I bought this album right after its release. The album is very unique. Some of the songs do not sound like the Beach Boys who did "Surfin' USA" "Good Vibrations" and "Barbara Ann." This includes many of the songs with Bruce Johnston, and the songs are between 1986 and the mid 1990s. There are a few songs mixed in from before 1986 and more recent songs. If you are a huge Beach Boys fan, you will want this album, but if you prefer their 1960s music, "Greatest Hits Vol. 1 and 2" would be your best bet.

THE BEACH BOYS are one of those bands that have provided the soundtrack to my life. Growing up in Southern California, their music really does become a part of one's experiences. For instance, I can't hear 'Help Me, Rhonda' or 'The Girls On The Beach' without recalling my years of bodysurfing the waves near Santa Monica's lifeguard station #26. 'Good Vibrations' automatically transports me back to Santa Monica High School - located conveniently 2 blocks from the Pacific Ocean. (Sometimes the sound of the surf called more insistently than the school bell did.) Samohi's official school song, 'Hymn Of Praise' written by Ken Darby from the Class of 1927, starts out, "Oh Samohi, dear old Samohi / Queen of the setting sun / For you we toil, for you our banners fly / We win for you when victory's won!" But every pep rally I attended from '74 through '77 ended more "excitationally" with...

Good, good, good, good vibrations
(oom bop bop)
I'm pickin' up good vibrations
She's giving me excitations
(oom bop bop)

'In My Room' humorously reminds me of the time in 1986 when I found it on a jukebox in a Reno lounge and drove every other patron out of the place with it. I was in the bartender's doghouse, but what are ya gonna do with a liquidated cowboy who wants to hear 'In My Room'.....18 times? And while the richly melancholic 'The Warmth Of The Sun' is my all-time favorite Beach Boys song, there is a lot to be said for many of the tracks found on this compilation.

This is the final part of Capitol's Beach Boys Greatest Hits trilogy series. This one - which features 20 of The Boys' late period minor hits and nonhits - will be ignored by the casual Beach Boys fan, and that is an unfortunate mistake. True, these "leftovers" were recorded and released after the height of the band's popularity and creative success according to the music critics, but the Beach Boys, though they had largely moved away from their gorgeous and complex trademark vocal harmony arrangements, were still making some magic music. And some of it as sensitive and more intense than anything that preceded it.

For every lightweight and silly 'SUSIE CINCINNATI' and 'PEGGY SUE' on this collection, you'll also find a brooding 'TIL I DIE', or nostalgic 'DISNEY GIRLS (1957)', or yearning 'SURF'S UP.' No, we didn't need another version of 'ROCK AND ROLL MUSIC' or 'COME GO WITH ME' and yet, I'd hate to have missed out on the world-weary, but defiant 'LONG PROMISED ROAD', or the intricate protest song, 'THE TRADER', with its catchy movements that force my toes to tap or my feet to stomp.

Some of these songs, being more melodically subtle and lacking that instantly recognizable sound of The Boys' early hits, will require a bit more patience from the listener, but with time, that open-minded patience will certainly be rewarded. Of course, 'SAIL ON, SAILOR' you probably already know (I invented my pen name while it was playing through the sound system in a Coco's Restaurant); the lovely 'GOOD TIMIN'' is reminiscent of that lush harmonizing adopted from The Four Freshmen during The Beach Boys' infancy. And the well-chosen closer, 'CALIFORNIA DREAMIN'', with its urgent tenor sax solo actually eclipses the classic Mamas And Papas version. (Yeah, I couldn't believe it either!)

If all you desire is a balanced career retrospective of some of The Beach Boys' best music on a single disc, then go with 'Classics: Selected By Brian Wilson'. But the REAL fan will want the 3-part Capitol compilation series: 'The Greatest Hits, Vol 1: 20 Good Vibrations'; 'The Greatest Hits, Vol. 2: 20 More Good Vibrations'; and this disc, 'THE GREATEST HITS, VOL. 3: BEST OF THE BROTHER YEARS, 1970 - 1986.'

[*This review is dedicated to my new friend, the surf-riding, beach bike path-riding, and book-writing, MYSTICAL MARY. Evidently she was too shy to approach me on the beach bike path in 1989 to ask, "Riding my way?" She waited seventeen years and until I was living in Airheadzona, and she in Joisey, before saying anything to me. However, Mystical Mary is one of my favorite living writers, and I think you're going to be hearing about her before too long.]

California Saga. When I first heard it in my early twenties I was shocked. I bought two or three copies of "Holland" and wore them out. Glad I finally got this cd with some of their very finest music. It's sad that they were on the decline by the early seventies, but what they left was amazing.

The guy clearly knows not of what he speaks. This disc covers some of the most adventurous music the Beach Boys recorded. That they weren't exactly "hits" in chart placement certainly doesn't diminish their value. Indeed it is because of people like Ed Glasner who completely misunderstand the work that this music wasn't more financially successful for the group.

By the 1970s', The Beach Boys' career had gone downhill. Once a surefire toop 10 hit machine, their singles barely made the top 30 and their albums fared even worse. So a hits collection from this time period may seem like an odd product. But it's a good way to explore this underrated period in their career since it includes several underrated gems and besides, one song here did manage to it the top five.

The first half (tracks 1 - 11) covers1970 - 1973. This is when they recorded much of their best material. Songs like "Add Some Music To Your Day", "This Whole World", Bruce Johnston's lush "Disney Girls", Brian Wilson's chilling "'Til I Die", Carl's magnum opus "The Trader" and the robust "Sail On Sailor" all could've been bigger hits than they were. "Surf's Up", the title track from their 1971 masterpiece, is the best song here. Starting off with an urgent vocal by Carl, it soon drifts into Brian's 1967 demo of the song, with its eerie piano and Brian's somber vocal.

The second half (tracks 12 - 20) covers 1976 - 86. It starts off with their huge comeback hit, a cover of Chuck Berry's "Rock And Roll Music". It was good but the Chuck Berry material should have ended with "Surfin' USA" and "Fun, Fun, Fun". The next song, "It's OK", was the single released after "Rock And Roll Music". While it wasn't as big a hit (Billboard # 29), I like it better. It's fun and orginal. "Honkin' Down The Highway" is a great Al Jardine number with a cool drum intro and a nice, spacey intro. The 1978 cover of "Peggy Sue" is surprisingly good. Unlike other covers, they stay in vein with the original recording and they succeed. Had this song been released during their heyday, it could have been a bigger hit. But you can't judge a song solely on its chart performance. 1979's top 40 hit "Good Timin'" is, in my opinion, their last masterpiece. With their harmonies evoking earlier songs like "Surfer Girl" and Carl's impassioned vocal, it truly is a marvelous studio creation. By jumping ahead to 1981, they leave out the number 12 hit "Beach Boys" medley, but that would be unnecessary since all of those songs made it onto "Greatest Hits, Volume 1". Instead, we get their cover of the Del - Vikings' 1957 hit "Come Go With Me". The song, a top 20 hit, is better than the original because of the harmonies and its beat. "Goin' On" is an odd number vaguely sounding a bit like Queen's "Somebody To Love" with its rising/fading/rising again/ading again and so on and so forth harmonies. "Getcha Back", a top 30 hit from 1985, is a great combination of old Beach Boys with modern sounds, its drum intro eminiscent of Dennis Wilson's. Finally, there's another pgood cover. "California Dreamin'" (with a haunting 12 - string guitatr provided by Byrd Roger McGuinn) is in vein of the Mamas and Papas hits.

Overall, a good collection that I recommend to all music fans. You will find yourself listening to it more than once. Also get their studio albums, inclduing "Pet Sounds" and "Friends"/"20/20", as well as both their boxed sets.