Beach Boys' Party!

In August, after the release of Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!), the Beach Boys' leader Brian Wilson was contemplating his next studio effort, which would turn out to be Pet Sounds. Capitol Records requested a new album for the holiday season. Since The Beach Boys' Christmas Album had been released the previous year, as had a live performance via Beach Boys Concert, the "live party" idea was selected to reflect the togetherness of the holiday spirit. Sporadically during September, the band and their friends rehearsed current and older hits (including revisiting the Rivingtons' "Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow"). Although presented as an impromptu live recording of a continuous set of songs played at a small party, the songs were recorded and mixed individually in a sound studio as any regular studio album, and laughter and background chatter was mixed in during post-production.[6]

The album included versions of the Beatles' "Tell Me Why", "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" and "I Should Have Known Better"; "Devoted to You" by the Everly Brothers; the Phil Spector produced "There's No Other (Like My Baby)" and a send-up of their own "I Get Around" and "Little Deuce Coupe".[6] David Leaf noted: "In an era when rock stars were beginning to take themselves more seriously, the Beach Boys showed how natural it was to make fun of themselves."[6]

Author Geoffrey Himes wrote that the party theme was created to justify the casual arrangements.[7] Music theorist Daniel Harrison wrote: "Party was an exercise in minimalistic production. ... The performances seem unrehearsed, the instrumental support is minimal (acoustical [sic] guitar, bongo drums, tambourine), and fooling around (laughing, affected singing, background conversation) pervades every track."[8] It was Wilson's first exploration in "party tracks," a form of music which includes the sounds of people shouting and making noises as if at a party.[nb 1] He would continue this approach with Smiley Smile in 1967.[9]

Several other songs were also recorded, but not put on the album. This included renditions of the Drifters' "Ruby Baby,"[nb 2] the Beatles' song "Ticket to Ride," the Rolling Stones' "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction," Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind" and the Robins' "Riot In Cell Block #9."[nb 3]

The original release of Party! included a sheet of photographs which depicted the band at a party.[6] In order to promote the album, Capitol distributed to dealers a million bags of potato chips which bore the album's cover art, intended to be given away to record buyers for free. The label also coordinated a motion floor merchandiser containing five Beach Boys LPs, full-color streamers for window displays, and full-scale radio and newspaper advertising.[10]

Professional ratings

Retrospective reviews
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[11]
Blender	[12]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[13]
Popmatters	[14]
Record Mirror	[15]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[16]

Billboard evaluated that Party! would have strong sales potential: "The boys have a ball performing in this intimate, ad-lib program of hot material. ... [an] exciting, discotheque package."[17]

In November 1965, the Beach Boys released the non-album single "The Little Girl I Once Knew" which repeatedly used a measure of silence in the arrangement and was reportedly disliked by radio programmers owing to their avoidance of having "dead air";[18] this has been cited as being partially responsible for the single stalling at US number 20. Still wanting to play new material by the band, radio disc jockeys around the United States began playing the last track of Party! straight off the LP, a cover of The Regents' "Barbara Ann." It received good listener response and was issued as a single by Capitol when they started hearing from radio programmers; it became a number 2 hit in early 1966.[6]

In 1990, Beach Boys' Party! was paired on CD with Stack-o-Tracks with bonus instrumental tracks. The bonus instrumental tracks include "Help Me, Rhonda", "California Girls", and "Our Car Club".[6] In 2012, the first stereo mix of Beach Boys' Party! was released.[21]

On November 20, 2015, Capitol issued an 81-track expanded remix, Beach Boys' Party! Uncovered and Unplugged, containing the original album without overdubs followed by a selection of outtakes culled from the album's original five recording sessions.[21]

Credits from band archivist Craig Slowinski.[22]

The Beach Boys

• Al Jardine – vocals, acoustic 6 and 12 string guitars, ashtray
• Bruce Johnston – vocals, electric bass
• Mike Love – vocals
• Brian Wilson – vocals, bass, piano, bongos
• Carl Wilson – vocals, acoustic 6 and 12 string guitars, bass
• Dennis Wilson – vocals, bongos, castanet, harmonica

Guests

Chart information courtesy of Allmusic and other music databases.[24]

Sources

• Fusilli, Jim (2005). Beach Boys' Pet Sounds. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4411-1266-8.
• Harrison, Daniel (1997). "After Sundown: The Beach Boys' Experimental Music" (PDF). In Covach, John; Boone, Graeme M. (eds.). Understanding Rock: Essays in Musical Analysis. Oxford University Press. pp. 33–57. ISBN 9780199880126.
• Schinder, Scott (2007). "The Beach Boys". In Schinder, Scott; Schwartz, Andy (eds.). Icons of Rock: An Encyclopedia of the Legends Who Changed Music Forever. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0313338458.
• Whiteley, Sheila; Sklower, Jedediah (2014). Countercultures and Popular Music. Ashgate Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4724-2106-7.
• Unterberger, Richie (2002). Turn! Turn! Turn!: The '60s Folk-Rock Revolution. Backbeat Books. ISBN 0-87930-703-X.
• Beach Boys' Party! Uncovered and Unplugged liner notes.

• Beach Boys' Party! at Discogs (list of releases)