The Beach Boys and “The Beach Boys” — a new documentary coming out Friday on Disney — are both a blend of a variety of voices.
The three Wilson brothers – Brian, Carl and Dennis – along with their cousin Mike Love and friend Al Jardine, sparked a harmony revolution in group singing with their Southern California sound, lighting up the 1960s with songs such as “I Get Around”, “Good Vibrations” and “God Only Knows”.
In his documentary about them, director Frank Marshall takes the band’s oft-told stories of heartache and harmony from across six decades, and attempts to make them broader and brighter by incorporating as many voices as possible.
“It was a mix of everything,” Marshall told The Associated Press in a joint interview with Love and Jardine at a Hollywood recording studio. “It’s not only a mix of the family story, but a mix of harmonies. If you took away one element, you wouldn’t have the Beach Boys.”
Love, 83, said Marshall’s project is “a monumental endeavor” for everyone involved and that he has “never gotten so much publicity in his entire life.”
He said, “This guy, Frank, is able to take so much ridiculous information and turn it into a coherent, amazing documentary that highlights not only the individual, but the collective impact.”
The film features extensive new interviews with singer Love and 81-year-old singer-guitarist Jardine. And it draws from numerous older interviews to offer perspectives from singer-guitarist Carl Wilson, who died of cancer in 1998 at age 51, singer-drummer Dennis Wilson, who was 39 when the band drowned in a Los Angeles-area harbor in 1983, and his older brother Brian, who masterminded the band’s sound.
The 81-year-old Brian Wilson also appears in Marshall’s film in the present day, including an emotional scene in the coda whose details are best explored. But his recent mental deterioration, due to his loved ones setting up a court conservatorship for him, limits his contributions.
Often, media praise of the group’s music focuses solely on the eldest Wilson boy, for what many consider his unrivalled musical imagination and innovation. Marshall’s documentary does nothing to undermine his talents, but instead emphasizes that he was not alone.
For example, it is seldom acknowledged that Love wrote the lyrics for dozens of songs, including “I Get Around”, “California Girls”, “Help Me Rhonda” and the sweetly poetic “Good Vibrations”, which she wrote in the car on her way to a recording session: “I love the colorful clothes she wears, and I love the way the sunlight falls on her hair.”
Wilson’s father and the band’s initial manager, Murry Wilson, in one of many instances of mismanagement, sold the Beach Boys’ song catalog for $700,000 in 1969 without consulting the band members, omitting Love’s name as a contributor.
“It’s really bad when your uncle sells your songs without giving you any credit,” Love said. “And that really upset Brian.” But, Love added, “The good thing is that I contributed. My cousin and I wrote some great songs together.”
The secret sale made the rights to the song a tangled affair, which kept Marshall — who made a similar documentary on the Bee Gees in 2022 and Carole King and James Taylor in 2020 — from making the Beach Boys film he had long dreamed of for several years. But the recent purchase of the rights by his friend Irving Azoff gave him the green light.
Marshall’s film also features the voices of David Marks, who was briefly in the group at its inception; Bruce Johnston, who became a Beach Boy in 1965; and famous fans from several generations, including Don Was, Lindsey Buckingham and Janelle Monae.
“The Beach Boys” don’t shy away from showing unpleasant moments in their history, including Dennis Wilson’s affair with the Charles Manson family and his near drowning.
It also examines the mental health struggles that left Brian Wilson unable to make music for long periods of time, and the bitter disputes within the band that became wider family feuds.
In the film, Love is moved to tears when he talks to his cousin Brian about the separation and wants to tell him that he loves him.
There are plenty of happy moments, too, especially in the early years. Jardine gets emotional in the film when he talks about the boys auditioning a cappella for their mother, singing them Four Freshmen tunes and the first Beach Boys original, “Surfin’,” so they could buy instruments and form a real band.
“She worked at Macy’s up the street and made about $300 a month,” Jardine said. “She gave us all $300.”
This led to the birth of The Beach Boys – a name Jardine said he never liked.
Love said he tries to put aside the bitterness and focus on those moments.
“I mean, we know the impact of the Beach Boys’ music. It’s been felt all over the world,” he said. “We have a lot more to be grateful for than we have to be sorry for.”
This story has been corrected to show that Dennis Wilson died in 1983 at age 39, not 1984 at age 30.
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