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The math tells a story.
The 20 songs on this UK EMI anthology add up to 49 minutes and 41 seconds of music. That’s 2 minutes and 48 seconds, just over half of length of today’s average rock, pop, or folk offering. Could it be that 2 and 3/4 minutes was about all a listener could take of tunes like ‘Surfer Girl’ and ‘I’m so Young’?
Maybe.
Yet the Beach Boys produced one of the most influential sounds in American music? How is a guy to explain this?
I think their durabilty flows from the undeniable musicality of their act, the Surfer Paradise cause for which they were musical ambassadors, and the several layers of irony with which they pulled off their young-love act.
Like so much Boomer music, your choice to buy or not to buy is likely to come down to three options.
Yes, I’ll buy. The Beach Boys conjure up a voice, a moment, and a dilemma from the time when my life was taking shape. They still sound so cool.
No, I’ll pass. They always seemed like musical clowns. ‘Still do.
Yes, I’ll buy. My parents used to listen to this stuff. It may have been the only cool thing they ever do.
Rock on. Wendy, ‘you still out there?
Canter Bridge 
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