10 Perfect Rock Albums For Summer 2022
4. The Beach Boys: Surfin' U.S.A. (1963)
It was inevitable that the Beach Boys would turn up on this list. If you've ever managed to get through a summer without hearing at least one Beach Boys track, something has gone horribly wrong.
Although the group's most celebrated album is the 1966 masterpiece, Pet Sounds, their second album, Surfin' U.S.A., is an iconic summertime classic. This was before the British Invasion had swept over America, saturating the market with groups trying to emulate the Kinks and the Beatles. The Beach Boys at this point represented a truly American rock band, fusing barbershop quartet harmonies, with '50s rock 'n' roll and Californian surf rock.
Brian Wilson was still figuring out exactly what his band was capable of doing. The album was filled with covers and rip offs, but it didn't matter for a second - the Beach Boys were merely warming up. The title track was a shameless bastardisation of an earlier Chuck Berry song "Sweet Little Sixteen", but it became one of the group's biggest singles. The album also contained a more traditional cover of Dick Dale's surf rock classic "Misirlou" - a track any Tarantino fan will recognise.