Meet the Beatles!

Nothing could make the music on this album obsolete. The infectious charm of songs like "I Want to Hold Your Hand," "I Saw Her Standing There," "It Won't Be Long," and "All My Loving" still weave their magic which, if less potent in an age jaded by a generation of musicians who had the benefit of the Beatles' songbook tucked underneath their arms, still carries an aura around it -- just as the first moon landing will never be eclipsed by subsequent forays into space.

Introducing... The Beatles

Introducing...The Beatles is the first Beatles album released in the United States. Originally scheduled for a July 1963 release, the album came out on January 10, 1964 on Vee-Jay Records, ten days before Capitol's Meet the Beatles!. It was the subject of much legal wrangling, but ultimately, Vee-Jay were permitted to sell the album until late 1964, by which time it had sold more than 1.3 million copies. Huge controversy surrounds the legibility and legality of this album. Versions differ as covers and song selections changed. (I have the second version).

Classics Selected by Brian Wilson

Apart from "I Get Around," there isn't much of the fun-in-the-sun rockers, but a lot of lush, warm ballads and a lot of highlights from his mid- to late-'60s peak. it's a good, entertaining listen, but just don't think this is any more distinctive than the average Beach Boys compilation -- it just happens to be one of the better ones.

The Greatest Hits – Volume 1: 20 Good Vibrations

What is here qualifies as a top-notch introduction for a casual fan of the Beach Boys-twenty of their greatest hits.

Endless Summer

This was the album by which millions of sons of late baby boomers (and sons and daughters of the early ones) first really discovered the Beach Boys , beyond hearing the occasional oldie on the radio. An essential for every collection.

Friends

Released when Cream and Jimi Hendrix were at their apex, the low-key pleasantries of Friends seemed downright irrelevant in mid-1968. Today it sounds better, but it's certainly one of the group's more minor efforts, as the members started to divide the songwriting more or less evenly among themselves.

Pet Sounds

Recognized as one of the most influential records in the history of popular music and one of the best albums of the 1960s. Inspired by the Beatles' 1965 release, Rubber Soul, Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys wanted to create the "greatest record ever". The result was Pet Sounds (1966), where Wilson's growing mastery of studio recording and his increasingly sophisticated songs and complex arrangements would reach a creative peak. Influenced by psychedelic drugs, Brian Wilson turned his attention inward and probe his deep-seated self-doubts and emotional longings. The album's meticulously layered harmonies and inventive instrumentation set a new standard for pop and rock music. Wilson was a pioneer of the 'studio as instrument' concept, exploiting novel combinations of sounds that sprang from the use of multiple electric instruments and voices in an ensemble and combining them with echo and reverberation. He often doubled bass, guitar and keyboard parts, blending them with reverberation and adding other unusual instruments.