{"id":197888,"date":"2026-02-28T08:49:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T08:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/197888\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T08:49:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T08:49:11","slug":"remembering-when-the-beach-boys-had-a-clubhouse-in-santa-monica","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/197888\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembering when the Beach Boys had a clubhouse in Santa Monica"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Today it\u2019s an Italianate apartment building wedged between an Indian restaurant and a Target. But what stood half a century ago at 1454 5th Street in downtown Santa Monica was the Beach Boys\u2019 Brother Studio, a former porn theater turned recording complex where the preeminent American rock band<\/a> of the 1960s sought to coax its resident genius, Brian Wilson, back into the fold after a long stretch in the wilderness.<\/p>\n

Nobody would consider the albums the Beach Boys made at Brother in the mid-70s \u2014 among them \u201c15 Big Ones,\u201d \u201cThe Beach Boys Love You\u201d and the long-shelved \u201cAdult\/Child\u201d \u2014 the band\u2019s most successful. (Well, nobody except for Wilson, who frequently cited the synthed-up \u201cLove You\u201d as his fave.) A decade after 1966\u2019s \u201cPet Sounds,\u201d which so blew the Beatles away that they had to answer with \u201cSgt. Pepper\u2019s Lonely Hearts Club Band,\u201d the burly, bearded Beach Boys were far from the center of pop music; Wilson, in particular, had largely withdrawn from public life as he struggled with the effects of drugs and his fragile mental health.<\/p>\n

Yet Brother offered the setting for a creative reflowering \u2014 arguably the band\u2019s final moment of unity before the start of years of more serious infighting. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was like we all got back together and became Beach Boys again,\u201d says Al Jardine, who founded the group in suburban Hawthorne in 1961 with Wilson, Wilson\u2019s brothers Dennis and Carl and the Wilsons\u2019 cousin Mike Love. Now, eight months after Brian Wilson\u2019s death<\/a> in June at age 82, a new box set looks back at the era as an expressive outpouring led by the band\u2019s rejuvenated visionary.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe Gotta Groove: The Brother Studio Years\u201d collects 73 tracks from 1976 and \u201977, including outtakes, demos, a remastered version of the \u201cLove You\u201d LP and the first official release of the widely bootlegged \u201cAdult\/Child,\u201d which puts Wilson\u2019s touchingly emotive singing amid orchestral arrangements in a glossy big-band style. Among the set\u2019s highlights are a voice-and-piano rendition of \u201cStill I Dream of It,\u201d which, according to legend, Wilson wrote in the hopes that Frank Sinatra would perform it, and a majestic take on \u201cYou\u2019ve Lost That Lovin\u2019 Feeling\u201d that shows how brilliant a record-maker Wilson remained despite all the well-documented turmoil.<\/p>\n

\u201cBrian was healing from his personal life, and he was ready to go in the studio again,\u201d says Jardine, 83, whose latest tour with the members of Wilson\u2019s road band will stop Friday night at L.A.\u2019s United Theater on Broadway for a complete performance of \u201cThe Beach Boys Love You.\u201d With quirky but heartfelt tunes about Wilson\u2019s daughter Carnie (\u201cI Wanna Pick You Up\u201d) and Johnny Carson (uh, \u201cJohnny Carson\u201d) \u2014 not to mention the propulsive \u201cHonkin\u2019 Down the Highway,\u201d on which Jardine sang lead \u2014 \u201cLove You\u201d has become something of a cult classic among Wilsonologists.<\/p>\n

Says Jardine of the LP: \u201cBrian\u2019s spirit \u2014 his songwriting soul \u2014 is really strong on that one.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Beach Boys opened Brother Studio around 1974 near the corner of 5th Street and Broadway, just a few blocks from the beach. They\u2019d traveled to the Netherlands to record their most recent album, \u201cHolland\u201d; before that, they cut several records at Wilson\u2019s home on Bellagio Road in Bel-Air, though the group\u2019s erstwhile mastermind spent as much time upstairs in his bedroom as he did recording music with his bandmates.<\/p>\n

Wilson\u2019s retreat after the flameout of his notoriously ambitious \u201cSmile\u201d project made space for the other Beach Boys to shape the band\u2019s music<\/a>, as on 1970\u2019s fondly remembered \u201cSunflower.\u201d But the lack of hits eventually took its toll: With a laugh, Love, 84, says one reason they started up Brother was that Wilson\u2019s wife, Marilyn, eventually \u201cthrew in the towel after years of having her house flooded with people\u201d to less-than-spectacular returns. \u201cIt was sort of like a self-preservation thing,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The Beach Boys backstage at New York\u2019s Central Park in 1977.<\/p>\n

(Richard E. Aaron \/ Redferns)<\/p>\n

In \u201cWe Gotta Groove\u2019s\u201d liner notes, engineer Stephen Moffitt, who designed Brother after working earlier at L.A.\u2019s Village Recorders, recalls clearing out \u201call the porn crap\u201d from the building and installing a circular stained-glass window to establish the right vibe. A vintage magazine ad boasts of the studio\u2019s high-end gear as well as its \u201clarge screen video lounge\u201d and \u201ca playroom with pong, pinball and bumper pool.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a respite,\u201d Love says. \u201cA place to go and be creative.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just as the band was getting Brother up and running, the Beach Boys scored an unexpected smash with 1974\u2019s \u201cEndless Summer,\u201d a double-LP compilation of the group\u2019s early material \u2014 \u201cSurfin\u2019 Safari,\u201d \u201cDon\u2019t Worry Baby,\u201d \u201cCalifornia Girls\u201d \u2014 that topped the Billboard album chart on its way to sales of more than 3 million copies. A similar hits collection issued in the U.K., \u201c20 Golden Greats,\u201d did just as well there. \u201cAn enormous success,\u201d says Love. \u201cOne in every five families had it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Suddenly, having more or less ignored group-minded efforts like \u201cHolland\u201d and \u201cCarl and the Passions \u2014 \u2018So Tough,\u2019 \u201d the world remembered what it loved about the Beach Boys, and that was songs written and produced by Brian Wilson.<\/p>\n

The band got to work at Brother recording \u201c15 Big Ones,\u201d which featured a mix of Wilson originals and covers of oldies like \u201cChapel of Love\u201d and \u201cBlueberry Hill.\u201d The first Beach Boys album since \u201cPet Sounds\u201d to carry a solo production credit for Wilson, it came accompanied by an aggressive marketing campaign known as \u201cBrian Is Back!\u201d; Wilson appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone \u2014 \u201cThe Healing of Brother Brian,\u201d the cover line read \u2014 and took part in a Beach Boys television special that showed his return to the concert stage at Anaheim Stadium.<\/p>\n

Earle Mankey, an engineer at Brother in the mid-70s, says \u201c15 Big Ones\u201d was less Wilson\u2019s attempt to relight the flame than it was \u201ceveryone else\u2019s attempt to relight the flame.\u201d He recalls Wilson looking like a \u201cscared rabbit\u201d when he walked into the studio to find some of the session musicians who\u2019d worked with the Beach Boys back in the old days. (This was the time of Wilson\u2019s first dalliance with the psychologist Eugene Landy, who would reenter Wilson\u2019s life to much controversy in the early \u201980s.)<\/p>\n

\"Fans <\/p>\n

Fans watch the Beach Boys perform at Anaheim Stadium on July 3, 1976.<\/p>\n

(Tony Korody \/ Sygma via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Even Love admits that \u201cBrian Is Back!\u201d was a little overblown. \u201cBrian was back to some degree,\u201d Love says now. \u201cOne hundred percent? Perhaps not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet the campaign worked: \u201c15 Big Ones\u201d went to No. 8 on the Billboard 200 \u2014 the highest for a Beach Boys studio album in more than a decade \u2014 while the LP spun off the band\u2019s first Top 5 single since \u201cGood Vibrations\u201d with a rendition of Chuck Berry\u2019s \u201cRoll and Roll Music.\u201d<\/p>\n

More important, the commercial success set up Wilson for a true artistic comeback with \u201cThe Beach Boys Love You,\u201d which can still startle you with the purity of its emotion and the strange textures of Wilson\u2019s production. Check out the beautifully lopsided groove of \u201cMona,\u201d which Dennis sings with a bleary smoker\u2019s rasp, or the lonely-sounding electric-guitar lick floating over the Wilson brothers\u2019 harmonies in \u201cThe Night Was So Young\u201d; listen to Brian and Marilyn trading marital assurances in their almost painfully guileless duet, \u201cLet\u2019s Put Our Hearts Together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOf all Brian\u2019s stuff, I\u2019d say it\u2019s his most personal album after \u2018Pet Sounds,\u2019 \u201d says Darian Sahanaja, who played with Wilson for the last couple of decades of his life. \u201cMaybe even more than \u2018Pet Sounds,\u2019 because Tony Asher wrote most of the lyrics on \u2018Pet Sounds\u2019 and Brian wrote most of the lyrics on \u2018Love You.\u2019 The Brian that I knew is very much living and breathing in these songs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unlike \u201c15 Big Ones,\u201d \u201cLove You\u201d was not a hit, peaking at No. 53 \u2014 even lower than \u201cHolland.\u201d As much as he adores the album, Sahanaja finds it amusing that anyone in the Beach Boys\u2019 camp might have expected Wilson to try to give rock fans what they wanted.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wasn\u2019t listening to the Top 40 at the time,\u201d he says. \u201cHe just wrote whatever came out of him. There was no, \u2018I wonder what Fleetwood Mac\u2019s up to\u2026\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, Wilson went even further out with \u201cAdult\/Child,\u201d for which he commissioned orchestral arrangements by Dick Reynolds, who\u2019d worked in the \u201950s with Wilson\u2019s beloved Four Freshmen. Both Love and Jardine say they can\u2019t quite remember why the album didn\u2019t come out; Love says \u201cit may not have suited the record company at the time\u201d and points out that even \u201cPet Sounds\u201d got the group\u2019s A&R rep wondering \u201cif maybe we could do something more like \u2018I Get Around.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

Whatever the case, \u201cAdult\/Child\u2019s\u201d mothballing led to another withdrawal by Wilson, who had far less to do with the band\u2019s next few records and who eventually turned to a solo career. In 2012, Wilson produced a so-so Beach Boys reunion record \u2014 minus Dennis, who died in 1983, and Carl, who died in 1998 \u2014 but for much of the \u201900s he and Jardine toured under Wilson\u2019s name while Love toured as the Beach Boys. (Love\u2019s band will play three shows at the Hollywood Bowl in July.)<\/p>\n

Asked what it\u2019s been like performing with Wilson\u2019s band since his death, Jardine says, \u201cI just feel like he\u2019s still around.\u201d Sahanaja says he\u2019s seen Jardine tear up as they\u2019ve been working up songs from \u201cLove You\u201d on the road ahead of Friday\u2019s show. But he\u2019s also been gratified to see the excitement among younger fans regarding what he views as the Beach Boys\u2019 last great album.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reaction has been more insane than I\u2019ve ever seen for any of the shows we ever did with Brian,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s like they feel they found this secret thing that they really identify with.\u201d He laughs. \u201cI\u2019m telling you, these kids are freaking out \u2014 jumping up and down, singing along to all the words. They\u2019re, like, pogo-ing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Today it\u2019s an Italianate apartment building wedged between an Indian restaurant and a Target. But what stood half…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197889,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[15560,35317,11416,35318,92050,92048,11418,3409,3733,7244,48,52,51,47,50,49,4284,34666,92051,92049,39017],"class_list":{"0":"post-197888","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-adult","9":"tag-al-jardine","10":"tag-band","11":"tag-beach-boys","12":"tag-big-ones","13":"tag-brian-wilson","14":"tag-brother","15":"tag-child","16":"tag-cover","17":"tag-group","18":"tag-la","19":"tag-la-headlines","20":"tag-la-news","21":"tag-los-angeles","22":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","23":"tag-los-angeles-news","24":"tag-love","25":"tag-much-time","26":"tag-personal-life","27":"tag-pet-sounds","28":"tag-wilson"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}