The Beach Boys

From a pop songwriting standpoint, I'd argue that one great challenge of the '60s was merging traditional western song craft with "pure" rock n roll (read Chuck Berry, for short).  Early Rock n Roll almost entirely eliminated the single most essential element of Western music (harmony) and featured only rhythmic drive and melodic energy.  The result was a very idiosynchratic art form with limited commercial potential for mass audiences.

You can make a fair case that Brian Wilson - more than anyone else - pioneered the fusion of then new rock n roll with the more traditional (and captivating) harmonies that most people want in their music.  Chuck Berry famously sued them for appropriating his songs and won.  Yet, a lot of folks who hear Chuck Berry as pure Rock n Roll would describe The Beach Boys as pure pop.  Therein, IMO, lies the great genius of Brian Wilson.

This (per their own telling) hybridization spurred Lennon/Macca and either created the greatest band in Rock n Roll or hopelessly diluted Rock n Roll, depending on your personal point of view. Either way, without The Beach Boys, there are no Beatles.

As a purely separate matter, Brian Wilson has IMO produced some of the simplest, most beautiful pop music (see God Only Knows, etc) and some of the most intricately arranged, bizarrely instrumented pop/rock hybrids (see Good Vibrations) of the last fifty years.  None of this means that you need to like The Beach Boys, but I hope it goes some way towards explaining why some folks (like me) both love their music and hold them in such high esteem.

It's funny how when I was in grade school and listening to the Beatles and all of he great groups coming out of the sixties, I thought the Beach Boys made simple sing-songy music for unsophisticated tastes. They were beneath my 6th and 7th grade mentality. I just didn't get it. I neither hated them nor liked them. I just did not understand why one of my friends (and it was only one out of many) liked them so much. I thought that perhaps it was because he had bad taste in virtually everything including music.
 Finally, when I was a senior in high school in 1974, I purchased Endless Summer (because I did like "Don't Worry Baby") and listened. All of a sudden, even in the midst of my time listening to the Who, Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, Elton John, Van Morrison, Crosby, Stills, etc--- I got it. Two albums worth of songs were virtually all unforgettable. Beautiful harmonies. Great music. Suddenly, the lack of sophistication turned into a childlike directness and innocence. If you surrendered, it also transported you right to a sunny carefree California.  I soon went about backing some of their live albums into my collection and some studio albums including Pet Sounds.
It didn't hurt that McCartney was a huge fan as I was a devoted Beatles fan.
Today, I am happy to call myself a fan. I have been purchasing some of the vinyl reissues by Analogue Productions (often in mono and stereo) including, of course, Pet Sounds. They are very nice reproductions.
I believe Uncut recently found Pet Sounds to be the greatest pop/rock album ever made. To my recollection Rolling Stone had it in the top 4 or 5. While I'm not sure it ranks that high on my personal list--it is certainly in my top 20.
I was with Actusreus until Endless Summer in 1974. It is possible to listen to the Beach Boys under the right circumstances and, all of a sudden, get it.

As someone who has never particularly been a Beach Boys fan (although I’ve certainly never disliked them), I nevertheless want to extend kudos for the excellent responses above. I would have to say that I’m now more of a fan than I was a few hours ago :-)

A tangential point that I found striking in reading Rich’s outstanding post was the discrepancy between Cashbox’s listing of 1963’s top recordings and the corresponding Billboard list, as well as with respect to how I recall the hits of 1963. The Billboard list, btw, had "Surfin’ U.S.A." as no. 2 for the year. A couple of possible explanations for that discrepancy can be inferred from the Wikipedia writeup on Cashbox. But none of that affects Rich’s underlying points, of course.

One unrelated bit of trivia I recently became aware of, that was of interest to me as a basketball fan, is that Mike Love of the Beach Boys is the uncle of Kevin Love, the star power forward who currently plays for the Cleveland Cavaliers, alongside LeBron James. Kevin’s father/Mike’s brother, Stan Love, was also an NBA player.

Thanks again. Regards,
-- Al

The Beach Boys had a vision -- "if everybody had an ocean/everybody'd be surfin'/surfin' USA".  When that song came out Kennedy was still president, riots in the cities hadn't started and although Vietnam was unfolding, it wasn't in the news.  In a few short years everything would change, but the image of young people having fun in the sun will never change.  And that's true even though Dylan wrote "The Times They are A Changin'" less than a year later.

"The fact that "Pet Sounds" is considered one of the greatest albums of all time leaves me speechless. I always considered their music a bit of a joke, good for background when you're in a beach bar in Southern California..."

The above quote would indicate to me that the OP has never heard Pet Sounds. It certainly is NOT gimmicky "beach music". The album was lushly instrumented by the famous "Wrecking Crew", who were astonished at Brian Wilson's abilities as an arranger and producer, and considered it a monumental achievement.