http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=cqxTUxzOceE&feature=youtube_gdata_plaJ 

Ah the Beach Boys - one of the greatest bands ever and my all-time favourite group. Brian Wilson is a such a genius. He was like Lennon and McCartney combined.

They did so many great early '60s classic surfin' stuff like Surfin' Safari, Surfin' USA, Fun Fun Fun, Surfer Girl, Don't Back Down, Hawaii, Surfers Rule, California Girls...and they also did great songs about cars. The 'Little Deuce Coupe' album from 1963 is ALL car songs and has been reissued on CD. Little Deuce Coupe, 409, Shut Down, Our Car Club, Cherry Cherry Coupe, Spirit of America, the Ballad of Ol Betsy etc etc.

Their later stuff with Capitol Records is more sophisticated (Keep an Eye on Summer, I Get Around, Hushabye, Help Me Rhonda, When I Grow Up To Be A Man, Please Let Me Wonder), leading up to Pet Sounds of 1966. Often voted one of the greatest albums of all time. Smile was to follow but Brian canned it - it became the 'greatest unreleased album in rock history'. We only got Good Vibrations, Heroes and Villians and Cabinesscence as remnants. Good news is that Brian rerecorded and released Smile himself in 2003, and now the original 1966-67 sessions (only heard as bootlegs for years) have just been released in a $150 5-cd box set.

Their post-Capital (after 1970) stuff is almost unknown but still great. Sunflower is such a beautiful album, while Holland shows Brian's brother Carl taking over and Dennis' flowering as a songwriter. 'Forever' is stunning in its beauty - spoiled in recent times by John Stamos singing it. 15 Big Ones is sad; Beach Boys Love You is weird but the MIU album is joyous. And of course they powered back in 1988 with the #1 smash Kokomo, even if Brian wasn't involved.

I could go on for ages. But as a taste of how brilliant the Beach Boys' harmony singing was, listen to these tracks from Pet Sounds with the instrumentrs removed - that is, just the voices. Put headphones on to get max effect:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amD2RQmDlbo 

what happened too the roy orbison post?

Musta been too rude