Track Listing

1. Do You Wanna Dance
2. Good To My Baby
3. Don't Hurt My Little Sister
4. When I Grow Up (To Be A Man)
5. Help Me, Rhonda - (LP version)
6. Dance, Dance, Dance
7. Please Let Me Wonder
8. I'm So Young
9. Kiss Me Baby
10. She Knows Me Too Well
11. In The Back Of My Mind
12. Bull Session With "Big Daddy"
13. The Girl From New York City
14. Amusement Parks U.S.A
15. Then I Kissed Her
16. Salt Lake City
17. Girl Don't Tell Me
18. Help Me, Rhonda - (single version)
19. California Girls
20. Let Him Run Wild
21. You're So Good To Me
22. Summer Means New Love
23. I'm Bugged At My Ol' Man
24. And Your Dreams Come True
25. Little Girl I Once Knew, The - (stereo track, single version)
26. Dance, Dance, Dance - (stereo, bonus alternate take)
27. I'm So Young - (bonus track, alternate take)
28. Let Him Run Wild - (stereo, bonus track, alternate take)
29. Graduation Day - (bonus track, studio version)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11877 in Music
• Released on: 2001-03-20
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Original recording remastered, Best of
• Dimensions: .23 pounds

From Amazon.co.uk
This single disc gathers two Beach Boys albums--Today! and Summer Days and Summer Nights--with the addition of remastering and bonus tracks. When Brian Wilson finally summoned up the courage to confront his musically interfering father (the bands' early benefactor Murray Wilson) during the sessions for the Today! album, it could hardly be termed a rite of passage. Brian had always been in charge of his music, less so of himself. Thus, it's hard to believe that the gloriously realised, tender suite of songs ("Please Let Me Wonder" to "In the Back of My Mind") which occupy the second side of Today!--the exquisite semi-orchestral arrangements, the caramel harmonies and the lyrics which dwell on the dreamy, soul-searching solitaire of adolescence--are actually the work of a wobbly, self-doubting recluse recovering from a mental breakdown. But here it is--undiminished by time--the symphonic template for Pet Sounds. Summer Days and Summer Nights, meanwhile, is livelier and sunnier. Carl Wilson makes his vocal debut (what took so long?) on the Beatles-do-Dylan inspired pop strum of "Girl Don't Tell Me", there's the cheesy pseudo surf of "Amusement Parks USA" (a hit in Japan) and some other numbers called "Help Me Rhonda" and "California Girls" which will still be around on the airwaves long after global warming has made the sea levels rise to wash all the beaches away. Similarly indispensable, the bonus tracks include the ground-breaking stop-start of "The Little Girl I Once Knew" (Brian's first "pocket symphony") and a terrific, twangy-guitar demo take of "Dance Dance Dance". --Kevin Maidment

Amazon.com essential recording
Put simply, this is the Beach Boys at their mid-'60s prime. Ironically, the band's greatest evolutionary leap was spurred by its leader, Brian Wilson, who decided to drop out of the band's live performances after a December 1964 nervous breakdown to concentrate on honing the Beach Boys' studio sound. With Wilson's productions gaining a significant new depth and confidence (note the innovative modulations on "Dance, Dance, Dance"), the first half of Today seems a logical, upbeat step forward from its predecessors. But it's the album's second act that steals the show, setting the stage for the triumph of Pet Sounds. Indeed, it's easy to imagine gorgeous, introspective tracks such as "Please Let Me Wonder," "She Knows Me Too Well," and "In the Back of My Mind" intertwined with the best of Sounds. Set against that standard, the follow-up, Summer Days, feels like a step backward, despite the presence of another Wilson world-beater production, "California Girls," and the band's second No. 1 single, "Help Me, Rhonda." Ever pressured by commercial concerns, Wilson and the band created what was in essence the true follow-up to the All Summer Long album. Still, there's a level of musical sophistication to tracks such as "The Girl from New York City," the Phil Spector tribute "Then I Kissed Her," and especially "Girl Don't Tell Me" and "Let Him Run Wild." Reissued (with 24-bit digital remastering) in a long out-of-print twofer edition to mark the band's 40th anniversary and Lifetime Achievement Grammy, this set features several bonus tracks as well as the insightful notes of David Leaf (The Beach Boys and the California Myth). Bonus cuts include the spectacular "The Little Girl I Once Knew" and revealing outtakes of "Dance, Dance, Dance," "I'm So Young," and "Let Him Run Wild," along with a studio version of a song previously only available on the Beach Boys Concert collection, "Graduation Day." --Jerry McCulley

Chronique amazon.fr
En 1965, année où sont enregistrés The Beach Boys Today et Summer Days (And Summers Nights), les Beach Boys ont amorcé ce fameux virage pop qui les emmènera avec Pet Sounds et "Good Vibrations", puis Smiley Smile, vers des rivages également fréquentés par les Beatles de Sergent Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Exit la période surf et son insouciance associée au culte des plaisirs de la plage, des voitures customisées et des superbes créatures en bikini : Brian Wilson, le leader, déprime grave et se retranche dans sa tour d'ivoire, ne cessant d'écrire de minisymphonies aux tournures étonnamment alambiquées, comme en témoignent ici les magnifiques "Let Him Run Wild" et "She Knows Me Too Well", plus sérieusement désabusés. Brian Wilson a vingt-trois ans, et la mélancolie gagne le groupe qui découvre, un an plus tard, les substances illicites sous l'emprise desquelles seront gravés ses plus incontestables chefs-d'oeuvre. --Hervé Comte