I had to look at this post for awhile to figure out why "I Get Around" and "Help Me, Rhonda", just to name two #1 songs, weren't on your list. Then I realized that it wasn't because they didn't do well in LA. KHJ was still MOR, with personalities like Steve Allen. It should be noted that most acts would be very happy with the Beach Boys musical accomplishments before "California Girls".
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"Darlin'" by The Beach Boys
- Thread starter DToTheJ
- Start date
I had to look at this post for awhile to figure out why "I Get Around" and "Help Me, Rhonda", just to name two #1 songs, weren't on your list. Then I realized that it wasn't because they didn't do well in LA. KHJ was still MOR, with personalities like Steve Allen. It should be noted that most acts would be very happy with the Beach Boys musical accomplishments before "California Girls".
CTListener
Walk of Fame Participant
Nor was "Wouldn't It Be Nice." Did it get any play on KHJ or was "God Only Knows" the hit there?
Not Brian Wilson.
michael hagerty
Walk of Fame Participant
KHJ did not play "Wouldn't It Be Nice" when it was new. God only knows why (sorry, I had to).
Interestingly enough, both KFWB and KRLA went with "God Only Knows" as well, and they got on after KHJ. What's very strange is the hesitation. Nobody in L.A. jumped on "Wouldn't It Be Nice". The single had been out four weeks the week KHJ went with "God Only Knows".
CTListener
Walk of Fame Participant
Interesting. 1965 was a year in which the 10-year-old me didn't listen to a lot of music, the initial thrill of Beatlemania having worn off. So I don't know which side WBZ or WMEX (my choices in Boston) was playing then. However, I do remember "Wouldn't It Be Nice" being played as a "flashback" on WRKO and as an oldie on WODS much more than "In My Room" years later. Ditto for WDRC-FM Hartford after that, so I can only assume that "Wouldn't" was the bigger hit in New England.
michael hagerty
Walk of Fame Participant
Digging around some more....both songs had been available on the LP "Pet Sounds" since mid-May. And "God Only Knows" had been released as early as March in Australia, the UK, Holland, and Hong Kong. The ABC Top 40 stations (WABC, WLS, KQV) went on "Wouldn't It Be Nice" two weeks before the official U.S. single release date. So why would KHJ, KRLA, KFWB (and, as it turns out, KCBQ, KGB, KFRC, KYA and KYNO) all wait until August and then play "God Only Knows"?
Very strange.
Very strange.
CTListener
Walk of Fame Participant
That, of course, should read "God Only Knows." I don't want to make a confusing situation even moreso.
CTListener
Walk of Fame Participant
It would have been interesting in Boston had RKO taken WRKO Top 40 two years before it did. (In 1965, it was still WNAC, doing talk and MOR.) We might have had WMEX on "Wouldn't It Be Nice" and the RKO station on "God Only Knows" at the same time, with neither playing the other song.
This was a time of strained relations between the band and Capitol, as well as within the band itself. Brian may have preferred God Only Knows, while Wouldn't It Be Nice was a more commercial radio single. So the Capitol troops were probably pushing Nice as the national single. A few years later, the band started its own label with its own promo staff. It didn't help that musical tastes were changing at this time, and many in radio felt the band's time to have passed.
Just as the Beatles' "I'm Only Sleeping", "Dr. Robert", and "And Your Bird Can Sing" were released in the U.S. on Yesterday and Today (the grab bag LP that originally had that bloody butcher jacket") 2 months before they appeared in the Motherland on Revolver. Payback? (like the Beach Boys, the Beatles were on Capitol in the States)
ixnay
nowhereman
New Participating Member
Don't watch that "show", but LOVE the Beach Boys, especially from Today to Holland. Brian was a genius, and that he's still making music yet today after his hectic life is a testament to his greatness.
I met him in LA after his 1989 solo LP came out. He was promoting it at Tower on Sunset, and it looked to me like he'd made it out of bed for the first time in a long time that day. It was around 3:00 pm, and he looked like he was ready to go back home!
Frazzled would be an understatement, from meeting his public for a few hours.
I met him in LA after his 1989 solo LP came out. He was promoting it at Tower on Sunset, and it looked to me like he'd made it out of bed for the first time in a long time that day. It was around 3:00 pm, and he looked like he was ready to go back home!
Frazzled would be an understatement, from meeting his public for a few hours.
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