Dreams Of Endless Summer
A Beach Boys Timeline 1912-2024
    This timeline aims to provide a reasonable, though by no means exhaustive, overview of the long,
involved and sometimes fraught history of The Beach Boys. All major single and album releases are noted,
as are the major events in the lives of the principal band members. While all major overseas tours and
individual landmark US concerts are mentioned, no attempt has been made to document all domestic
concert dates, for two main reasons; one, there have been literally thousands of them... and two, until
recently, the early years were not well documented. However, with the advent of the Badman book, and
the ensuing furore concerning the accuracy of same, the band's shows are now much more fully
documented. Anyone wishing to explore this subject more thoroughly is advised to check out the
tours/sessions section of this site, and also Eric Anniversario's excellentand extensive setlist archive.
Brian's post 1998 solo tours are detailed here. Similarly, anyone wishing more comprehensive
discographical information covering both the US and UK releases should visit this discography.
 
    Sessions are another matter entirely; whilst integral to the Beach Boys history, they are not
comprehensively documented after the sixties, and the first Capitol era (and even those are not 100%
accurate), thus any listing would inevitably contain gaps and omissions. At one time there were two books
in the offing which would have covered this ground: Russ Wuspensky was attempting to document every
session held in Los Angeles after the Second World War, while Brad Elliott was undertaking the scarcely
less monumental task of doing the same for every single Beach Boys and related session: however Elliott
vanished from Beach Boys fandom under a considerable cloud, whilst Wapensky's contract with his
publishers was cancelled in the early 2000s. That said, an attempt to do as good a job as possible on the
sessions has been incorporated into the tours/sessions section. The assistance of historian Craig Slowinski
in recent years has proved invaluable.
 
    Throughout the timeline, album titles are noted in Bold Italic, TV shows by "Italics inside quotes" and
movies by plain italics. Book titles are shown in bold, as are the names of those no longer with us on their passing. Some events cannot be exactly dated at present, thus for the purposes of this timeline, winter is December, January & February; spring is March, April & May; summer is June, July & August; and fall is September, October & November
  
    Obviously I cannot begin to pretend that any of this is all my own work - all I've done is gather existing
wisdom, cross-check it and arrange it into a sequence that is logical and (hopefully) readable. For
providing the original material and research, I'm indebted to the following sources (those noted * are
essential additions to your BB bookshelf):
 
Surfs' Up ! The Beach Boys On Record 1961-1981 by Brad Elliott*
The Beach Boys by David Leaf (1978 & 1985 editions)*
Heroes And Villains - The True Story Of The Beach Boys by Stephen Gaines*
The Nearest Faraway Place by Timothy White*
Dennis Wilson - The Real Beach Boy by Jon Stebbins*
Dumb Angel by Adam Webb
Wouldn't It Be Nice - My Own Story by Todd Gold & Eugene Landy with Brian Wilson
Our Favorite Recording Sessions by Stephen McParland*
The Wilson Project by Stephen McParland*
Tape #10 by Stephen McParland
The California Sound - A Musical Biography Of Gary Lee Usher by Stephen McParland
The Guinness Book Of Rock Stars
The Complete Guide To The Music Of The Beach Boys by Andrew G. Doe & John Tobler
   (1997 & 2004 editions)
The Complete Book Of The British Charts
The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits
Back To The Beach by Kingsley Abbott
The Beach Boys by Byron Preiss
Dumb Angel Gazette #1, 2, 3 & 4 edited by Domenic Priore*
Beach Boys Stomp 1977 to date
Beach Boys Britain 1999 to date
The Beach Boys On CD - an illustrated guide by Joe Thomas
The Beach Boys: the definitive diary of America's greatest band on stage and in the studio
   by Keith Badman
Catch A Wave: The Rise, Fall & Redemption Of Brian Wilson by Peter Ames Carlin*
The Lost Beach Boy: The True Story Of David Marks by Jon Stebbins & David Marks*
The Beach Boys in Concert by Ian Rusten & John Stebbins*
The Beach Boys FAQ by Jon Stebbins*
Becoming The Beach Boys 1961-63 by James B. Murphy*
All the US & UK music press 1963-date, notably NME, Melody Maker, Sounds, Billboard, Rolling
Stone, Crawdaddy & Phonograph Record.
The Middlefield Archives
The Chris Branch Archives
Brother Records
The liner notes for all Beach Boys and related reissues since the 1990 Capitol 2fers
The many Beach Boys and/or Brian Wilson websites and mailing lists, notably the Endless Harmony
MB, the Smiley Smile MB, brianwilson.com and beachboys.com. Many fine sites have fallen by the
wayside over the years, but these have stood the test of time, if somewhat battered.
 
    Individuals who have helped me immensely are (in no particular order beyond alphabetical): Panayiotis
Bogadanos, Alan Boyd, the late Chuck Britz, Stephen W. Desper, Brad Elliott, Patricia Ferelli, Mike Grant,
Anne-Marie Gregory, Probyn Gregory, the late Coach Bob Hanes, Billy Hinsche, Val Johnson-Howe,
Bruce Johnston, Barbara Lang, Susan Lang, Jacquelyne Love, Melinda Love, Raymond J. McCarthy,
David & Carrie Marks, Cameron Mott, Graeme Norris, Peter Reum, Ian Rusten, Darian Sahanaja, Craig
Slowinski, Jon Stebbins, Gary Winfrey, Gary Zenker and several others who prefer to remain unsung.
 
   This is naturally a work in progress, rife with errors, duplications and omissions. Corrections,
clarifications and additional information will be welcomed with open arms and a credit. Send them to
bellagio@btinternet.com, putting 'timeline' in the subject box. I thank you in advance.

   Navigation is simple - just click on the year below; there's also internal navigation of the 'previous' and
'next' variety. It's clunky, but it works.
 
 
 
This timeline is dedicated to all Beach Boys fans, historians and researchers,
whose commitment to unearthing and establishing the truth is as relentless as
it is disturbing. In the immortal words of Mike Love, "these guys know more
about us than we do !"  And he's very probably right...
x
In particular, these pages are dedicated to coach Bob Hanes (1948-2010),
a fine man and dedicated fan who will be sorely missed by all who knew him.
Also to Les Chan (d. 2012) & Derek Alden Bill (1958-2013), two more great
fans who left us suddenly and much too soon.
 
Created by Andrew G. Doe February 24th, 2002
Last updated  July 22nd 2024