Song#: 0128
Date: 04/12/1980
Debut: 84
Peak: 83
Weeks: 3
Genre: Pop
Pop Bits: As the 80s approached, the Beach Boys were having issues. They had only one Top 10 hit in the 70s (1976's "Rock and Roll Music," #5) and the internal struggles were making a mess of the group and their music. They moved to the CBS label and in 1979 issued "L.A. (Light Album)." At this time Brian Wilson's problems were hampering efforts so the band brought back former member Bruce Johnston (who had left the group in 1972) to help and co-produce the album. Critical reception was harsh and the public wasn't buying it either. The follow-up album "Keepin' the Summer Alive" presented even more problems and found the band at their most fractured. Brian Wilson was supposed to help the album (at the urging of CBS), but disputes on the music's direction forced the band to regroup and Bruce Johnston became sole producer of the album with Brian basically stepping to the side. Dennis Wilson abandoned the project early on and is barely represented on the final LP. It also represented an end to a steady stream of albums from the group as it would take five years before releasing their next studio album. This old-fashioned tune would be the first singled from the album.
ReduxReview: I dearly love the "Pet Sounds" era of the group, some of their early songs, and a few later cuts like "Wild Honey" and "Feel Flows," but I've never been a real fan of their music. I especially have never liked these types of doo-wop, waltzy pop tunes and this is no exception. It is the sound of a once-great group unable to sustain their music in a decade where the landscape was changing rapidly.
ReduxRating: 2/10
Trivia: This album would mark the last time Dennis Wilson appeared on a Beach Boys album. Alcohol abuse had been taking its toll through the years and after a day of drinking in 1983, he dived into the waters of a marina and ended up drowning.
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Chart Run: 84 - 83 - 96
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