Beach Boys have been called America’s band, but the group began with the sunny, California sounds of surf, sand, hot rod cars, and youthful romance.
The Grand Rapids Pops celebrates endless summer with The Music of the Beach Boys on Thursday and Friday, July 28-29.
The 2016 D&W Fresh Market Picnic Pops welcomes Papa Doo Run Run back to West Michigan for a tribute to surf music of the 60s.
Papa Doo Run Run, a surf-rock band that also launched in the mid-1960s in California, later toured with Jan & Dean and spent 15 years as the celebrity house band at Disneyland.
“It isn't just the music, it's the whole attitude,” keyboardist and founding member Don Zirilli told The Grand Rapids Press prior to Papa Doo Run Run’s last appearance with the Grand Rapids Symphony at Cannonsburg Ski Area five years ago in July 2011.
Their show includes classic rock from other acts of the era along with The Beach Boys.
“People want to hear the music they grew up with,” Zirilli said. “And stuff they can sing along to.”
The group, whose members have toured with Brian Wilson and later incarnations of the Beach Boys, earned a Top 40 hit for their cover of “Be True to Your School,” plus a Gold Record and Grammy Award nomination for the 1985 recording, “California Project.”
Gates open at 5:45 p.m. for picnicking and pre-concert entertainment with Kathy LaMar and Bob VanStee at Cannonsburg Ski Area.
Meanwhile, here are 10 things about the Beach Boys that you may not know.
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The Beach Boys’ persona reflected the early 1960s southern California youth culture of romance, cars and surfing. In reality, only drummer Dennis Wilson was a surfer.
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The Beach Boys first royalty check, for their first recorded song, “Surfin,’” was for $1,000.
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The Beach Boys perform in the 1965 films “The Girls on the Beach” and “The Monkey’s Uncle,” and they made later cameo appearances on TV shows including “Full House,” “Home Improvement,” and “Baywatch.”
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The original title of the 1967 album “Smile” was “Dumb Angel.”
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While he recorded Smile, Beach Boys’ songwriter Brian Wilson had a sandbox built around his piano so that he could feel the beach beneath his feet while he composed.
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The Beach Boys, since 1961, have recorded 36 Top 40 hits in the U.S., the most by any American rock band. Four reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
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Deaf in one ear, Brian Wilson cannot hear in stereo.
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Producer Phil Spector once invited Brian Wilson to play piano on a session, but then kicked him out for his poor piano skills.
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The Beach Boys were founded by brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson along with their cousin, Mike Love, and friend, Al Jardine. Brian left the group in 1964, Dennis drowned in 1983 and Carl died of lung cancer in 1998. The band continued without a Wilson brother, fronted by Love and Bruce Johnston, a member of the group since he replaced Brian in the 1960s.
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In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked the Beach Boys No. 12 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.