, including the deceptively simple but symphonically constructed "California Girls," the wistful "Surfer Girl," and the rowdy and harmlessly macho "I Get Around," as well as the band's artistic high-water mark, "Good Vibrations," all of which reminds fans once again what a sublime poet he is. Most of the Beach Boys' mindless hot-rod songs and surf anthems are absent; instead, Wilson has selected some of the band's more reflective and intelligent tunes, including the brooding "In My Room," the equally downcast "'Til I Die," and the melancholy "The Warmth of the Sun" (which, Wilson reveals in the brief accompanying notes, was written as a tribute to President John F. Kennedy on the night of his assassination). These strangely confessional notes are worth the price of the entire CD, shedding a brief light on some of the dark corners of Wilson's troubled life, as well as including warm remembrances and snatches of Beach Boys trivia--that "California Girls" is his favorite song, and that he considers the chord pattern on "This Whole World" to ramble. Also included in the collection is the recently recorded "California Feelin'," a song Wilson wrote in the early '70s but never was "officially" recorded. It gives an interesting trajectory to the disc, showing the changes in Wilson's voice and delivery and marking the psychic journey from Beach Boy to man. --Jaan Uhelszki

This 20 track HDCD remastered collection includes a brand new (2002) recording from Brian 'California Feelin' (originally written for the band in the 70s but never recorded). 20 tracks. 2002.



If you like "Classics: Selections By Brian Wilson", you might also like ...


The Warmth of the Sun
Pet Sounds
Sounds Of Summer - The Very Best Of The Beach Boys
Sunflower/Surf's Up
Pacific Ocean Blue - Legacy Edition