The story of ‘Endless Summer’, the only Beach Boys studio album to hit #1

The Beach Boys mastermind Brian Wilson has died at age 82. Despite their legendary career, The Beach Boys only topped the album charts twice: in 1964 with their live album Beach Boys Concert and in 1974 with the greatest hits compilation Endless Summer. But in addition to topping the charts, that album became the gateway for a whole new generation of fans to discover the group’s music.

The Beach Boys were a successful touring act in the early 1970s, though they hadn’t had a top-10 hit since 1966. But in 1973, something happened to change that: the movie American Graffiti. The soundtrack of the George Lucas film, set in 1962, was stuffed with oldies like the Beach Boys’ “Surfin’ Safari.” It was a hit, so The Beach Boys’ former label decided to cash in.

“Capitol realized that they were sitting on gold, especially after the success the year before of the Beatles’ Red and Blue album collection,” Beach Boys archivist and creative consultant Howie Edelson tells ABC Audio. “Massive hits, massive earnings for the label – with very little effort.”

So Endless Summer – named by The Beach Boys’ Mike Love – rode a wave of nostalgia to the top of the charts.

“It’s the exact same reason why Happy Days was a hit. People were looking back to a simpler time – the Eisenhower–Kennedy era, when everything was on an upswing,” Edelson says. “Teenagers want to be happy. They want to be free. And what better music than Endless Summer?”

But there was another reason why Endless Summer was a hit: There were plenty of music fans who had not experienced The Beach Boys the first time around.

“The Beach Boys never made the jump to FM. That music had been lost to radio,” notes Edelson. “And by being invisible on the airwaves for those years, once this album came out, it was all new to a whole new generation that had been starved of it.”

Endless Summer spent 155 weeks on the Billboard album chart and sold 3 million copies. It’s now considered to be the best introduction to the music of The Beach Boys – and the brilliance of Brian Wilson.

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