“Barbara Ann” taken from the LP ‘Party!’ | (Capitol Records T 2398) November 1965
The Beach Boys | Barbara Ann | (Capitol) 1965 | This was the third Beach Boys album of 1965 and very much a ’cash-in’ long player for Christmas. Back in the 60s records were big sellers during the festive period and this ’live’ album in the studio broke into the top ten in both USA and Britain and as such was considered a success.
There isn’t much on this to please the casual Beach Boys listener. Fans no doubt lapped it up but if I was a teenager back then I’d be a bit pissed off with the material on ’Party!’ as it just sounds like they’re busking, the background noises from girls ’partying’ is annoying.
The most interesting cut for me is ’Barbara Ann’ which was a cover of a song written by The Regents. The opener ’Hully Gully’ is decent enough.
The Beach Boys | Barbara Ann | (Capitol) 1965
The original release of Party! included a sheet of photographs which depicted the band at a party. In order to promote the album, Capitol distributed to dealers a million bags of potato chips which bore the album’s cover art, intended to be given away to record buyers for free.
The label also coordinated a motion floor merchandiser containing five Beach Boys LPs, full-colour streamers for window displays, and full-scale radio and newspaper advertising.
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