THE BEACH BOYS – 15 BIG ONES LP – Nr MINT A2/B1 UK BRIAN WILSON

The Beach Boys – 15 Big Ones
(Reprise/Brother Records  1976  K54079)
Matrix No’s: A2/B1 – UK Pressing

Gatefold Sleeve in Nr MINT/Excellent+ condition
– some wear to edges/corners

Vinyl in Nr MINT condition
(there are some surface marks visible on the vinyl when held up to the light but they don’t affect the sound quality apart from the odd light pop/crackle)

The Beach Boys are an American rock band formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group’s original lineup consisted of brothers Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson; their cousin Mike Love; and their friend Al Jardine. Distinguished by their vocal harmonies and early surf songs, they are one of the most influential acts of the rock era. The group, led by their principal songwriter and producer Brian, pioneered novel approaches to popular music form and production, combining their affinities for jazz-based vocal groups, 1950s rock and roll, and black R&B to create their unique sound. He later arranged his compositions for studio orchestras and explored a variety of other styles, often incorporating classical or jazz elements and unconventional recording techniques in innovative ways.

The Beach Boys began as a garage band managed by the Wilsons’ father Murry, with Brian’s increasingly sophisticated songwriting and recording abilities dominating their creative direction. Emerging at the vanguard of the “California Sound”, they performed original material that reflected a southern California youth culture of surfing, cars, and romance. After 1964, they abandoned the surfing aesthetic for more personal lyrics and multi-layered sounds. In 1966, the Pet Sounds album and “Good Vibrations” single vaulted the group to the top level of rock innovators and established the band as symbols of the nascent counterculture era. Following the dissolution of the group’s Smile project in 1967, Brian gradually ceded production and songwriting duties to the rest of the band, reducing his input because of mental health and substance abuse issues. The group’s public image subsequently faltered, and despite efforts to continue their psychedelic/avant-garde ventures and reclaim their hippie audiences, they were dismissed as an embodiment of the values and outlooks shared by early 1960s white, suburban teenagers.

The continued success of their greatest hits albums during the mid 1970s precipitated the band’s transition into an oldies act, a move that was denigrated by critics and many fans. Since the 1980s, much-publicized legal wrangling over royalties, songwriting credits and use of the band’s name transpired. Dennis drowned in 1983 and Carl died of lung cancer in 1998. After Carl’s death, many live configurations of the band fronted by Mike Love and Bruce Johnston continued to tour into the 2000s while other members pursued solo projects. Even though Wilson and Jardine have not performed with Love and Johnston’s band since their one-off 2012 reunion tour, they remain a part of the Beach Boys’ corporation, Brother Records Inc.

The Beach Boys are one of the most critically acclaimed, commercially successful, and widely influential bands of all time. The group had over eighty songs chart worldwide, thirty-six of them US Top 40 hits (the most by an American rock band), four reaching number-one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The Beach Boys have sold in excess of 100 million records worldwide, making them one of the world’s best-selling bands of all time and are listed at No. 12 on Rolling Stone magazine’s 2004 list of the “100 Greatest Artists of All Time”. The core quintet of the three Wilsons, Love and Jardine were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988.

15 Big Ones is the 20th studio album by American rock group The Beach Boys released in July 1976. It comprises cover versions of rock and roll and rhythm and blues standards, along with a few new originals. The album was met with mixed reviews, but the highest sales the band had for a new studio album in many years, peaking at number 8 on the weekly Billboard albums chart. Three singles were issued: a cover of Chuck Berry’s “Rock and Roll Music” and the originals “It’s O.K.” and “Everyone’s in Love with You”. The first two charted on the Billboard Hot 100 at number 8 and number 29, respectively.

With Blondie Chaplin and Ricky Fataar having left the Beach Boys since their previous album Holland (1973), 15 Big Ones was recorded at a time when the group were struggling with their creative direction. Responding to the unexpected success of the greatest hits compilation Endless Summer (1974), Brian Wilson, who had not been credited as producer for any of the band’s albums since Pet Sounds (1966), was brought into commandeering the 15 Big Ones sessions. Although the band begged his return, they resisted his desire for an underproduced sound. Upon its release, brothers Carl and Dennis Wilson voiced disappointment with the album, calling it “unfinished” and “a bruising process”.

Track listing

Personnel

The Beach Boys

• Al Jardine – backing vocals, lead vocals (A3, A6, B2, B7), guitar (B2)
• Mike Love – backing vocals, lead vocals (A1, A2, A3, A5, B4), arranger (A5)
• Brian Wilson – backing vocals (A1, A2, A3, A4, A6, A7, A8, B1, B4, B7), lead vocals (A3, A4, A7, B5, B7), arranger (A1, A2, A3, A4, A6, A7, A8, B1, B2, B3, B4, B5, B7), organ (A2, A6, A7, A8, B1, B4, B5, B7), piano (A1, A2, A3, A4, A6, A7, B1, B3, B5, B6, B7), Moog bass (A1, A2, A4, B6), ARP synthesizer (A1, A6, B7), ARP String Ensemble (A4, A5, A6, B6, B7), bass guitar (B2), harmonica (B2), chimes (B4), bells (B5)
• Carl Wilson – backing vocals (A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, A6, A7, B1, B2, B3, B6), lead vocals (A3, A6, B1, B7), guitar (A2, B2, B4, B5), bass (A5, A6, B3, B5), synthesizer (B1), harp (B5), percussion (B5, B7)
• Dennis Wilson – backing vocals (A1, A2, A3, A6, B2, B4, B6, B7), lead vocals (A3, B6), drums (A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, A6, A7, A8, B3, B5, B6, B7), percussion (B3), vibraphone (A7)

Additional musicians and production staff

Album cover, art direction and logo was done by Dean Torrence and Jim Evans.