The Beach Boys -- Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine, Bruce Johnston and David Marks -- will reunite in 2012 for a 50-date, 50th anniversary tour and a new studio album (on Capitol Records, no less!).
The anniversary celebration also will include commemorative catalog releases on Capitol/EMI. The international tour is slated to kick off in April, with a headlining performance at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.
The Beach Boys have already recorded several songs for a new album, with more tracks still in the hopper. The as-yet-untitled album, the first to feature all of the band’s surviving original members in decades, is being produced by Brian Wilson and executive produced by Mike Love.
The band and Capitol/EMI also have teamed up for a reissue campaign that will spotlight the band’s entire catalog, with new commemorative releases planned, including a new best-of collection and a box set.
“This anniversary is special to me because I miss the boys and it will be a thrill for me to make a new record and be on stage with them again,” Wilson said in a press release.
Love added: "We got together at Capitol Records and re-recorded ‘Do It Again.’ Brian and I wrote that song which went to number 1 in Great Britain, Australia and elsewhere some 44 years ago. Brian paid me a compliment saying, ‘How can a guy sound that great so many years later?’ Later on, while working out some harmonies on a new song Brian had written, I got a chance to return the compliment. It was a thrill to be around a piano again with Brian, Alan and Bruce and experience firsthand the brilliance of Cousin Brian's gift for vocal arrangements. I am very much looking forward to David Marks joining us and thrilling with his surf guitar licks. Music has been the unifying and harmonizing fact of life in our family since childhood. It has been a huge blessing that we have been able to share with the world. Wouldn't It Be Nice to Do It Again? Absolutely!”
The Beach Boys signed with Capitol in July 1962 and released their first album, Surfin’ Safari, that same year.
For more about this news, check out thebeachboys.com.
