1976 GROUP THERAPY

LP 1: "15 Big Ones"

Side A
 
1. Rock And Roll Music
2. Come Go With Me
3. Ruby Baby
4. Chapel Of Love
5. Running Bear
6. Talk To Me
7. Sea Cruise
8. Mony Mony

 
Side B

9. Palisades Park
10. Peggy Sue
11. A Casual Look
12. Blueberry Hill
13. Shake, Rattle and Roll
14. In The Still Of The Night
15. Just Once In My Life

LP 2: "Group Therapy"

Side C
 
1. Seasons In The Sun
2. H.E.L.P. IS On The Way
3. Big Sur
4. My Love Lives On
5. Short Skirts
6. My Solution
 
Side D

7. Sherry She Needs Me
8. Winter Symphony
9. TM Song
10. Michael Rowed The Boat Ashore
11. That Same Song
12. You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling

Continuing this series of reimagining of The Beach Boys' 70s albums. Special thanks to Dennis Diken for part of his liner notes.

In 1976, the words that were planted on the lips of Beach Boys fans all over this whole world were “Brian Is Back.”

Let's rewind at the end of January 1976, the Beach Boys returned to the studio with an apprehensive Brian producing once again. At the time, he felt: "It was a little scary because [the Beach Boys and I] weren't as close. We had drifted apart, personality-wise. A lot of the guys had developed new personalities through meditation. It was a bit scary and shaky. But we went into the studio with the attitude that we had to get it done. After a week or two in the studio, we started to get the niche again." He decided he would produce an album with the band should reprising rock and roll and doo wop standards. Brothers Carl and Dennis disagreed, feeling that an album of originals was far more ideal. Mike and Al Jardine reportedly wanted the album out as quickly as possible to take advantage of their resurgence of popularity following the release of California Feeling.

According to manager James William Guercio, Carl "dragged his feet" for the record, believing that the group was squandering its potential. He explained: "The hard truth is you don't have forever to tinker around with this stuff. The pressing demands of business sometimes interfere with artistic indulgence. Business-wise, you want to get the goddamn album out when things are gelling. Commerce and art, man, that's a tough thing."Discussing Brian's production, Carl said: "Once we had finished a certain batch of songs, Brian said, 'That's it. Put it out.' That's why the album sounds unfinished. Brian just wanted to do one cut and capture the moment rather than working on something."

In the spring, news tidbits were popping up in the rock press confirming that Brian was working with the Boys again. By summer, feature articles began appearing in the mass media heralding the return of Brother Brian. A new Beach Boys album was scheduled for a July release and for the first time since Pet Sounds in 1966, the credit on the jacket was to read “Produced by Brian Wilson.” Maybe it was the therapy with his doctor, Lawrence Jacoby. Maybe he was forced into it. Maybe Brian really wanted a hit too. Whatever it was, Brian went to work with the Beach Boys again.

The initial sessions put Brian back at his old stomping grounds, Hollywood’s Western Recorders, the birthplace of numerous Breach boys hit records, where he was reunited with many of the “Wrecking Crew” session musicians who played on them. His old comrade, staff engineer Chuck Britz, also presided. The homecoming proved fruitful, if not strained from Brian’s initial paranoia. At one point during the sessions, it was decided that a double album was to be released: one LP of oldies ("15 Big Ones" on the record sleeve) and one new album of original material and outtakes from past sessions ("Group Therapy"). Dennis explained in Crawdaddy that the band's next album would “take the form of a double album of all-new material that stretched from hard rock ‘n’ roll to these wordless vocals we’ve been doing that sound like the Vienna Boys Choir.”

Recorded between January and May with the bulk of the recording held at the band’s own Brother Studio in Santa Monica, the ambitious double album project was now called by Brian "Group Therapy". The gatefold sleeve was designed by KittyHawk graphics, owned by Dean Torrence of Jan & Dean and featured portraits of the bearded band members by renowned photographer Guy Webster.

Mike’s spirited lead vocal kicks off the album with a rollicking take on Chuck Berry’s Rock and Roll Music, which was also issued as the album’s first single (predating the LP’s appearance with a May release in a hotter 45 mix). It peaked at #5 in August, giving the band their first Top Ten single since Good Vibrations ten years earlier. A few of the cover songs are connected to record producer and composer Phil Spector, whose famous Wall of Sound production methods have been an enduring fascination to Brian. "Just Once in My Life" and "Chapel of Love" both carry Spector songwriting credits, and "Talk to Me" had been a relatively unknown 45 rpm single produced by Spector in the early 1960s for singer Jean DuShon. Some of the other covers recorded for the album's sessions are "Come Go With Me", "On Broadway", "Running Bear", "Shake, Rattle, and Roll", "Peggy Sue". According to Wilson, the songs that were covered were chosen on the basis that "since they were acceptable once, we figured they would be acceptable again. . . We figured it was a safe way to go."

The second LP's first side consisted of late 1970 outtakes. Starting with Carl's beautiful rendition of the Jacques Brel/Terry Jacks song "Seasons In The Sun", we move with the quirky Brian composition "H.E.L.P. Is On The Way" with reference to his old shop "The Radiant Radish". Then moving on to Mike Love's beautiful alternate version of "Big Sur", the wonderful Dennis-penned ballad "My Love Lives On" (written in 1974 with Stephen Kalinich) and closing with the brand new Brian instrumental "Short Skirts" and the weird 1970 Halloween reject called "My Solution". Second side opens with the album's second single (which peaked at # 10), "Sherry She Needs Me", a throwback to the Pet Sound era (featuring a 1965 backing track, followed by Brian and wife Marilyn's romantic "Winter Symphony" and the silly "Friends"-era soundalike "T.M. Song". Closing the side are new renditions of the classics "Michael Rowed the Boat Ashore" and "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" (featuring Brian of all instruments and voices).

 
A media campaign, "Brian's Back", was devised to promote Brian's return as a touring member and active producer for the band. The Beach Boys were given an NBC TV special heralding their return.; it included a rendition of "That Same Song" with the Alexander Hamilton Double Rock Baptist Choir which is featured on the double album. The complete work was released on August 20th 1976, rising to number 8 in the US during a chart stay of 27 weeks, went gold and became the band's last top 10 studio album. 

Group Therapy was the most commercially successful Beach Boys studio album in over ten years, though the critical reaction of the album was not strong, critics deeming the album "too ambitious" and "unfocused". Carl was disappointed with the record, while Dennis was "heartbroken," explaining: "People have waited all this time, anticipating a new Beach Boys album, and I hated to give them this. It was a great mistake to put Brian in full control. He was always the absolute producer, but little did he know that in his absence, people grew up, people became as sensitive as the next guy. Why do I relinquish my rights as an artist? The whole process was a little bruising." Before the end of the sessions, Dennis would strike back by starting to work on his own solo project, "Freckles".

And after all is said and done, Group Therapy is a very Brian album. In the end, 1976 turned out to be a banner year for The Beach Boys. If Brian wasn’t quite back yet, he was smack dab in the process of returning. He lost a bunch of weight and although he generally felt and appeared awkward onstage, he toured with the Boys in the fall. “The Beach Boys 15th Anniversary Special” (produced by Lorne Michaels of Saturday Night Live) aired on NBC-TV in August and fans new and old continued to come out in droves to see the band live.

Considering Brian’s frazzled physical and mental state in 1976, the success of Group Therapy on so many levels may be considered nothing short of a miracle. One might also view the album as Brian’s salvation from a goal-less downward spiral and an imminent crash landing. In 1977, he would produce his first solo album (with the help of his band), "Brian Love You/Adult-Child", another double album masterwork that found Brian firmly at the helm and inspired. Some fans argue that it ranks among Brian Wilson's best work. The Beach Boys, on the other hand, wouldn't release a new album until 1978...