The Beach Boys Handbook for Iconoclasts: Essential Facts On Essential Hits (1962-1973)

This book covers, song by song, the main events of the Beach Boys pop-rock band through their heyday of the 1960s and into the early 1970s -- the period of their creative thrust when they were world famous.

The Beach Boys have been hailed in the new millennium by the authoritative Billboard magazine as the American band that has sold more discs than any other. The book describes the details of every single disc released by the band in the period 1962 to 1973.

Included are details on estimated disc sales of each single in America and various other countries; the chart peaks of the discs in seven different American national charts and national charts overseas; the chart peaks of the discs at city and regional radio stations in America and overseas.

To fill out the picture, similar details for key Beach Boys albums are given in context.

Major trends and the rise and fall of various genres and their key acts are covered in the main text, but particularly in a series of six essays and three appendices that cover the challenges faced by the Beach Boys including from The Beatles and other bands of the so-called "British Invasion" of 1964 to 1967. Other key information on the "teen idol" phenomenon preceding the arrival of the Beach Boys is covered, along with prime black and female acts which were disadvantaged for several years dominated by British/ white acts.

To round out the picture further, the key radio stations, the biggest disc markets and disc distribution centers, and accounts on the beginning of rock'n'roll are given.