I Get Around by The Beach Boys

I Get Around

1964

The Beach Boys

The first Beach Boys hit to snag the top spot on the Hot 100 got there because Brian Wilson and his dad/band manager Murray Wilson were tired of playing second fiddle on the U.S. Charts. Or actually, third, or forth fiddle. Oh, they'd managed to get songs into the Top 10, but none had made it past #3. The likes of The Beatles, The Four Seasons, and Jan and Dean (Jan and Dean, BTW, snagged the top spot with Surf City...a song written by Brian Wilson) kept crowding them out of that coveted #1.

So Brian Wilson and Mike Love set out to correct this, penning a song that many fans and music critics alike consider to be their best work. The instrumentals and vocals were recorded in two different sessions a week or so apart...I know, that's not unusual at all when recording music, but there's a reason I'm mentioning this, and that reason is Dadager Murray. If you've read my post about Fun Fun Fun, you know that The Beach boys perpetuated some highly uncomfortable Dinnertimes at the Wilson Household by letting him go...Murray Wilson was an extremely conservative, extremely controlling sort of dude who did not think that The Beach Boys' music...particularly 'Fun Fun Fun'...was at all appropriate. (Really?? If he thought 'Fun Fun Fun',was inappropriate, he'd have probably had a freakin' stroke over a certain Miss Cyrus' 2013 VMA performance).

The clash between his conservatism and the bands creativity and music apparently came to a head during the instrumental recording session on April 2^nd , 1964, and Brian (Who was the song's producer) basically fired his dad as the band's manager. (Bet that was an interestin' conversation!)

Modern media has always affected music, and TV was as modern as it got back in '63. Seems a cat named Dick Clark had a little TeeVee show he (And a few million weekly viewers, most of them music-loving teens) liked to call American Bandstand. And on April 18^th '64, The Beach Boys appeared on that iconically classic show to perform their as of yet unreleased, unheard new single. Capitol Records released it on May 23^rd, '64, and from the first time Mike Love belted out 'Round round, round round, I get around...' the kids went wild for it. The Beach Boys were already popular, and new singles were as anticipated then as they are now, maybe even more so as there wasn't any Internet back then (And wouldn't be for about 30 years) so if you wanted to sample pending new releases you had to either hope it got some radio airplay or go to an ancient emporium called a 'Record Store'

This 'Build The Anticipation' tactic worked for The Beach boys, and Capitol Records, in a big way. Capitol Released the single (With 'Don't Worry Baby' on the 'B' side) on May 23^rd '64, and three weeks later it cracked the Top Ten on the Billboard Hot 100, then finally snagged the coveted '#1' spot for The 'Boys just in time for fireworks and such, on the 4^th of July. It stayed at #1 for two weeks, then dropped down two notches to hang around the #3 spot for two more weeks, then spent two more weeks on the top 10 before fading in to the big number end of the Hot 100, finally dropping off the chart at the end of August for a 15 week chart run...two of 'em at #1 and nine of 'em in the Top Ten.

Many people really have no clue just how much the Beach Boys influenced modern Rock and Pop music. They were a huge influence on The Beatles (Even as The Beatles denied them that elusive #1 spot.) Not necessarily the lyrics...The Beach Boys' lyrics were always fairly simplistic, especially their early songs, and this was fine, because Beach Boys music was written to do one basic thing...be uber-fun to listen to, sing along with, and dance to, and it did that well. But the instrumentals...thats' where the 'Boys were way ahead of their time. Ever heard of fuzzed guitar, and reverb? If you're deeply into music, of course you have. Both are as much a part of Rock music as cup-holders are a part of a modern car. Wanna make a guess on what band was the first to use it? If ya guessed The Beach boys, you're absolutely correct.

They very subtly included both effects in I Get Around, at least three years before the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and Keith Richards made it an industry standard. Speaking of Industry Standards and icons, a certain Alice Cooper considers The Beach Boys to be his favorite band. He is a huge Sixties Pop fan, with The Beach boys being his favorite band from that era, and this here very song being his fave of the bunch. 
 
Alice Cooper's just way up on the list of those who consider I Get Around to be their favorite song. I Get Around was a classic from the instant it was released (The Beach boys had a knack for doing that) and it's still greatly loved by the now aging Baby boomers who were teens back in April '64. It's one of those songs that brings back memories (Just as the hits of The Seventies do for us Seventies Kids) and it lives on at every Oldies station in America. Trust me, listen to any Oldies Station for a day or so and you'll hear Mike Love belt out 'Get Around Get Around I Get Around' at least a couple of times!

So Enjoy 'I Get Around, by The Beach Boys

A couple of bonuses for this one! First, The Beach Boys performing 'I Get Around' live on 'The T.A.M.I. Show at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium on October 28^th, 1964. (Back in the day, BTW, bands typically used a venues sound system, such as it was, rather than high-end sound equipment such as was found in s studio, and it really shows here...note the way Dennis Wilson's drums all but totally wash out both Al Jardine and Carl Wilson's guitars)

ANd the second Bonus, the Red Hot Chili Peppers covered 'I Get Around a few years back at the Musicares tribuute to Brian Wilson...they did a pretty decent job with it, but The Beach Boys still own it!