Summer in Paradise - Background

Background

The entire album was recorded using a Beta version of Pro Tools on a Macintosh Quadra computer, being one of the first albums to do so. Musically, it continued in the vein of The Beach Boys and Still Cruisin' by having an abundance of electronic instrumentation. The entire rhythm section was electronic on most songs, with all the drum parts being programmed (although not credited as such) and most of the bass parts were also synthesized.

All the surviving original band members (except Brian Wilson, who was in legal process of being removed from the care of Eugene Landy), contributed to this project, though the only band member to actually play on the record was Bruce Johnston. Significantly, Van Dyke Parks played accordion on two tracks, belying the frequent media recycling of Parks' alleged estrangement from Mike Love's so-called "commercialization" of the Beach Boys's sound. Terry Melcher was the other significant keyboard musician taking part. Though Al Jardine's son Adam sang backup vocals on the title track and touring musician Adrian Baker also sang backup, other regular members of the current Beach Boys' touring band such as Bobby Figueroa, Ed Carter, Mike Kowalski and Matt Jardine did not contribute to the album. Mike Love was the main composer on the album; Johnston was the only other member to contribute a new song to the album. Jardine had allegedly been "suspended" from the band prior to the album's recording, supposedly because of a dispute about content with Mike Love. He did however, ultimately sing leads on two of the album's strongest cuts, and contributed to the revoicing of tracks for the partly rerecorded UK issue on EMI.

The conceptual idea behind the title song, co-written by Mike Love, was environmental protection but the album was designed, in Love's words, to create "the quintessential soundtrack of summer". Every song, with the exception of a cover of their 1970 "Forever" and the original song "Strange Things Happen", deals with summer in one way or another. Of the album's twelve tracks, two songs are covers ("Hot Fun in the Summertime" originally by Sly & the Family Stone, and "Remember (Walking in the Sand)" originally by The Shangri-Las); two are new versions of older Beach Boys songs ("Surfin'" and "Forever", the latter with a vocal by John Stamos); one combines a classic song ("One Summer Night") with a new Bruce Johnston song ("Slow Summer Dancin'"); and one takes an old song ("Under the Boardwalk") and adds new lyrics. The rest are original numbers, all containing both titular and lyrical references to summer and/or surfing, with the exception of the Transcendental Meditation-influenced "Strange Things Happen". The quasi-rap number "Summer of Love" was originally intended to be a duet with Bart Simpson for a planned Simpsons movie. The song was instead used in an episode of Baywatch.

Since Navarre and EMI only issued one print run each, Summer in Paradise has technically been out of print since its release. The album has become a collectors' piece, fetching upwards of $25 USD on eBay for a U.S. pressing and upwards of $40 USD for UK pressings.