The Definitive 1000 Songs Of All Time 1955 to 2005: Number 560

Number 560

Beach Boys

"California Girls"

(1965)

Genre:Surf Rock

Neil, Bob, John, Jimmi, Garcia, Moon, Jones & Joplin. Thats where im at. We from that time period all had one thing in common ............ No not just drugs, we had music man. Real music. Drums and guitars and voice, not like todays jive man, its all fake and produced by the box man, the computer. We had love and peace even during war, sure 'nam was hell but we grooved with passion you know?

We had a voice, all you have is this, this web. In our day we got together and protested against injustice and all types of shit man, We smoked and fell to sleep with *Pet Sounds* & *Sgt Peppers* playing. You guys, all you do is shoot guns at a drive by after a session of Vice City and rap music. Hell dudes, you think American idol is state of the art sounds. My time was the real time, yours is just the sim city bro.

Fade out and pass the spliff~ Hippy

Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!) was a bit of a regression from the success of Today!, lapsing back into that distressing division between first-rate cuts and lightweight also-rans that characterized their pre-1965 albums. The difference is that the very best tracks were operating on a more sophisticated level than the 1962-1964 classics. "Help Me, Rhonda" was a number one single and would be their last Top 40 exercise in sheer fun for a while. More impressive was "California Girls," with its symphonic arrangement, glorious harmonies, and archetypal statement of Californian lifestyle. On the other hand, subpar efforts like "Amusement Park U.S.A." and "Salt Lake City," throwbacks to the empty-headed summer filler of previous days, will necessitate that the CD remote button remains close at hand. The covers of "The Girl From New York City" and "Then I Kissed Her" are well done but don't break new ground.

Yet a couple of cuts are among their most essential LP-only efforts. "Let Him Run Wild" is a soulful ballad with a great Brian Wilson falsetto vocal. "Girl Don't Tell Me," with its gorgeous melody, fine lead vocal debut from Carl Wilson, and subtle depiction of romantic rejection and disappointment, may be the best obscure pre-Pet Sounds Beach Boys track. [Today!/Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!), a Capitol two-fer CD, combines this and Today! onto one disc, adding alternate takes of "Dance, Dance, Dance," "I'm So Young," and "Let Him Run Wild," as well as a previously unreleased studio version of "Graduation Day." Most significantly, it also adds the non-LP single from late 1965, "The Little Girl I Once Knew," which looked forward to Pet Sounds in its studio experimentation and lyrical themes. ~ [Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide]

I know Crowbarred has talked about 3 other Beach Boys songs in his "Definitive 1000 Songs" but he was born in 1965, which in laymans terms, he doesnt know shit about real music, sure he could sing with a hairbrush in a mirror, but i was there man. So i thought, while my brain cells can, include what the other writers think of the song. Ya know man, get a cross section of the different ages & what they think. You dudes get your vote at the bottom of the page. ~ Hippy.

Hippy: 5 Stars (It made me want to go to California, but i have passport issues)

Tez: 4 Stars (Bondi have better girls)

Gazza: 1 Star (Not once do they sing about beer $!%!!@)

Jasmine: 3 Stars (I can sing to this, it reminds me of a lullabye)

Crowbarred: 5 Stars (what do you mean i don't know shit about music????)

For more Beach Boys see Number 714, 641 & 576

What does Rooling Stone think about Beach Boys?

The Beach Boys, who released their first record 30 years ago, have been living off their past for so long that it's easy to hate them for it. It hasn't helped that the heroes-and-villains saga of the group and its creative soul, Brian Wilson, is as twisted a melodrama as anything in show business, let alone rock & roll. But somehow, none of this has ever diminished the records, which remain remarkably fresh and endlessly influential. Precious few artists boast a legacy as rich as the dozens of songs written and produced by Brian Wilson between "Surfin' USA" (1963) and "Good Vibrations" (1966), a catalog that's touched musicians from the Beatles to ex-Pixie Frank Black, who recently covered "Hang On to Your Ego." A mid-'70s reissue of the hits, Endless Summer, ensured the Beach Boys a lucrative eternity as an oldies act. Good Vibrations, a five-CD set with one disc devoted to alternate takes and studio rarities, puts the hits in a broader context, capturing the group's powerful ascent and painful fall.[RS]

For the Beatles see Number 947, 894 & 587

Rolling Stone Top 500 Songs ranked this song at Number 71 the Album ranked at Number (Nah Uh, Album was a porker)

This song has a Hippy rating of 73.4 out of 108

Beach Boys - California girl (couleur)
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