Endless Summer (The Beach Boys album)

Endless Summer
Greatest hits album by
ReleasedJune 24, 1974 (1974-06-24)
RecordedApril 1962 (1962-04)–June 1965 (1965-06)
GenreSurf rock
Length46:21
LabelCapitol
ProducerBrian Wilson, Nick Venet
The Beach Boys chronology
The Beach Boys in Concert
(1973)
Endless Summer
(1974)
Spirit of America
(1975)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music[2]
MusicHound4/5[3]
Rolling Stone[4]

Endless Summer is a compilation album by American rock band the Beach Boys, released on June 24, 1974. A collection of hits from the band's 1962–65 period, Endless Summer was compiled by their old label, Capitol Records, following the success of the film American Graffiti, in which several songs were featured. It revitalized the band's popularity after years of lukewarm sales, but also inspired nostalgia for the Beach Boys' early surfing and hot rod-themed music, repositioning the group as an oldies act.

Four months after its release, the album reached number 1 in the United States and Canada. It was the group's second chart-topping album in the US and returned them to a level of commercial success they had not experienced since the mid-1960s. The compilation spent 155 weeks on the Billboard albums chart and was certified 3× platinum by the RIAA for shipping over three million copies. Capitol released a second themed compilation in 1975 titled Spirit of America, which also sold well.

The album was included in Robert Christgau's "Basic Record Library" of 1950s and 1960s recordings, published in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981).[5] It was voted number 972 in the third edition of Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums (2000).[6]

  1. ^ Eder, Bruce. Endless Summer at AllMusic
  2. ^ Larkin, Colin, ed. (2006). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (4th ed.). London: Oxford University Press. p. 479. ISBN 978-0-19-531373-4.
  3. ^ Graff, Gary; Durchholz, Daniel, eds. (1999). MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide. Farmington Hills, MI: Visible Ink Press. p. 84. ISBN 1-57859-061-2.
  4. ^ "The Beach Boys: Album Guide | Rolling Stone Music". Rolling Stone. 2004. Archived from the original on May 16, 2012. Retrieved January 20, 2012.
  5. ^ Christgau, Robert (1981). "A Basic Record Library: The Fifties and Sixties". Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies. Ticknor & Fields. ISBN 0899190251. Retrieved March 16, 2019 – via robertchristgau.com.
  6. ^ Colin Larkin, ed. (2006). All Time Top 1000 Albums (3rd ed.). Virgin Books. p. 293. ISBN 0-7535-0493-6.