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. 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. 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. In 2015, Capitol issued Beach Boys' Party! Uncovered and Unplugged, an 81-track expansion and remix of the album.

Background and recording

In August, after the release of Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!), the Beach Boys' leader Brian Wilson was contemplating his next studio effort, which would turn out to be Pet Sounds. Capitol Records requested a new album for the holiday season. Since The Beach Boys' Christmas Album had been released the previous year, as had a live performance via Beach Boys Concert, the "live party" idea was selected to reflect the togetherness of the holiday spirit. Sporadically during September, the band and their friends rehearsed current and older hits (including revisiting the Rivingtons' "Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow"). Although presented as an impromptu live recording of a continuous set of songs played at a small party, the songs were recorded and mixed individually in a sound studio as any regular studio album, and laughter and background chatter was mixed in during post-production. Music theorist Daniel Harrison wrote: "Party was an exercise in minimalistic production. ... The performances seem unrehearsed, the instrumental support is minimal (acoustical [sic] guitar, bongo drums, tambourine), and fooling around (laughing, affected singing, background conversation) pervades every track." It was Wilson's first exploration in "party tracks", a form of music which includes the sounds of people shouting and making noises as if at a party. He would continue this approach with Smiley Smile in 1967. A friend of the group, Tony Rivers, revealed the true nature of the 'party' atmosphere to Record Mirror, who reported on it in March 1966. Rivers explained: "It's a joke record, they did it for a laugh. ... They had people talking and banging glasses together in the background so people'd think it was at a party." Rivers also commented on the deliberately out of tune singing. In order to promote the album, Capitol distributed to dealers a million bags of potato chips which bore the album's cover art, intended to be given away to record buyers for free. The label also coordinated a motion floor merchandiser containing five Beach Boys LPs, full-color streamers for window displays, and full-scale radio and newspaper advertising.

Reception

Billboard evaluated that Party! would have strong sales potential: "The boys have a ball performing in this intimate, ad-lib program of hot material. ... [an] exciting, discotheque package."

In November 1965, the Beach Boys released the non-album single "The Little Girl I Once Knew" which repeatedly used a measure of silence in the arrangement and was reportedly disliked by radio programmers owing to their avoidance of having "dead air"; this has been cited as being partially responsible for the single stalling at US number 20. Still wanting to play new material by the band, radio disc jockeys around the United States began playing the last track of Party! straight off the LP, a cover of The Regents' "Barbara Ann". It received good listener response and was issued as a single by Capitol when they started hearing from radio programmers; it became a number 2 hit in early 1966.

In 2020, Phoenix New Times included it in a list of "12 'Live' Albums That Are Anything But"; contributor Serene Dominic reinforced that although Beach Boys' Party! invented the "unplugged" live album, it was merely a fabrication as the album actually contains a fake party where "[every] potato chip crunch and even the mistakes were carefully rehearsed for the best fidelity." The Canadian band Sloan's album Recorded Live at a Sloan Party (1997) was inspired by Beach Boys' Party! and features a similarly staged 'party' setup.

Alternative releases

In 1990, Beach Boys' Party! was paired on CD with Stack-o-Tracks, a 1968 album of instrumental mixes of Beach Boys tracks. The bonus tracks for this CD were instrumental mixes of "Help Me, Rhonda", "California Girls", and "Our Car Club".

On November 20, 2015, Capitol issued an 81-track expanded remix, Beach Boys' Party! Uncovered and Unplugged, containing the original album without overdubs followed by a selection of outtakes culled from the album's original five recording sessions.

The Beach Boys

  • Al Jardine – vocals, acoustic 6- and 12-string guitars, ashtray
  • Bruce Johnston – vocals, electric bass
  • Mike Love – vocals
  • Brian Wilson – vocals, bass, piano, bongos
  • Carl Wilson – vocals, acoustic 6- and 12-string guitars, bass
  • Dennis Wilson – vocals, bongos, castanet, harmonica

Guests

  • Hal Blaine – bongos
  • Ray Avery – bongos
  • Steve Korthof – bongos, tambourine
  • Ron Swallow – tambourine
  • Terry Melcher – tambourine
  • Billy Hinsche – harmonica on "Mountain Of Love"
  • Dean Torrence – co-lead vocal on "Barbara Ann"
  • Marilyn Wilson – vocals

Charts

{|class="wikitable"

|-

!Year

!Chart

!Position

|-

|1965

|align="left"|German Albums Chart

| style="text-align:center;"|4

|-

| 1966

| UK Top 40 Albums

| style="text-align:center;"|3

|-

| 1966

| US Billboard 200

| style="text-align:center;"|6

|}

Chart information courtesy of Allmusic and other music databases.

Notes

References

;Sources

  • Beach Boys' Party! Uncovered and Unplugged liner notes.