Beach Boys' Party!

Beach Boys' Party!
Studio album by
ReleasedNovember 8, 1965
RecordedSeptember 8–27, 1965
StudioWestern, Hollywood
Genre
Length31:10
LabelCapitol
ProducerBrian Wilson
The Beach Boys chronology
Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!)
(1965)
Beach Boys' Party!
(1965)
Pet Sounds
(1966)
The Beach Boys UK chronology
Little Deuce Coupe
(1965)
Beach Boys' Party
(1966)
The Beach Boys Today!
(1966)
Singles from Beach Boys' Party!
  1. "Barbara Ann"
    Released: December 20, 1965

Beach Boys' Party! is the tenth studio album by the American rock band the Beach Boys, and their third in 1965, consisting mostly of cover songs played with acoustic instruments. It reached No. 6 in the US and No. 3 in the UK. The album spawned one single, a cover of the Regents' "Barbara Ann", which reached No. 2 in the US and No. 3 in the UK, and was their highest-charting British single to that point.

Party! was recorded in a music studio and presented as an impromptu live recording of a party, with informal chatter by friends and family overdubbed later.[2] The record company, Capitol, wanted an album for the holiday season, but as there was no new material ready, several options were considered, including a greatest hits album and a live album, before the band decided on the party theme.[3][4] The Beach Boys covered songs by the Beatles, several doo-wop groups, Bob Dylan, and the Everly Brothers, as well as two of their own earlier hits performed in a tongue-in-cheek style. While the "beach party" atmospherics fit into the Beach Boys style to that point, the varied musical influences presaged the change of direction that would occur over the next several years beginning with Pet Sounds (1966).

Because of its stripped-down approach, Party! is considered to be the first "unplugged" type album.[5] In 2015, Capitol issued Beach Boys' Party! Uncovered and Unplugged, an 81-track expansion and remix of the album.

  1. ^ Unterberger 2002, p. 245.
  2. ^ Schinder 2007, p. 113.
  3. ^ Sellars, Jeff (14 Dec 2015). God Only Knows: Faith, Hope, Love, and The Beach Boys. Wipf and Stock Publishers. p. 29. ISBN 9781498207669.
  4. ^ Holcomb, Mark (2003). The Beach Boys. The Rosen Publishing Group. p. 53. ISBN 9780823936434.
  5. ^ "The Beach Boy's 1965 Album, 'Beach Boys' Party!' Remixed, Remastered And Expanded Without Overdubbed Festivities For 'Beach Boys' Party! Uncovered And Unplugged'". PR Newswire.