Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!)

Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!)
Studio album by The Beach Boys
Released July 5, 1965 (1965-07-05)
Recorded February 24 / March 4–20 / June 4, 1965
Studio United Western Recorders, Gold Star Studios, and CBS Columbia Square, Hollywood
Genre Rock
Length 26:42
Label Capitol
Producer Brian Wilson
The Beach Boys chronology
Today!
(1965)		 Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!)
(1965)		 Beach Boys' Party!
(1965)
The Beach Boys UK chronology
Pet Sounds
(1966)		 Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!)
(1966)		 Best of The Beach Boys
(1966)
Singles from Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!)
  1. "Help Me, Rhonda"
    Released: April 5, 1965
  2. "California Girls" / "Let Him Run Wild"
    Released: July 12, 1965

Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!) is the ninth studio album by American rock band the Beach Boys, released on July 5, 1965, on Capitol.[1] The release was their second album in 1965. The album features Wall of Sound production and arrangements observable on the majority of the album's backing tracks, now regarded as benchmarks for Brian Wilson's growth as a songwriter-producer-arranger.

Background

After a dramatic shift in songwriting style on the band's previous album, The Beach Boys Today!, leader Brian Wilson was reportedly questioned by Capitol Records to what his musical intentions were, urging him to make more "Beach Boys style music" for the next album.

Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!) includes Bruce Johnston's first appearance on a Beach Boys album. As Brian Wilson's stage replacement, he was not yet considered an "official" member, but Wilson appreciated Johnston's skills enough to have him contribute vocally and instrumentally on the album. Johnston would often accompany the group on photo shoots, but he was prohibited from having those pictures published on album covers due to a preexisting contract with Columbia Records. Consequently, his image would not grace the jacket of a Beach Boys' album until he appeared on the back cover of Wild Honey in 1967. Along with Johnston, Al Jardine is also missing from the Summer Days cover photo depicting the group on a sailboat, having missed the shoot due to illness.[2]

Music and lyrics
"Help Me, Rhonda" from Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!) (1965)
Originally debuting on Today! as "Help Me, Ronda", "Help Me, Rhonda" was reworked for Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!) featuring rearranged vocal harmonies and Carl and Brian Wilson performing a guitar and piano solo respectively.
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While on the surface, Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!) appeared to be a return to the carefree themes of 1964's All Summer Long, Brian Wilson had produced carefully woven, intricate backing tracks beneath lighthearted vocals featured on such songs as "Amusement Parks USA", "Then I Kissed Her" and "Salt Lake City". These backing tracks were even more elaborately arranged than what was featured on the previous effort Today!. He also wrote and produced an instrumental featuring a lush string arrangement ("Summer Means New Love") and composed the all-familiar symphonic intro to their US #3 charting single "California Girls" (that intro being Brian's personal favorite of his entire songwriting career). In hindsight, it's clear that Wilson was developing his skills that would be fully realized on his signature effort Pet Sounds the following year.

The opening track, "The Girl from New York City", was a response to "The Boy from New York City", a hit by The Ad Libs earlier that year, and "Then I Kissed Her" was Brian's attempt to emulate the production style of Phil Spector. It reached number four hit in the UK in 1967 and was Al Jardine's first of two lead vocals on the album; the second being a re-recording of Today! track Help Me, Ronda which underwent a minor title revision to become "Help Me, Rhonda". Written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love, it would rise on the Billboard Top 40 charts to become The Beach Boys' second US No. 1 charting single. "Girl Don't Tell Me", a Beatles-inspired song, featured Carl's second lead vocal on a Beach Boys album. Aside from "California Girls", the other notable major stylistic progression on Summer Days was "Let Him Run Wild", a Burt Bacharach-inspired track. Identical to the production style achieved on "California Girls", it became the flip-side song to that single.

The tongue-in-cheek track "I'm Bugged at My Ol' Man" was written as a not-too-subtle poke at the Wilsons' father Murry, who had been fired from his post as manager the previous year, though he did still occasionally show up to either support or criticize Brian in the studio.

Unreleased material

One outtake from the album's sessions is known as "Sandy" or "Sherry She Needs Me",[3] and was written by Brian Wilson with Russ Titelman alongside "Guess I'm Dumb".[4] "Sherry She Needs Me" was later revisited by the Beach Boys during 1976 Love You sessions.[5] The composition remained dormant until 1998, when it was finally finished by Wilson as "She Says That She Needs Me" for his 1998 Imagination solo album. The Beach Boys' version of "Sherry She Needs Me" was later released in 2013 for the Made in California box set.

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[6]
Blender[7]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music [8]
Rolling Stone [9]

Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!) proved to be another gold-selling success for the Beach Boys in the US, where it hit number 2 behind The Rolling Stones's Out of Our Heads. Along with 1963's "Surfin' USA" it remains the group's highest-charting studio album in the U.S. The following year, the album would reach number 4 in the UK. The album's lead single, "Help Me, Rhonda", topped the US Billboard Hot 100.

In a 2011 reappraisal, BBC Music observed that the track listing of Summer Days reads "like a Greatest Hits", and felt the album is unfairly disparaged for being "simply loaded with proud pop songs". Comparing to the Beach Boys' later work: "If Pet Sounds is the critics’ favorite, Summer Days is perhaps the people's day at the beach."[10] That same year, the online journal Rocksucker praised the album, ranking it 4th in its list of "Ten Underappreciated Beach Boys LPs", but considers it "an inconsistent collection of which the high points are truly great and the low points ranging from merely good to just-about-passing-muster".[11]

Release history

In the early 1970s, as part of Capitol Records' repackage series of their Beach Boys albums, Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!) was retitled California Girls and deleted two tracks: "Amusement Parks, USA" and "I'm Bugged at My Ol' Man". In 1990, the album was reissued paired with The Beach Boys Today!; this package featured extensive liner notes and bonus tracks from that period.[12] In its 2012 reissue, the album received its first true stereo mix.

Track listing

Following a 1990s court case, the songs "The Girl from New York City", "Amusement Parks U.S.A.", "Salt Lake City", "Help Me, Rhonda", "California Girls", "Let Him Run Wild", and "You're So Good to Me" were amended to include a songwriting credit to Mike Love that did not exist previously.[13]

All songs written and composed by Brian Wilson and Mike Love, except where noted. 

Side one
No. TitleLead vocals Length
1. "The Girl from New York City"  Mike Love 1:54
2. "Amusement Parks U.S.A."  Love/Brian Wilson 2:29
3. "Then I Kissed Her" (Phil Spector/Ellie Greenwich/Jeff Barry)Al Jardine 2:15
4. "Salt Lake City"  Love/B. Wilson 2:00
5. "Girl Don't Tell Me" (B. Wilson)Carl Wilson 2:19
6. "Help Me, Rhonda"  Jardine 2:46
Side two
No. TitleLead vocals Length
1. "California Girls"  Love/B.Wilson 2:46
2. "Let Him Run Wild"  B. Wilson 2:20
3. "You're So Good to Me"  B. Wilson 2:14
4. "Summer Means New Love" (B. Wilson)instrumental 1:59
5. "I'm Bugged at My Ol' Man" (B. Wilson)B. Wilson 2:17
6. "And Your Dream Comes True"  The Beach Boys 1:04

Personnel

Sourced from Musician's Union AFM contract sheets and surviving session audio, documented by Craig Slowinski.[14][15]

The Beach Boys
Additional musicians and production staff

Charts

Albums
Year Chart Position
1965 US Billboard 200 Albums Chart 2[16]
1966 UK Top 40 Album Chart 4[17]
Singles
Year Single Chart Position
1965 "Help Me, Rhonda" US Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart 1
1965 "California Girls" US Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart 3

References

  1. ↑ Badman 2004, p. 96.
  2. ↑ "Learn about The Beach Boys' 'Summer Days' album cover | Goldmine Magazine". Goldminemag.com. 2010-08-02. Retrieved 2012-03-11.
  3. ↑ Badman 2004, p. 86.
  4. ↑ "Russ Titelman 35th Anniversary Salute". Billboard: 44. June 1996.
  5. ↑ Planer, Lindsay. "Unsurpassed Masters, Vol. 9 (1965): The Alternate "Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!!)". AllMusic.
  6. ↑ Unterberger, Richie. "Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!) - The Beach Boys : Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards". AllMusic. Retrieved 2011-10-28.
  7. ↑ "Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!) - The Beach Boys Review,". Blender. Retrieved August 9, 2011.
  8. ↑ The Virgin Encyclopedia Of Popular Music, Concise (4th Edition), Virgin Books (UK), 2002, ed. Larkin, Colin.
  9. ↑ The Rolling Stone Album Guide (3rd Edition) Random House (US), 1992, ed. Anthony DeCurtis ISBN 0-679-73729-4
  10. ↑ Roberts, Chris (2011). "Review". BBC Music. Retrieved 8 June 2014.
  11. ↑ Abrams, Jonny (2011). "Ten Underappreciated Beach Boys LPs: Summer Days (and Summer Nights!!)". Rocksucker. Retrieved 8 June 2014.
  12. ↑ Leaf, David (1990). Today/Summer Days (CD Liner). The Beach Boys. Capitol Records.
  13. ↑ Doe, Andrew G. "Album Archiveq". Bellagio 10452. Endless Summer Quarterly.
  14. ↑ Craig Slowinski (2009). "The Beach Boys - The Beach Boys Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!)" (PDF). Retrieved October 27, 2012.
  15. ↑ Craig Slowinski (2007). "The Beach Boys - The Beach Boys Today!" (PDF). Retrieved October 27, 2012.
  16. ↑ "Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!) - The Beach Boys: Awards". AllMusic.
  17. ↑ "UK Top 40 Hit Database". EveryHit.
Sources
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