Spirit of America (The Beach Boys album)

Spirit of America
Greatest hits album by The Beach Boys
Released April 14, 1975
Recorded April 1962–April 1969
Genre Rock
Length 48:52
Label Capitol
Producer Brian Wilson,
The Beach Boys
and Nick Venet
The Beach Boys chronology
Endless Summer
(1974)		 Spirit of America
(1975)		 Good Vibrations – Best of The Beach Boys
(1975)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic [1]

Spirit of America is the 1975 follow-up to the Capitol Records compilation of music by The Beach Boys, Endless Summer, released the previous year. After the enormous success of its predecessor, Capitol rounded up the few remaining early hits that were not released on Endless Summer, as well as some worthy album tracks, in addition to two rare singles, "The Little Girl I Once Knew" and "Break Away". Although it features only a handful of genuine hits, Spirit of America proved to be another success for The Beach Boys' former label, reaching number 8 at home and going gold. The "Spirit of America" (and "Endless Summer") record album cover art illustrator is Keith McConnell.

As with Endless Summer, Spirit of America was compiled and released while The Beach Boys were contracted with Reprise Records and, as such, is not considered an "official" album of theirs.

Due to the appearance of more comprehensive and updated hit packages, Endless Summer, Spirit of America, and the 1982 followup Sunshine Dream have long since been deleted from the group's catalog.

Track listing

All songs by Brian Wilson/Mike Love, except where noted.

Side 1
  1. "Dance, Dance, Dance" (Brian Wilson/Carl Wilson/Mike Love) – 1:59
  2. "Break Away" (Brian Wilson/Reggie Dunbar) – 2:54
  3. "A Young Man Is Gone" (Bobby Troup/Mike Love) – 2:15
  4. "409" (Brian Wilson/Mike Love/Gary Usher) – 2:00
  5. "The Little Girl I Once Knew" (Brian Wilson) – 2:36
  6. "Spirit of America" (Brian Wilson/Roger Christian) – 2:23
Side 2
  1. "Little Honda" – 1:51
  2. "Hushabye" (D. Pomus/M. Shuman) – 2:40
  3. "Hawaii" – 1:59
  4. "Drive-In" – 1:50
  5. "Good to My Baby" – 2:17
  6. "Tell Me Why" (John Lennon/Paul McCartney) – 1:38
Side 3
  1. "Do You Remember?" – 1:37
  2. "This Car of Mine" – 1:35
  3. "Please Let Me Wonder" – 2:45
  4. "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" (Frankie Lymon/Morris Levy) – 1:58
  5. "Custom Machine" – 1:38
Side 4
  1. "Barbara Ann" (Fred Fassert) – 2:07
  2. "Salt Lake City" – 2:00
  3. "Don't Back Down" – 1:44
  4. "When I Grow Up (To Be a Man)" – 2:02
  5. "Do You Wanna Dance?" (Bobby Freeman) – 2:18
  6. "Graduation Day" (J. Sherman/N. Sherman) – 3:30

This album was also released as a limited-edition Gold CD, and included 2 bonus tracks: "Darlin" and "I Can Hear Music". In addition, the live recording of "Graduation Day" was substituted with the studio version.

Spirit of America (Capitol SVBB 11384) hit number 8 in the US during a chart stay of 43 weeks.

As with the Endless Summer compilation, the 2-record set was pressed with Sides 1 & 4 on one disc and Sides 2 & 3 on the other.

Side 1 of the cassette version features all tracks from Sides 1 & 2 except "Tell Me Why", which was placed on Side 2 as the first track, followed by Sides 3 & 4

The song "Dance, Dance, Dance" featured in this album was also one of 2 Beach Boys tracks included in a promotional-only various artists compilation album issued by Capitol records entitled "The Greatest Music Ever Sold" (Capitol SPRO-8511/8512), which was distributed to record stores during the 1976 Holiday season, as part of Capitol's "Greatest Music Ever Sold" campaign which promoted 15 "Best Of" albums that were released by the record label. "Help Me, Rhonda" (the retitled original "Help Me, Ronda") from "Endless Summer" was the other Beach Boys song included.

References

  1. ↑ Eder, Bruce. Spirit of America at AllMusic
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