THE Beach Boys are ba-ba-ba-back to enjoy another endless summer of popularity.
Forty years after the release of the brilliant “Pet Sounds,” the ’60s pop group is back on the charts with a hit single, while the album itself, repackaged and now available digitally, hit No. 8 on the Pop Catalog charts and debuted in iTunes’ Top 100.
The theremin-heavy “Good Vibrations,” one of the album’s many hit singles, reached No. 16 on the singles charts, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
“The Beach Boys have an evergreen appeal,” says Billboard charts guru Geoff Mayfield. “Teenagers who are exposed to them like them. There’s a certain fascination for great artists who have come before.”
But it’s the people who’ve enjoyed the Southern California band for decades who are driving album sales.
“The people most interested in shelling out for the 40th anniversary release have to be in their 40s and 50s,” says Mayfield, whose own daughter likes “God Only Knows.”
Brian Wilson has said that “Pet Sounds” was a response to The Beatles’ “Rubber Soul” and that the Fab Four’s “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” was The Beatles’ response to “Pet Sounds.”
So it’s no wonder mash-up artists are having fun, fun, fun mixing up The Beatles and the Beach Boys and posting them on the Web.
“Pet Sounds,” Wilson’s psychedelic tribute to Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound, has been re-released in CD (with original mono as well as stereo mixes), a CD/DVD combo and double-colored vinyl packages – all with the familiar picture of the fivesome feeding goats. Songs include “Sloop John B.,” “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” and “Don’t Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder).”
The Pet Sounds: 40th Anniversary podcast has proved popular as well. Ranked in the top 25 of iTunes, the eight-episode “Podumentary,” airing weekly until Oct. 10, features interviews from all four of the surviving members – Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine and Bruce Johnston – about “Pet Sounds” creation.
Fellow ’60s survivor Bob Dylan is also a hit now – his newest album, “Modern Times,” hit the No. 1 chart spot in its first week out. It’s his first top album since 1976’s “Desire.”
