After years of legal wrangling and media speculation The Beach Boys are finally set to reunite with all the remaining original members to celebrate their 50th anniversary of the founding of the band.
Various members have been touring for years under The Beach Boys brand which created huge rifts between other members, but they appear ready finally to put aside their infighting for the good of their fans, and no doubt their wallets.
“This anniversary is special to me because I miss the boys and it will be a thrill for me to make a new record and be on stage with them again,” said Brian Wilson, announcing the reunion on their website.
The band plan on releasing a new record to coincide with a huge 50-date world tour that will kick off in New Orleans in April next year, a few months after they perform at the annual Grammy awards show in Los Angeles.
Various members have been speculating on a 50-year reunion for some time now with Al Jardine telling Rolling Stone as early as July last year that a reunion was in the works. “We’re definitely doing at least one show — you heard it first,” he said in an interview. “It’s a big deal. I want to see a 100-date anniversary tour. I want to go all around the world.”
But Brian Wilson, still ticked off about being shunned by the other members, had been downplaying the possibility of the reunion every chance he got, throwing up roadblocks such as “I’m considering it. Nothing’s really holding me back. I just don’t know if I want to be around those guys you know.” and “Well, I don’t really enjoy working with Mike [Love] and Bruce [Johnston], you know. It’s not my style to work with those guys.”
Wilson has been working in the meantime on a Disney covers album which he released last month. The album had Wilson tackle some Disney classic from their film archive and give them The Beach Boys treatment.
Mike Love, a founder member of the band said the idea for the renunion came when they got together to re-record Do It Again at Capitol Records, the label which launched them five decades ago.
“Brian and I wrote that song which went to number 1 in Great Britain, Australia and elsewhere some 44 years ago. Brian paid me a compliment saying, ‘How can a guy sound that great so many years later?’ Later on, while working out some harmonies on a new song Brian had written, I got a chance to return the compliment.
“It was a thrill to be around a piano again with Brian, Alan and Bruce,” he continued. “And experience firsthand the brilliance of Cousin Brian’s gift for vocal arrangements. It has been a huge blessing that we have been able to share with the world. Wouldn’t It Be Nice to Do It Again? Absolutely!”
The Beach Boys have already recorded several songs for their new album, to be released in 2012 by Capitol/EMI, with more tracks to be recorded before its completion. The as-yet-untitled album, the first to feature all of the band’s surviving original members in decades, is being produced by Brian Wilson and executive produced by Mike Love.
The band continue to hold Billboard / Nielsen SoundScan’s record as the top-selling American band for albums and singles, and they are also the American group with the most Billboard Top 40 chart hits (36).
