Audio CD review:
The Beach Boys - Little Deuce Coupe/ All Summer Long

The Beach Boys - Little Deuce Coupe/ All Summer Long

Band: The Beach Boys Title: Little Deuce Coupe/ All Summer Long Rating: Release Date: 13 March, 2001 Media: Audio CD Tracks: 1: Little Deuce Coupe - Beach Boys 2: Ballad Of Ole' Betsy - Beach Boys 3: Be True To Your School - Beach Boys 4: Car Crazy Cutie - Beach Boys 5: Cherry, Cherry Coupe - Beach Boys 6: 409 - Beach Boys 7: Shut Down - Beach Boys 8: Spirit Of America - Beach Boys 9: Our Car Club - Beach Boys 10: No-Go Showboat - Beach Boys 11: A Young Man Is Gone - Beach Boys 12: Custom Machine - Beach Boys 13: I Get Around - Beach Boys 14: All Summer Long - Beach Boys 15: Hushabye - Beach Boys 16: Little Honda - Beach Boys 17: We'll Run Away - Beach Boys 18: Carl's Big Chance - Beach Boys 19: Wendy - Beach Boys 20: You Remember? - Beach Boys 21: Girls On The Beach - Beach Boys 22: Drive-In - Beach Boys 23: Our Favorite Recording Se - Beach Boys 24: Don't Back Down - Beach Boys 25: True To Your School - Beach Boys 26: All Dressed Up For School - Beach Boys 27: Little Honda (Alternate Take) 28: Don't Back Down (Alternate Take)

Editoral Review Brian Wilson and the band responded by turning in arguably their most consistent effort to date--and a concept album, to boot. Released just one month after the Surfer Girl album, Little Deuce Coupe was, incredibly, the band's fourth album in less than a year. Deuce Coupe expanded the band's subject matter to encompass 1963 America's burgeoning love affair with hot rods, surrounding previously released cuts such as the title track, "409," and others with strong new material (much of it cowritten by Wilson and a DJ, Roger Christian). A highpoint: the a cappella James Dean tribute "A Young Man Is Gone" (a reworking of Bobby Troup's beautiful "Their Hearts Were Full of Spring"), a prime example of Wilson's arranging genius and the band's vocal prowess. All Summer Long was notable not only for racheting up the band's standards and essentially bidding farewell to the surf songs that inspired both their name and reputation, but also for going toe-to-toe with one of rock's most explosive phenomena--Beatlemania--and coming away victorious, with the single "I Get Around" soaring to No. 1 in the spring of 1964. Essentially another loose concept record (revolving around the innocent hedonistic pursuits of an idyllic SoCal summer) that takes its cue from the effervescent title track, it also documents Brian's restless creativity pushing the band toward its performing peak. Bonus takes include the superior single take of band staple "Be True to Your School," alternate takes of "Little Honda" and "Don't Back Down," and the slightly salacious outtake "All Dressed Up for School. " Both albums have also been sonically burnished via 24-bit digital remastering. --Jerry McCulley .. You can see a complete list of all The Beach Boys discography, or go back to the The Beach Boys tabs