20/20 is the fifteenth studio album by the American rock band the Beach Boys, released February 10, 1969, on Capitol Records. The LP was named for being their 20th overall release when factoring in live albums and compilations. Much of 20/20 consists of outtakes from earlier albums. It reached number 3 on UK record charts and number 68 in the U.S. Brian Wilson was absent during some of the album's recording after admitting himself into a psychiatric hospital - and less active in the group in general - requiring brothers Carl and Dennis to retrieve several outtakes he had recorded years earlier. While Brian does not appear on the front cover, the inner gatefold of the original vinyl release features him alone, behind an eye examination chart.

The singles "Do It Again" and "Bluebirds over the Mountain" preceded the album's release by several months. The former was the band's first attempt at revisiting the surf sound they had abandoned since All Summer Long, topping UK and Australian charts, and the latter contained the B-side "Never Learn Not to Love", based on a song by Charles Manson. The other singles were "I Can Hear Music" and a rerecorded version of "Cotton Fields". In 2018, session highlights, outtakes, and alternate takes were released for the compilation I Can Hear Music: The 20/20 Sessions.

Background

On June 24, 1968, the Beach Boys released the album Friends, which peaked at number 126 and remained on the Billboard Top LPs chart for 10 weeks. It became the group's worst-selling album to date, with record sales in the US estimated at 18,000 units. To recuperate from the album's poor sales, the band quickly released the standalone single "Do It Again". The song was a deliberate throwback to the group's early surf songs, and the first time they had embraced the subject matter since 1964. It reached the US top twenty and became their second number one hit in the UK. Biographer Chrisian Matijas-Mecca wrote that "while this may have been some of Brian's strongest work of the period, it did nothing to reverse the band's decline in popularity."

Brian Wilson said that by early 1968, the group had begun losing thousands of dollars "on stupid things ... cars, houses ... bad investments ... a heck of a lot of corporation money on Brother Records, our own company, and in boosting other artists who just didn't make it, and didn't have a single hit." One of these artists was Ron Wilson (no relation to Brian), who co-wrote "We're Together Again" with him for the Beach Boys, but the group's recording was left unreleased. In turn, Brian produced an ultimately unsuccessful solo single for Ron, a cover of "As Tears Go By", which was released by Columbia Records in September. Another artist that the group worked with was ex-convict Charles Manson, who was then seeking a career as a singer-songwriter. Dennis Wilson befriended Manson and was interested in signing him to Brother Records. Brian and Carl Wilson then co-produced several tracks for Manson at the Beach Boys' private studio located in Brian's home.

thumb|left|The Beach Boys at a 1968 photoshoot. From left: [[Dennis Wilson, Mike Love, Carl Wilson (back), Al Jardine (front), and Bruce Johnston. Brian Wilson not pictured.]]

Over the summer of 1968, Brian attempted to record an arrangement of the 1927 show tune "Ol' Man River". According to music writer Brian Chidester, the session tapes "reveal Wilson conducting the Beach Boys to such extreme perfectionism that both he and the band seem at the end of their rope with one another". Regarding Brian's participation on the group's recordings from then, band engineer Stephen Desper said that Brian remained "indirectly involved with production" through Carl. Dennis said that Brian began to have "no involvement at all", which forced the group to "find things that [he] worked on and try and piece it together."

Lead single "Bluebirds over the Mountain" (backed with "Never Learn Not to Love") was issued on November 29, 1968, in the UK (number 33) and three days later in the U.S. (number 61), becoming the group's lowest-charting single since their 1961 debut "Surfin'". After touring the UK in December, the Beach Boys returned to the studio to work on the album that would become Sunflower (1970).

Released on February 10, 1969, 20/20 sold better than Friends, peaking at number 3 in the UK and reaching number 68 in the US. An uncredited writer from Hit Parader opined that it was the band's best album since Pet Sounds and an improvement over the "baffling" Friends and Wild Honey. A reviewer for the underground paper Rat Subterranean News commented that even though it was "against all my carefully established principles to like The Beach Boys," he enjoyed the LP, yet described most of side one as "weak".

In August, Charles Manson and his cult of followers committed the Tate–LaBianca murders, and three months later, were apprehended by police. Their former connections with Dennis and the Beach Boys became the subject of media attention. Manson was later convicted for several counts of murder and conspiracy to murder. During the trial, Manson released his debut album, Lie: The Love and Terror Cult, which included his original arrangement of "Cease to Exist".

Among retrospective assessments of 20/20, critic Richie Unterberger wrote that it was "one of their better post-Pet Sounds records ... The highlights, however, were a couple of Smile-session-era tunes ... as hard as they were trying to establish their identity as an integrated band in the late '60s, their new recordings were overshadowed by the bits and pieces of Smile that emerged at the time."

Track listing

Producer credits are as noted on the original vinyl disc. Charles Manson's contributions to "Never Learn Not to Love" remain uncredited.

Original vinyl

Friends / 20/20 1990/2001 CD reissue bonus tracks

I Can Hear Music

On December 7, 2018, Capitol released I Can Hear Music: The 20/20 Sessions, a digital-only compilation. Included are session highlights, outtakes, and alternate versions of 20/20 tracks, as well as some unreleased material by Dennis Wilson. It was released in conjunction with Wake the World: The Friends Sessions. The compilations were not issued on physical media due to the project being greenlit too late into the year, as well as the record company's wish not to interfere with the release of The Beach Boys with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2021, I Can Hear Music was followed with Feel Flows: The Sunflower and Surf's Up Sessions.

Personnel

Per Craig Slowinski, and 20/20 liner notes.

The Beach Boys

  • Al Jardine – vocals, acoustic guitar, electric rhythm guitar, banjo, handclaps; producer
  • Bruce Johnston – vocals, organ, handclaps, piano, Fender Rhodes; producer
  • Mike Love – vocals, handclaps
  • Brian Wilson – vocals, piano, organ, Chamberlin, harpsichord, Fender Rhodes, handclaps; producer
  • Carl Wilson – vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass, handclaps, congas; tambourine (uncertain credit); producer
  • Dennis Wilson – vocals, drums, handclaps, piano; producer

Touring musicians

  • Ed Carter – guitar, bass
  • Daryl Dragon – marimba, vibraphone
  • Mike Kowalski – bongos, sleigh bells, snare drum

Guests

  • Marilyn Wilson – additional vocals on "Time to Get Alone"
  • Diane Rovell – additional vocals on "Time to Get Alone"
  • Van Dyke Parks – upright piano on "Cabinessence"
  • Danny Hutton - piano on "Time to Get Alone"

Additional session musicians

  • Chuck Berghofer – upright bass
  • Hal Blaine – drums
  • Samuel Boghossian – viola
  • Jimmy Bond – upright bass
  • David Burk – viola
  • James Burton – dobro
  • Roy Caton – trumpet
  • Pete Christlieb – tenor saxophone
  • Alf Clausen – French horn
  • Jack Coan – cornet
  • David Cohen – guitar
  • Jesse Ehrlich – cello
  • Alan Estes – percussion
  • Virgil Evans – trumpet
  • Carl Fortina – accordion
  • Jim Gordon – drums, timbales, tambourine with a stick, "bell goodies"
  • John Guerin – drums, woodblock, tambourine, sleigh bells
  • Igor Horoshevsky – cello
  • Armond Kaproff – cello
  • Carol Kaye – bass, banjo
  • Raymond Kelley – cello
  • Larry Knechtel – bass
  • Fred Koyan – trumpet
  • Willie Maiden – baritone saxophone
  • Leonard Malarsky – violin
  • Dick McQuary – baritone saxophone
  • Jay Migliori – flute
  • Oliver Mitchell – trumpet
  • Tommy Morgan – harmonica, bass harmonica
  • Roger Neumann – piccolo, flute, fife, tenor saxophone
  • John Lowe – bass saxophone
  • Glenn Lutz – trumpet
  • Don Peake – guitar, electric bass, percussion
  • Bill Peterson – trumpet
  • Bill Pitman – Danelectro fuzz bass
  • Mike Price – trumpet
  • Don Randi – piano, organ
  • Joe Randozzo – bass trombone
  • Lyle Ritz – upright bass
  • Frank De La Rosa – upright bass
  • Ernie Small – flute, bass saxophone
  • Wally Snow – vibraphone
  • Spiro Stamos – violin
  • Darrel Terwillger – violin
  • Tommy Tedesco – acoustic guitar, bouzouki
  • Al Vescovo – dobro
  • John de Voogt – violin

Technical personnel

  • Steve Desper – engineer
  • Ed Simpson – photos

Charts

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!Chart

!Position

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| Dutch Album Chart

| style="text-align:center;"|20

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| UK Top 40 Albums