Check out a video of the band back in the studio before the start of a 50-city tour.
Founding members of pop group The Beach Boys, from left, Mike Love and Brian Wilson are shown on stage at the Brixton Academy, London, in this January 28, 1996 Associated Press file photo.The surviving members of The Beach Boys will reunite next year for a worldwide 50th anniversary celebration, including a tour and album.
Beach Boys Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine, Bruce Johnston, and David Marks will come together for a new studio album, commemorative catalog releases from Capitol/EMI, and a 50-date international tour to begin with a headlining performance at the New Orleans Jazz Fest in April. Carl and Dennis Wilson, who founded the band with brother Brian, cousin Love and friend Jardine, died in 1998 and 1983 respectively.
Love had told The Republican earlier this year that an album was in the works and that he, Wilson and Jardine had put years of legal squabbles behind them.
In a statement tied to reunion announcement, Love said, "We got together at Capitol Records and re-recorded ‘Do It Again.’ Brian and I wrote that song which went to No. 1 in Great Britain, Australia and elsewhere some 44 years ago. Brian paid me a compliment saying, ‘How can a guy sound that great so many years later?’ Later on, while working out some harmonies on a new song Brian had written, I got a chance to return the compliment. It was a thrill to be around a piano again with Brian, Alan and Bruce and experience firsthand the brilliance of cousin Brian's gift for vocal arrangements. I am very much looking forward to David Marks joining us and thrilling with his surf guitar licks. Music has been the unifying and harmonizing fact of life in our family since childhood. It has been a huge blessing that we have been able to share with the world. Wouldn't It Be Nice to Do It Again? Absolutely!”
Wilson added, "This anniversary is special to me because I miss the boys and it will be a thrill for me to make a new record and be on stage with them again.”
Jardine said he was "really excited for our fans to be able to see us again in concert on the world stage, and to celebrate our 50th anniversary together with a new studio album.”
Johnston, who joined the group in 1965 and has toured with Love for decades, said, he was "looking forward to singing Brian Wilson's melodies and Mike Love's lyrics once again in concert with many of the original band members, but imagine what we all could come up with vocally in a recording studio atmosphere under Brian's musical direction."
Marks, who played with the Beach Boys in 1962 and 1963, said he was happy to be "celebrating this important milestone in The Beach Boys’ history with the other guys, and with Capitol Records - where it all began 50 years ago."
"It means a lot to me that we can all reunite and pay tribute to the fans who have kept the music alive," he added.
The Beach Boys have already recorded several songs for their new album, to be released in 2012 by Capitol/EMI, with more tracks to be recorded before its completion. The as-yet-untitled album, the first to feature all of the band’s surviving original members in decades, is being produced by Wilson and executive produced by Love.
The Beach Boys and Capitol/EMI have also teamed up for a 50th anniversary campaign spotlighting the band’s entire catalog, with several new commemorative releases planned for 2012, including a new hits collection and a career-spanning box set.
Founded in Hawthorne, California in 1961, The Beach Boys were originally comprised of the three teenaged Wilson brothers: Brian, Carl and Dennis, their cousin Mike Love, and school friend Al Jardine. In 1962, neighbor David Marks joined the group for their first wave of hits on Capitol Records, leaving in late 1963, and in 1965, Bruce Johnston joined the band when Brian Wilson retired from touring to focus on writing and producing records for the group.
The Beach Boys signed with Capitol Records in July 1962 and released their first album, "Surfin’ Safari," that same year.