The Beach Boys Medley

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1981 single by The Beach Boys

"The Beach Boys Medley" is a single containing a medley of popular Beach Boys songs from the 1960s, edited by John Palladino. Released in mid-1981, it capitalized on a medley craze begun by the Stars on 45 medleys. "The Beach Boys Medley" reached number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100,[1] becoming the band`s highest-charting hit in the United States in over five years. The single peaked at number 8 on the Cash Box sales chart. It also reached number 4 in New Zealand.[2] "The Beach Boys Medley" was first released on an album a year later in 1982 on Sunshine Dream.

Earlier medley

A Beach Boys medley entitled "Surf`s Up", produced by South Florida musicians and engineer Chuck Kirkpatrick, was created months before the Palladino-produced medley and was actually submitted to Rupert Perry, head of A & R at Capitol (Kirkpatrick had been a Capitol artist himself in the late 70`s). Perry`s response was, "If we wanted to release a Beach Boys medley, we would simply use the original masters which we own". Kirkpatrick`s medley began receiving heavy airplay on a Miami FM station, "Love 94", and that led to local and national TV coverage by "PM Magazine". Taking notice, Capitol quickly produced their own medley and launched a heavy promotional campaign entitled "Nothing is Better Than The Real Thing - The Beach Boys Medley on Capitol Records", effectively tanking Kirkpatrick`s. The difference and uniqueness was that Kirkpatrick played every instrument and sang every vocal part himself, while Capitol`s medley was simply tape edits of previous Beach Boys` studio masters. The similarity was in the sequencing of the songs in the two medleys - Capitol using very much the same as Kirkpatrick`s.

Songs

In order, the songs in the medley are:

1. "Good Vibrations"
2. "Help Me, Rhonda"
3. "I Get Around"
4. "Shut Down"
5. "Surfin` Safari"
6. "Barbara Ann"
7. "Surfin` U.S.A."
8. "Fun, Fun, Fun"

Chart history