Beach Boys: California Icons

The Beach Boys are synonymous with California.  The sound of surf, sand and summer lives on in perpetual Californiality.

One of the greatest rock bands in world history, the Beach Boys are the original California ambassadors to the world, responsible for embedding the Golden State into humanity's imagination --- and keeping it there.

Officially recognized by Billboard as "The #1 Selling American Band Of All Time", the Beach Boys have cruised the Hot 100 chart a whopping 56 times.  The group has had more Top 40 hits than any other U.S. rock band, and they have hit the #1 position on the charts repeatedly.

The Beach Boys played their first paid gig on New Year's Eve in 1961 as a supporting act for headliners Ike and Tina Turner before a packed audience of African-American teenagers.

That concert was one of the hottest tickets in the history of music for those lucky enough to have been there. 

Where else could a bunch of white kids singing about surfing gain instant support from an all-black audience?  Only in California, the capitol of racial and cultural diversity.  Ironic, too, is that Tina Turner went on to enjoy her greatest success as a rock singer supported by white audiences.

Before he became a superstar in his own right, Glen Campbell was a Beach Boy in 1964 and 1965.  Funny, isn't it?  The legendary 'Rhinestone Cowboy' was one of the Beach Boys?  Stranger still, is that Toni Tennille (Captain & Tennille) sang for a brief time as the only Beach Girl in the group.

In one of the biggest events in U.S. history, the Beach Boys played before a record breaking audience of 750,000 fans at the National Mall in Washington, DC.

Ronald Reagan, Nancy Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Barbara Bush cheered along as fans at the historic '80s event which was recorded by the Guinness Book of World Records.

It's mind-blowing to think that a quarter million people showed up at the U.S. Capitol to hear songs about California performed by some guys from an L.A. suburb.  Talk about a California Dream come true!

I have been a Beach Boys fan all my life, so it was a great moment for me to have played their biggest hit ever, "Kokomo", for the first time at a Southern California radio station I worked at in 1988.  I knew it would be gigantic.

The monster #1 single was co-written by John Phillips of The Mamas and The Papas, "San Francisco" singer Scott McKenzie, and legendary record producer Terry Melcher, the son of superstar Doris Day.

It just doesn't get anymore 'California' than that.

Brian Wilson, the chief songwriter, producer, arranger, composer and leader of the Beach Boys is called "one of the few undisputed geniuses in popular music" by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  That is an understatement.

When it comes to positive California vibrations, nobody beats the Beach Boys.  The biggest group in California history has made the Golden State more golden, more fun, and more famous than it ever was before. 

Every day is a carefree summer day anytime and anywhere a Beach Boys song plays on earth.