Be True to Your Stereo

Almost every year, at the start of summer it seems like I go on an early Beach Boys jag, where early means "pre-Pet Sounds". Their mid-70s Endless Summer and Spirit of America compilations were two of the first records I bought with my own money. The Beach Boys and their songs are a big part of what Summer means to me.

The start of Summer is still a couple of weeks way now, but this generation now has their own Spirit of America, the 1975 collection the extended 1974's Endless Summer (which collected most of the big hits) with deep album cuts from the 1963-1965 era. Their original Capitol album were out of print, so SoA was a way for new fans like me to get the full picture of the golden era of the Beach Boys.

The Endless Summer for this generation was Sounds of Summer, the 2003 collection with all the Beach Boys biggest hits from 1962's "Surfin' Safari" thru 1988's "Kokomo". It was the career-spanning hit compilation for a new generation of Beach Boys' fans. And a few years later, the fans that want more have The Warmth of the Sun, which collects 30 non-hit songs from their history. This provides an alternative history of the band, and provides a much deeper picture of the Beach Boys than just skimming through the hits.

The main selling point of The Warmth of the Sun for old fans like me are the four songs from the 1965 Today! and Summer Days.. albums remixed for stereo. Their initial albums thru All Summer Long were released in both mono and stereo. But the albums from 1965's Today! thru 1967's Wild Honey (including Pet Sounds) were only released in mono and duophonic (ie fake) stereo, because Brian Wilson only delivered a mono master to the label for these albums. This was the height of Brian's studio creativity, and the mono masters were true to his vision, they didn't provide the full picture of his genius. The songs used three of the four recording tracks for vocals, so Brian's arrangements were condensed down to one track then Spectorized down with the vocals into a mono recording that may have sounded great on the radio but not as great on the hi-fi. Getting these songs reissued in stereo has become a holy grail for some Beach Boys obsessives.

Pet Sounds was reissued in stereo ten years ago, and back then I thought the stereo mixes were an aberration, but I've come to accept the stereo Pet Sounds as the real album because it sounds just so much better than the original mono version. Remixed stereo versions of Today and Summer Days (the two albums before Pet Sounds -- Brian's Rubber Soul and Revolver) would be a godsend, and stereo mixes of these songs have come out on various compilations. A stereo "Kiss Me Baby" on Endless Harmony, "Dance Dance Dance" on Sounds of Summer, and new stereo mixes of two of my favorite Beach Boys songs ("Please Let Me Wonder" and "Let Him Run Wild") on Warmth of the Sun.

Being able to hear these two tracks in glorious high fidelity stereo makes me feel twelve years old all over again. "Let Him Run Wild" was on Endless Summer and "Please Let Me Wonder" was on Spirit of America, so I grew up thinking they were important songs in the Beach Boys canon, but they were both b-sides to lesser singles. Both songs sound like early blueprints for the arrangements that Brian later perfects on Pet Sounds.

Here are those two, plus "Kiss Me Baby" from Endless Harmony and and original Capitol Records full dimensional stereo version "Be True To Your School" from 1964's Little Deuce Coupe album, courtesy of the late Chuck Britz.

The Beach Boys in stereo
Be True To Your School (1964, from Little Deuce Coupe)
Kiss Me Baby (2000, from Endless Harmony)
Please Let Me Wonder (2007, from Warmth of the Sun)
Let Him Run Wild (2007, from Warmth of the Sun)