With half-second vocal harmonies, you know who you’re listening to when California-born group The Beach Boys is playing. While everyone knows the group and likely has a favorite song, from “Good Vibrations” to “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” the band is still somehow underrated.
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Without The Beach Boys, music fans may not have gotten The Beatles (at least not quite in the same way), as well as other surf rock songs that have since become standard in the pop culture psyche.
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So, to celebrate the harmony-driven rockers, we wanted to highlight three movies that involve, incorporate, and interpolate the band.
1. Endless Harmony: The Beach Boys Story (1998)
This 1998 documentary shows the group’s history through concert footage, band and associate interviews, and more. The film includes Elvis Costello, Sean Lennon, Glenn Frey, and more. It’s easy to be intoxicated by the sound and mesmerized by the story. Check out the entire documentary film about the Brian Wilson-fronted family group below.
2. Love & Mercy (2014)
This dramatic biopic from 2014 tells the story of The Beach Boys’ driving force and frontman, Brian Wilson. Today, Wilson has largely retreated from the public eye after a lengthy career, which sadly includes severe bouts with mental illness. Starring Paul Dano and John Cusack as Wilson through the years, the movie shows some of the origins of the band’s iconic LP, Pet Sounds, as well as Wilson trying to deal with his mental ailments. Check out the trailer below.
3. The Girls on the Beach (1965)
Back in the mid-20th century, not only were people listening to the band’s songs but they were seeing them in campy, bikini-laden beach movies like this 1965 offering, The Girls on the Beach. This movie includes the group singing songs like the title track, “Lonely Sea” and “Little Honda.” Check out a trailer for the movie below.
Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
