1976 · Behind the Songs
“With Brian Wilson back in the producer’s chair, the Beach Boys tipped their hats to Chuck Berry — and scored their biggest hit of the decade.”
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By 1976 the Beach Boys needed a hit. Their early-1970s albums had earned critical respect but little radio play, and the music business had changed around them. The answer, it turned out, was to look backward: 15 Big Ones, released on July 5, 1976, mixed new originals with covers of 1950s rock and roll standards, and its lead single — released May 24, 1976, backed with “T M Song” — was Chuck Berry’s “Rock and Roll Music.”
Brian Returns to the Board
The album marked Brian Wilson’s return as the group’s producer, and his touch is everywhere on the single: a lean, driving arrangement, Mike Love’s confident lead vocal and those unmistakable stacked harmonies on the chorus. Berry’s 1957 original was already a rock and roll landmark; the Beach Boys’ version honors it while making it unmistakably their own, trading Berry’s guitar bite for California vocal shine.
The choice was canny. In the mid-1970s, oldies were big business, and a band that had practically invented the harmony-drenched side of early-1960s pop was the perfect vehicle for a Chuck Berry tribute.
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Chart Journey and Legacy
“Rock and Roll Music” reached No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 — the Beach Boys’ biggest hit of the 1970s and their first Top 10 single in a decade. It proved the group could still command AM radio, and it set up the commercial comeback that would continue into the 1980s.
What to listen for: Mike Love’s swaggering lead, the gang-vocal chorus that only the Beach Boys could sing, and Brian’s production — crisp, economical and beaming with affection for the music that had inspired him as a teenager.