The Best of The Beach Boys

One of the most concise compilations of Beach Boys' earlier work. This is the get-in-the-car and go-for-the-fun album. Also, because it is shorter than most of their greatest-hits compilations, listening to "Best of the Beach Boys" will leave you feeling satiated and not over-full or maxed out on the all-American Beach-Boys vibe.

Good music

These are the sounds I learned to associate with the Beach Boys. Good album!

BEACH BOYS CLASSIC. IT BRINGS BACK MEMORIES OF MY TIME IN FLORIDA AS A KID. I WOULD RECOMMEND IT TO ANY BB FAN.

loved the music

When this was an album, it is one I owned and played and played and played, this "album" was around and still do it's exactly the same as when it came out in the 60's. I know a lot of their material is not on this album because it didn't exist when this album was recorded, there are a couple of songs that could have been eliminated and substituted for others, notably Louie, Louie, but that's true on any greatest hits albums. I loved this because of the songs of course, but also, it takes this 60 year old back to 16, and when I listen to it I'm there, insecurities, girls, cars, parents etc.and one of the great things, is this recording, like my 45's, were never real clear and this album and even the cd are not perfect and that is what is great. Recordings today of our music from the 60's and 70's were not crystal clear, remastered and God knows what else, maybe the word sanitized, but that what makes them great. The music,which was current then, was blasting out of transistor radios on the AM dial and the way they sounded, even with a scratch was the way our music was enjoyed millions of times over. This particular Capitol recording is very much like that. There are a few more, Beach boys and others, that are still around and sound as they did back then, and that's why I love them. It's not the sanitized version, but it has the heart of the times. I still own the 45's of these, and many other songs, and this particular one in album form. The beach, girls, cars, girlfriends sitting on your shoulders during concerts, make out music, it was America of that time, the music brings me back.

Originally released in '66, this was the first of a bazillion Beach Boys "best-of"/"hits" collections that have been put out over the years. The back cover described it as "A sensational collection of the Beach Boys' greatest hits!" and it was "personally selected and compiled by the Beach Boys themselves and dedicated to their many loyal fans." The compilation was a hit, which at the time wasn't unusual for a Beach Boys record (it reached #8 and stayed on the chart for 78 weeks), but I personally have to wonder at the track selection, which was/is very short on actual hits. The comp was clearly good enough for many of the fans who were around at the time, but even if I had existed back then and was already a fan who had heard all or most of their material up to that point, this collection would probably still have had me scratching my head. If I had been more familiar with the group's catalog than I was back when I bought this CD (and if the Sounds Of Summer compilation had been around then), I probably wouldn't have bought it. I really don't understand many of the selections that the group made.By my count, the group had scored around 18 or so Top 40 single hits by the time this comp was assembled, with two of them, "I Get Around" and "Help Me Rhonda," being #1 smashes. For this collection, the group selected all of FIVE of those Top 40s ("Surfin' U.S.A.," "Surfer Girl," "Little Deuce Coupe," "In My Room," and "Fun, Fun, Fun"). The rest of the comp they filled up with non-hit B-sides ("The Warmth Of The Sun," "Kiss Me, Baby," and "You're So Good To Me"), a couple of tracks that were released on an album and on an EP (those weren't as common in the U.S. as in the U.K.) but not on singles ("Little Honda" and "Wendy"), and a couple of album-only tracks ("Catch A Wave" and their version of "Louie, Louie" [?!]).I can't deny that these are all good tracks ("Kiss Me, Baby," which is the most "complex" track here, is particularly breathtaking), but the fact that the majority of them were not actually hits, and the fact that so many of the group's recordings that WERE hits (including the #1s) were left off, mean that this really wasn't much of a "hits" collection even at the time of its original release. And, as good as these tracks are, the group's other hits --- and for that matter, some of the other non-hits --- were/are (in my opinion) better than several of them.There were also a Best Of, Vol. 2 and a Best Of, Vol. 3, containing hits not found on this one, but the group could have put more of the hits that they had racked up by the time of this comp on it; in fact, even if they still had to limit the comp to the "traditional" 12 tracks, they could have made a collection that was ALL hits and that included MOST of their hits!So in my opinion, the Beach Boys, as much as I love those guys, didn't do such a great job of putting together this "best-of"/"greatest hits" collection.When the comp was reissued on CD, many more tracks could have easily been added; unfortunately, none were, so it's still 12 tracks and 28 minutes --- pret-ty short these days. Also, all of the tracks are in mono on this CD, which, depending on your views of mono, could be good or bad or really neither one. I'm personally partial to stereo, so the all-mono sound is another thing that doesn't quite endear this CD to me. (But, I'll take mono over "Duophonic," which is what the "stereo" release of the vinyl was in, any day.)I'd say, avoid this nearly 50-year-old assemblage of tracks. MANY better Beach Boys compilations have been put out since this reissue (and since the original release); the VERY best single-CD one (in my opinion) is the abovementioned Sounds Of Summer, which has 30 tracks including ALMOST ALL of the hits (over half in stereo) from the '60s AND BEYOND, and which plays for like 77 minutes.

Brilliant one of their best albums ,the Beatles must have been looking over their shoulders when they first heard this!

Excellent.