The Beach Boys are led by Mike Love and Bruce Johnston, who along with Christian Love, Randell Kirsch, Tim Bonhomme, John Cowsill and Scott Totten, have toured as the Beach Boys regularly since 1998 when Carl Wilson passed away.
The Beach Boys are an American pop and rock band, widely considered one of the most influential groups of the ‘60s. Known as “America’s Band”, they are easily recognized by their complex vocal harmonies. Initially recording music that focused on Californian youth culture, halfway through the decade they shifted their attention towards melancholy orchestral pop, and continued to experiment with other genres. With the release of 1974’s Endless Summer they became a more popular touring act, playing their greatest hits. They have recorded 36 Billboard Top 40 hits (including four number-one singles), have had over 100 million sales, and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988.
Formed in Hawthorne, California in 1961, the original group comprised singer-musician-composer Brian Wilson, his brothers Carl Wilson and Dennis Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friends Al Jardine and David Marks. South African musicians Blondie Chaplin and Ricky Fataar played and sang with the band on three key albums during the early 1970s. Many changes in both musical style and personnel have occurred in their sometimes-stormy career: Brian Wilson’s mental illness, drug addiction and eventual withdrawal from the group; the deaths of Dennis Wilson in 1983 and Carl Wilson in 1998; and continuing legal battles among surviving members of the group.
In December 2011, five of the group’s surviving members - Brian, Mike, Al, Bruce and David (But not Blondie or Ricky) - reformed in celebration of their 50th anniversary, announcing that a new album and a 50-date international tour had been planned for 2012. The tour begun on April 24, 2012 with a headlining performance at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. Songfacts reports that the first single from the album, That‘s Why God Made the Radio, made it’s national radio debut on April 25, 2012 on ESPN’s Mike and Mike in the Morning.
In 2013, Mike Love and Bruce Johnston are continuing to tour under the Beach Boys name. Brian Wilson has been in the studio, it is not known whether the sessions are for the Beach Boys, or for Brian solo material. Brian Wilson also plans to play two shows with Al Jardine and David Marks, one show in Ohio, and the other at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles. A live album and/or DVD, and a career-spanning box set entitled “Made In California” was released in 2013.
