Sounds Of Summer: The Very Best Of The Beach Boys[Remastered]

This year marks The Beach Boys' 60th Anniversary (or, to be more precise, the 60th Anniversary of their initial signing with Capitol, which was the start of what I suppose could be considered their "real" career). For this special occasion, the 2003 single-CD compilation Sounds Of Summer has been remastered, updated and expanded to 3 CDs, with many "new" 2021 mixes (most of them on the first CD, which contains the songs that appeared on the original Sounds release but replaces many of the mixes with the "new" ones). Although this set will surely have (and probably has) critics, I personally find it to be a great set. I'd say it's definitely better than the 2-disc 50 Big Ones comp that was released in 2012 to commemorate the group's 50th Anniversary (although I do like that one). But none of this is to say that I don't think this set has any flaws; while I think it certainly has its positives, I also think it has some negatives. Below are my perceived pros and cons with the set.PROS:-- Great song selection, including most of the songs that became hits, as well as lots of non-hit single sides and album-only songs. I only counted four "missing hits" here: "Little Saint Nick," "The Little Girl I Once Knew," "Caroline, No" (which was released as a Brian Wilson solo single), and the super-elusive "Beach Boys Medley."-- Very satisfactory overall sound quality, at least to my ears. (I'm sure that probably at least some people will have, and do have, issues with it.)-- Almost all of the tracks are in stereo. (Since I personally prefer stereo to mono [usually], I consider this to be a plus.) The only mono track on the entire set is "Be True To Your School" (which is the single version).-- We get to hear "I Get Around," "Help Me, Rhonda," and "Good Vibrations" in stereo mixes that (at least to my ears) really SOUND like stereo, and not in the "stereo extraction mixes" that we were given on the 2012 reissues of the albums that have those songs on them! Even "Surfin' Safari" is in stereo, which is kinda cool, although I think I actually prefer the usual mono mix of that one!-- With 80 tracks and a better booklet than the one that came with 50 Big Ones (although this booklet doesn't give the chart positions for any of the songs), this set seems more "definitive" than 50 Big Ones.CONS:-- As with just about any compilation, people are bound to have favorite songs that weren't included. One song that I particularly miss is "California Dreamin'." (This set has "California" everything else --- "California Girls," "California Saga," and "California Feelin'" --- but they didn't see fit to include "California Dreamin''? Come on!) I would also have liked to hear "Break Away," preferably in its "original" stereo mix. (50 Big Ones didn't include "California Dreamin'" or "Break Away," either!)-- As with 50 Big Ones (and other BB comps), some of the stereo remixes from after the year 2000 work better than others. I wouldn't say any of them sound "bad," though.-- Also as with 50 Big Ones, the tracks appear in a very weird, non-chronological order.-- There are no tracks from after '88, which means there are no songs from the group's 2012 reunion --- which means that none of their most recent recordings are here. (It also means there are no songs from the early-'90s album Summer In Paradise; NONE of those tracks have EVER appeared anywhere else since that album as far as I know!)-- I REALLY don't like the design of the digipak. I don't really like "slipcase"-type digipaks in general, as it's hard if not impossible to get the discs out of them without touching the playing side. At some point I'm going to get cases to put the CDs here in.As you can see, there are equal numbers of pros and cons in my lists. None of the cons are enough to bother me too much (the digipak one will be easy enough to overcome). I think this set was well worth it. Yes, it is another BB compilation (that is "based" on a previous one, no less). But I have to say that I think it's one of the best ones I've seen (and heard) --- a vast improvement over 50 Big Ones!

Perfect flash back to summers in the 60's.

30 must have hits

Beware! I’m prejudiced in favor of The Beach Boys- One of my pop favorites.That said, if you like The Beach Boys’ music and are looking for one essential volume at a budget price - this is it.

Great CD

As with all Beach Boys fans I was elated when I found out that this 3-CD remastered and expanded edition of the original "Sounds Of Summer" was to be released. This is the age of re-releasing classic albums from the last 40 to 60 years from almost every successful recording artist that has had an impact on Popular music in every genre and sub-genre one can think of. Also new box sets of artist's entire careers are released seemingly every month (with some, including The Beach Boys, surpassing previous box sets that are now 20 to 30 years old). Entire catalogues have been remastered, some with greater sound improvements than others. The Beach Boys are no exception to this renaissance of (trying) to improve on their marvelous, recorded history. I gave this new edition of "Sounds Of Summer" 4 stars. The reason I did not give it 5 stars is because, sadly, very few retrospective releases of any recording artist's work hit the proverbial "nail on the head", sort of speak, as to getting it right. There's always something that could or should have been done to make it better. Overall, the new "Sounds Of Summer" is an excellent retrospect of The Beach Boys career. However, there are a few quibbles about this release that deal with both sonic quality or "remastering" and track selection. First, the remastering. Remastering previously recorded music is a tricky proposition. It all comes down to how the music was originally recorded in the first place and what sources the remastering sound engineer has to work with (along with the experience and knowledge of the sound engineer him/herself). For some artists this has been a no brainer for remastering their catalogues. The Beatles and Pink Floyd are prime examples of their music having been recorded exceptionally well in the first place and then remastered years later with highly praised success. The Beach Boys' music always sounded great, sonically, from their early singles and albums through "Pet Sounds" and beyond. This no doubt is attributed to Brian Wilson's exceptional productions and his knack for experimentation and finding different sounds to expand on and also having the best sound engineers that Capitol Records could assign to the recordings. I don't think I've ever heard a "bad" Beach Boy song sonically speaking. Yes, there was always the mono versus stereo comparisons and arguments as to which is better but that is just a matter of preference really (as was The Beatles catalogue; mono or stereo). Wilson always preferred the mono mixes whereas Capitol wanted the stereo mixes. Anyway, with this release almost every track are the stereo versions with a few exceptions. The problem I find with this release (as well with a lot of other "remastered" releases in recent years) is that the remastering has gone overboard. By that I mean the volume levels are always maxed out leaving no room for subtle volume changes and giving the music space to "breathe". On many tracks there is also too much bass. Together with the maxed volume level this causes lousy distorted sound on any average stereo home system. Not all of the music buying public have stereo systems costing thousands of dollars that would interpret the music that is digitally embedded in the cds the same way as the state-of-the-art audio equipment that the remastering engineers use and hear back on when they remaster music. The simplest and most famous example I could give is the story of legendary producer Phil Spector when getting the "sound" he wanted would play a song back on cheap speakers similar to what would be inside of cars that would be playing what is heard on the radio. He wanted to make sure the sound would be correct when the masses heard it on THEIR sound systems. And he was right! Some tracks on this release suffer from over-remastering (a term that I have coined). In particular "Do You Wanna Dance" hits the volume ceiling and with too much bass, ruining Wilson's original production sound. Then, oddly enough, "Dance, Dance, Dance", which was from the same sessions from the "BBs Today" album, sounds more closer to the original production sound. "California Girls" is another track that suffers from over-remastering. The versions of these tracks in the 1993 "Beach Boys Good Vibrations" box set sound much better, IMHO, without all this maxed volume, bass obsession. These are glaring examples but there are a few others scattered about on the 3 cds. Now, track selection. Again, track selection for retrospective releases are always a sticky subject. It can make or break the intention of giving a fair yet introspective and interesting overview of any artist's career. Fortunately, I can say that this release does give a very good selection of Beach Boys tracks. But, there are a few quibbles here. Some tracks I am baffled as to why they were NOT included such as "Catch A Wave", "Please Let Me Wonder", "You Still Believe In Me", "God Only Knows", "Surf's Up" (the beautiful and haunting Brian Wilson solo demo version that was on the 1993 box set) and absolutely no tracks from 2012's critically acclaimed "That's Why God Made The Radio" album (on The BBs 50th anniversary). Instead, nonsense tracks like "Do You Like Worms?" and "Vegetables" (from the aborted "Smile" album) are here. There is, however, a very good sampling of tracks taken from the band's post "Holland" era that give a fair and interesting overview of the band's sometimes misguided and troublesome period. Also, the songs are presented in a somewhat mixed order, not in order of recording / release dates (which I prefer but it does depend on the artist; sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't). Overall though it is an interesting mix of all the Beach Boys periods (minus the 2012 "God Radio" album as mentioned). And for the money it is a fair price for the 3-cd set that also includes a well written booklet with info on every track. So, in the end, I'm sure that any casual or loyal Beah Boys fan would enjoy this release.

The vinyl was shipped carefully, sounds good,

The media could not be loaded.  I’m a diehard beach boys fan so if your only used to their greatest hits then this is for you!

Les grands succes des Beach boys

Lo bueno:- Excelentes remezclas- La selección de tracks- Excelente presentación y materiales (vinilo y funda)- Lado A y D carecen totalmente de "inner groove distortion". Lado B y C tienen apenas muy pocoLo malo:- Bajo volume- Nivel de graves excesivo- El orden de los tracks es maloEn general le doy un 8. Las mezclas recientes son muy buenas pero el nivel de graves excesivo está en todas las canciones por lo que tendrás que modular bien tu equipo para que no te retumbe toda la casa.Con respecto al orden de las canciones, el disco 1 será para muchos, como en mi caso, el que más se reproduzca en comparación al disco 2. Le faltó equilibrio en ese aspecto.A pesar de ser de masters digitales tiene un excelente sonido y es la mejor opción ante otros recopilatorios de la época muy malos con mezclas en "fake stereo" o "duofónico".

La magia della musica 🎶 dei The Beach Boys in tutte le sue sfumature lungo un viaggio senza tempo nell'estate della vita.

Deze verzamelaar is tamelijk compleet. Je krijgt veel nummers voor relatief weinig geld. Toch zijn er ook minputen:- De nummers Then I Kissed Her, Tears in the Morning, Breakaway en Surfin' ontbreken.- De verpakking is waardeloos. De cd's zijn er moeilijk uit te krijgen en twee schijfjes waren zelfs vastgelijmd.- De nummers staan niet op chronologische volgorde.

Ok