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Beach Boys music biography continued...

in 1961 by the three Wilson brothers: Brian (bass, piano, vocals), Dennis (drums, vocals), and Carl (guitar, vocals). Additional members were Mike Love (vocals), a cousin of the Wilsons', and Al Jardine (guitar, vocals). From the early beginning, the focus of the group's music was Brian Wilson, who combined a fascination with vocal harmony in the Four Freshmen mold with a love of Chuck Berry-inspired rock & roll. According to Rolling Stone magazine, "Brian Wilson's songs celebrated an idealized California teenhood - surfing, driving, dating - and his productions were a glossy, perfectionistic, ultra-smooth blend of guitars and vocal harmonies, with their experiments concealed." The magazine has also noted that while the Beach Boys attempted more grown-up topics and more obvious progressivism in the late '60s, they survived into the late '90s and beyond as America's premier nostalgia act.
The Beach Boys' first Capitol Records single, "Surfin' Safari," was released in June 1962 and became their first Top 40 hit. It was followed in October by a highly successful debut album of the same name. In March 1963, Capitol released the single "Surfin' U.S.A.," which became the group's first Top Ten hit. Despite the arrival of the Beatles in 1964, the Beach Boys popularity did not wane and this was a year that saw such chart topping Beach Boys songs as Fun, Fun, Fun," "When I Grow Up (To Be a Man)," and "Dance, Dance, Dance," as well as their first number one single, the gold-selling "I Get Around." At the end of 1964, Brian Wilson gave up his onstage duties and started focusing exclusively on composing and producing. The result was a string of gold albums and such sensational tunes as "Good Vibrations," "Help Me Rhonda" and "California Girls." In the late 60s, with Brian Wilson increasingly facing problems with drug abuse and depression, the band's commercial appeal began to falter. They returned to prominence in the mid-70s on a wave of nostalgia and have stayed there, albeit with line-up changes, ever since. Indeed, through the years, the Beach Boys have not only been "America's band" but arguably one of the greatest American rock bands ever, selling over 65 million records worldwide.