CLASSICS/SEL. BY BRI

The Beach Boys includes: Brian Wilson, Carl Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine, Dennis Wilson, Bruce Johnston. Recorded between 1963 & 2002. Includes song commentary by Brian Wilson. CLASSICS is a wonderful collection of hand-picked standards chosen by Brian Wilson himself, the band's visionary singer-songwriter, and it features his own track-by-track annotations. Eschewing simpler early hits like "Surfin' U.S.A." and "409," the maestro instead goes mostly for more complex fare like the landmark "Good Vibrations," early-1970s nugget "Sail On Sailor," and the underrated SMILE-era "Heroes & Villains." Things kick off tellingly with the portentous "Surfer Girl," perhaps the exact transition point between the band's sun-and-fun period and a deeper, more emotionally substantive vision. In Wilson's notes we learn that "The Warmth of the Sun" was written for JFK on the date of his assassination and "California Girls" is Wilson's favorite song. Otherwise, the songs speak for themselves, whether it's the isolation reverberating through "In My Room" or the lighthearted swagger imbuing "I Get Around." Equally impressive is the newly recorded "California Feelin'," a song packed with gorgeous harmonies and an irresistible melody that Wilson initially wrote back in the '70s and recorded specifically for this collection in 2002.