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advertising and surfing

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Aikau, Eddie

Aipa, Ben

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Allen, Chuck

Alms, Paige

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Alvarez, Pepe

Ancell, Kevin

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Anderson, Craig

Anderson, Simon

Andino, Kolohe

Angel, Jose

angle

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Angourie

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Arakawa, Eric

Archbold, Matt

Arena, Eduardo

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Auster, Ken

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Baker, Grant “Twiggy”

Baker, Tim

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Ballard, Bill

Ballard, Rochelle

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Benson, Linda

Bermuda

Bertlemann, Larry

Wildly popular vocal-rock group from Los Angeles, California, led by songwriting savant Brian Wilson; acclaimed for their soaring melodies and lush, intricately harmonized vocals, and best known for a string of early and mid-1960s hits about surfing and the sun-filled Southern California beach life. "The Beach Boys," 

 magazine wrote, "virtually invented California rock."

The band's original lineup consisted of the three Wilson brothers, Brian, Carl, and Dennis, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Influenced primarily by Chuck Berry and the Four Freshmen, Brian wrote "Surfin'" in 1959 for his 12th-grade Piano and Harmony class (earning a C for the semester); "Surfin'" became a regional hit in 1961, just a few months after the Beach Boys formed. Signed to Capitol Records, the Beach Boys hit the national charts in 1962 and 1963 with "Surfin' Safari" (#14), "Surfin' USA" (#3), "Catch a Wave" (#7), and "Surfer Girl" (#7). Brian produced and arranged the group's music in the mid-'60s, and added layers of melancholy and complexity to songs like "In My Room," "Don't Worry Baby," "God Only Knows," and "Caroline, No." Paul McCartney later said that Wilson and the Beach Boys helped inspire the Beatles' 

 albums, and lauded the Beach Boys' 1966 release 

While the Beach Boys wrote songs about surfing, by strict definition they aren't part of the nonvocal, heavy-reverb-guitar surf music genre. But along with

 (the book and the movie), the Beach Boys helped introduce surfing to America and the rest of the world, with join-in lyrics like "Let's go surfing now, everybody's learning how, come on a surfari with me." Most early and mid-'60s surfers, meanwhile, didn't care for the often-sentimental Beach Boys music. "I remember the first time we heard 'Surfer Girl,'" California 1960s surf icon Mike Doyle said in 1993, "we started hissing and hooting because we thought it was so dumb."

Surf filmmakers Greg MacGillivray and Jim Freeman used new Beach Boys music on the soundtrack to their 1972 hit surf movie

; Beach Boys' songs were also used in David Sumpter's 1974 surf movie 

. As the years passed, even die-hard detractors came around. "None of us much liked the Beach Boys when they first came out,"

 magazine founder John Severson said in 1997. "Now I think their music is wonderful; now I understand it, and know why everyone thought they were so incredible."

Misfortune and tragedy have plagued The Beach Boys: Murray Wilson, father of the three Wilson brothers and the band's first manager, beat Brian hard enough to deafen the boy's right ear, and Brian has suffered throughout his life from drug addiction and mental illness. Dennis Wilson—the only band member who actually surfed—befriended convicted murderer Charles Manson in the late '60s, was an alcoholic, and drowned in 1983 after jumping off his docked boat. Carl Wilson died in 1998 of lung cancer. Mike Love sued Brian Wilson for defamation of character in 1992, after reading Wilson's autobiography, 

; they settled out of court two years later, but Love soon prevailed against Wilson in a royalties dispute.

The Beach Boys continued to release albums in the '80s and '90s; Brian Wilson released a handful of solo albums. 

, the most famous "lost" album of all time, intended as the follow-up to 

, finally came out in 2004, in a newly-recorded form and to rave reviews. In 2012, the Beach Boys released 

, to mostly good notices, and the band reunited for a 50th anniversary world tour that was by turns inspiring and acrimonious.

The Beach Boys were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988. As of 2013, the band had sold more than 350 million albums. Books on the group include 

Heroes and Villains: The True Story of the Beach Boys

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