Almost Summer (soundtrack) - Celebration 1978

 


Celebration was a short-lived group fronted by The Beach Boys' Mike Love and included several members of The Beach Boys touring band, alongside some other L.A. musicians. 

This, their first album, was made as a soundtrack to a  long forgotten movie I've never seen. About half of it is instrumental and kind of superfluous, and a couple of tracks are by completely different artists. 

However it does have three songs that are of interest: the first three.  The title track (i.e., "Almost Summer") is a bonafide Brian Wilson/Al Jardine/Mike Love original -- a demo circulates with Brian Wilson singing the chorus, which I assume he wrote, while Al wrote the verses and Mike the lyrics. This is a pretty good (not great) light pop song that would have fit and even enhanced the concurrent but kind of bland Beach Boys album M.I.U. Album. Mike's voice on this is at it's thinnest and most nasal and will put many people off, but that's what he does. The song was released as a single and apparently hit #28 on the US Hot 100, which is a little surprising: the album and song was apparently more successful than M.I.U. Album! 

The other two songs "Sad Sad Summer" and "Cruisin'" are Mike Love originals. Tuneful enough, and they sound like the M.I.U. Album outtakes they probably were. M.I.U. Album is a hodgepodge of new tracks and tracks from 1976-1977 so it's all just fodder for playlists. I include all three on fantasy "light summer pop" Beach Boys album -- an alternative M.I.U. from 1978 which is OK, but probably the worst of my many Beach Boys fantasy album playlists.

Ultimately this album is not recommended though, if you could even find it -- which you probably can't.

2/5

Here's "Almost Summer", the minor hit from the album:



My version is an mp3 needledrop elicitly downloaded from the Internet-- I don't believe the album was ever released on CD. Sound is pretty good though.

Note: I'll be passing over Alpha Mike Foxtrot by Wilco for now: a 4 CD box set I still haven't digested it.

Coming Up:

A.M. Wilco

A.T.O.M. - Carbon Silicon

ABBA - ABBA 

ABBA Gold: Greatest Hits

Abbey Road - The Beatles

Achtung, Baby! U2

Actually - Pet Shop Boys

Adult/Child- The Beach Boys

Aerosmith's Greatest Hits

After The Gold Rush - Neil Young

Afterglow - Crowded House

Aftermath (UK Version) - The Rolling Stones

Against The Odds: 1974-1982 Blondie (three disc version)

Aimee Mann Live at St. Ann's Warehouse

Aiming For Your Head - Betchadupa

The Album -- ABBA

The Album That Never Was - The Kinks

All Four One - The Motels

All Over the Place - The Bangles

All Summer Long -- The Beach Boys

All the Great Hits -- Diana Ross

All Things Must Pass -- George Harrison

All This Useless Beauty -- Elvis Costello & the Attractions

All-Time Greatest Hits - Neil Diamond

Alluvium -- Eddie Rayner

Almost Blue -- Elvis Costello & The Attractions

Almost Summer - Celebration

Alpha Mike Foxtrot -- Wilco*

The Alphabetchadupa - Betchadupa

Altitude - ALT

American Idiot Green Day*

American Prayer -- The Doors

Amnesiac Radiohead*

And I Feel Fine...The Best of the IRS years (1982-1987) - R.E.M.

Animals - Pink Floyd

Anodyne - Uncle Tupelo

Another Life - Another Life

Another Music in Another Kitchen: The Buzzcocks

Another Side of Bob Dylan - Bob Dylan

Anthology: Diana Ross & The Supremes

Anthology: Smokey Robinson & The Beatles

Anthology 1: The Beatles

Anthology 2: The Beatles

Anthology 3 The Beatles

Anthology: North South, East West - Tim Finn

Apple Venus: Volume One -- XTC

Apollo 18 - They Might Be Giants

The ArchAndroid: Janelle Monae

Are the Village Green Preservation Society -- The Kinks

Are Well-Respected Men - The Kinks

Armed Forces -Elvis Costello & The Attractions

Around the World in a Day - Prince

Arthur (or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire) - The Kinks

At My Piano - Brian Wilson

Autoamerican - Blondie

Automatic for the People - R.E.M.



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