Songoftheday 4/8/14 - The other night they were playing our song hadn't heard it for oh so long ...

The Beach Boys - "Getcha Back"
from the album Beach Boys (1985)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #26 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 7

Today's Song of the Day is from the long-standing rock band the Beach Boys, who began their long journey back in the beginning of the Sixties, with brothers Dennis, Carl, and Brian Wilson along with cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. They released their first single, "Surfin'", in 1961, which gave them their first hit at #75. Jardine left after this, to be replaced temporarily by Wilson neighbor David Marks. The following year, their next single "Surfin Safari" became their first top-40 hit in the US, reaching #14. By the time their 'hat trick' surfin' song, "Surfin' USA", they were in full gear, with the single climbing into the top ten for the first time at #3. It also gave them their first big international success, peaking at #34 in the UK and #6 in Canada..

After this, Al, who had in that time attempted to leave music to become a dentist, rejoined the group, and now the six members had toured the world together while racking up hits in the US. Not to long passed before Marks departed the Boys, leaving them with just the "classic lineup" for their "Fun, Fun, Fun" top-10 single in 1964. By now their sound had left the 'surfin' world' behind, exploring more diverse teen issues and desires, and their "I Get Around" became the first for the Beach Boys to hit #1 on Billboard, as well as reaching the top-10 in the UK for the first time.

The Beach Boys would return to #1 in 1965 with "Help Me Rhonda" (Jardine's first lead on a hit), but by then Brian Wilson would leave the touring lineup of the band (to be replaced for a while by Glen Campbell, then by Bruce Johnston), while Brian concentrated more on the recording side of their music, spending all his time in the studio putting together the records that the rest of the band would just sing and play minimally over. During this period, Wilson (and the band's) creative pinnacle, the Pet Sounds album, was recorded, and while is wasn't as "big" a success as had hoped (which is relative, it spawned two top-10 hits and two more top-40 singles), it remains one of the most revered albums in rock and roll history (as well as containing my all-time favorite song of the rock era, "God Only Knows"). That same year the classic single "Good Vibrations", originally meant for the Pet Sounds follow-up Smile, was released, and while it claimed the top spot on the American pop chart for a third time, Brian's mental health was collapsing from pressure in his work paired with his voracious drug habit, sending him into a state of limbo where his leadership in the band disintegrated, and cast him as the "Syd Barrett"-style inspiration but not guider of the band's work.

The other members of the Beach Boys would step up and increase their contributions to the band's output, and while their chart fortunes during this time fell, their work was critically better received. As the mid-70s approached, their value as a concert attraction far outshadowed what newer material they were experimenting with, and by 1976 they did manage to get back into the top 10 but with a cover of Chuck Berry's "Rock And Roll Music". This, coupled with their wildly successful back-to-back compilations of Endless Summer and Spirit Of America, put the band almost back to square one in the minds of a lot of their new-found fans, eschewing most of their newer material for their earlier surf and car rock.

This is the Beach Boys that existed in the 80s, where their biggest hit of the decade at that time was a rehashed medley of their old hits, while touring constantly around the country in placed like Jersey's own Six Flags Great Adventure, with Brian in tow if not totally in spirit. With drug and alcohol use rampant throughout the band, sadly drummer Dennis drowned in 1983.

1985 found the Beach Boys in a sort of static success, appearing live at both the Independence Day festivities in Washington as well as at Live Aid. While this was happening they released their self-titled 25th studio album. Produced by Steven Levine, who helmed the board for the likes of the new guard of the 80s  Culture Club, he tried to replicate Brian's "Wall of Sound-esque" ways with newer technology, replacing what would've been Dennis' parts with a drum machine, and having the Culture Club's Boy George and Roy Hay contribute a song to the set. The first single pulled from the record, "Getcha Back", seemed real promising, highlighting the quintet's still extra-tight harmonies over a retro-style summery tune written by Love with ex-Byrds man Terry Melcher...

"Getcha Back" returned the Beach Boys to the top-40 in June of 1985, while scaling all the way to #2 on the adult contemporary (or "easy-listening") radio chart in Billboard magazine. Internationally, while the single also made the top-40 in Canada, it barely nicked the chart in England, stopping at #97. However it did give them more attention for their newer work, priming up for what will soon become one of their biggest successes, the "Kokomo" hit just three years later. I admit, I was way into this record more than maybe I should have been, but those harmonies just got me.

(Click below to see the rest of the post)


Here's the Boys on their obligatory Solid Gold appearance...

Sugar Ray frontman Mark McGrath covered "Getcha Back" for the movie Herbie: Fully Loaded in 2005..

...and finally, here's the band in concert in 2012, with David Marks, yes, that original David Marks, back with the Boys and singing lead...

Up tomorrow: the Boss looks back at previous high times.