The Beach Boys are an American rock band formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Distinguished by its vocal harmonies, adolescent-oriented lyrics, and musical ingenuity, the band is one of the most influential acts of the rock era. The group drew on the music of older pop vocal groups, 1950s rock and roll, and black R&B to create its unique sound. Under Brian's direction, it often incorporated classical or jazz elements and unconventional recording techniques in innovative ways.
The Beach Boys are one of the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful bands of all time, selling over 100 million records worldwide. It helped legitimize popular music as a recognized art form and influenced the development of music genres and movements such as psychedelia, power pop, progressive rock, punk, alternative, and lo-fi. Between the 1960s and 2020s, the group had 37 songs reach the U.S. Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 (the most by an American band), with four topping the chart. In 2004, the group was ranked number 12 on Rolling Stone's list of the greatest artists of all time. Many critics' polls have ranked Today! (1965), Pet Sounds (1966), Smiley Smile (1967), Sunflower (1970), Surf's Up (1971), and The Smile Sessions (2011) among the finest albums in history. The founding members were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988. Other members during the band's history have been David Marks, Bruce Johnston, Blondie Chaplin, and Ricky Fataar. (Full article...)