WE CURRENTLY HAVE  MORE THAN 100  LISTED ITEMS

 

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·      BEACH BOYS - THE BEST OF BEACH BOYS (vol. 1) –  ORIGINAL 1967 CAPITOL RECORDS MONO LP T-2545

 

·      ORIGINAL U.S. PRESSING

 

·      EXTREMELY RARE MONO PRESSING, MANY TIMES RARER THAN FAKE (“ELECTRONICALLY RECHANELLED”) STEREO; THIS  WAS ONE OF THE LAST BEACH BOYS CAPITOL ALBUMS TO BE RELEASED IN MONO.

 

·      ORIGINAL BLACK CAPITOL LABEL WITH MULTICOLORED SPECTRUM (“RAINBOW) BAND ALONG THE LABEL’S EDGE AND CAPITOL’S LOGO ON TOP (12 O’CLOCK POSITION) OF THE LABEL

 

·      THIS IS THE ORIGINAL, AUTHENTIC, FIRST U.S. PRESSING; THIS IS NOT A REISSUE, AN IMPORT, OR A COUNTERFEIT PRESSING.

 

·      THICK CARDBOARD COVER, AMERICAN STYLE.

 

·      COVER IS STILL PARTIALLY (ABOUT 80%) IN ITS ORIGINAL SHRINK (CELLOPHANE) WRAP

 

·      THICK, HEAVY VINYL PRESSING

 

·      MONO version of this album has NEVER been available on legitimate Compact Disc or in any other digital format.

 

(►PLEASE SEE THE IMAGE OF THE COVER, LABEL OR BOTH, SHOWN BELOW)

(Note: this is a REAL image of the ACTUAL item you are bidding on. This is NOT a "recycled" image from our previous auction. What you see is what you'll get.  GUARANTEED!)

 

 

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The Best of the Beach Boys had the distinction of being the first-ever compilation of Beach Boys songs, issued in the summer of 1966, It made number eight on the charts, no mean feat, considering that most of the album -- apart from "You're So Good to Me" and "Kiss Me, Baby" (off of Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!) and Today!, respectively), neither of which was a hit single -- consisted of songs two years old or more. It is a strong collection for a 38-minute body of music, representing the different sides of the Beach Boys' sound as it was defined between 1963 and 1965: surf and car songs, straight-ahead rock & roll, vocal pop, and some of Brian Wilson's more sophisticated songs within those contexts, hits and album tracks chosen based on their being as listener-friendly as possible to a teenage audience. Record buyers loved it and not just in 1966 -- The Best of the Beach Boys achieved double-platinum status across the ensuing two decades. But behind the scenes, the album's release pointed to a serious schism between composer/producer Brian Wilson and the label, and also paralleled a division between Wilson  and the rest of the Beach Boys. The group's new album, Pet Sounds, largely authored and entirely produced by Wilson  over the previous ten months, had been the group's official new release in May of 1966, reflecting a distinctly more serious and sophisticated sound for the band. But that new sound wasn't fully appreciated by fellow bandmembers Mike Love, Carl Wilson, Dennis Wilson, and Al Jardine, who would have preferred an album of relatively carefree, rocking car and surf music. Nor was Capitol Records happy with the new sound, its executives believing that the group's audience wouldn't take to Pet Sounds as they had to their earlier surf and car songs. And while it did yield four successful singles and made number ten on the charts, the new record didn't sell as well as the label (or Wilson) had hoped. And so, 60 days after the release of Pet Sounds, Capitol issued The Best of the Beach Boys as a stop-gap measure, to give the fans something that they could embrace, Wilson  was deeply hurt by the sudden appearance of this collection, which was very heavily promoted, he believed, at the expense of Pet Sounds. He believed that the label had, in effect, abandoned the record that he'd devoted ten months of his life to making and, in effect, declared its preference for surf and car songs. On some level, he must've felt like a child actor or teenage star whose management and producers didn't want him to mature -- and was forced to compete, in effect, with a younger version of himself. This album was only the first in a string of reissues that always managed to cast the label as embracing the group's old sounds at the expense of their newest, most personal music, initially to Wilson's consternation and, later, that of the entire group, once they accepted the new music. The Best of the Beach Boys has long since been supplanted by other, more wide-ranging compilations of the group's work, but taken on its own terms, it is a fine, quick overview of their early work -- the surf and rock & roll numbers, "Surfin' USA," "Catch a Wave," "Little Deuce Coup," and "Little Honda," and the familiar harmony ballads "In My Room" and "Surfer Girl" share space with lesser known but equally worthwhile and enjoyable album tracks, including "Kiss Me, Baby" and "You're So Good to Me"; and even while aiming for the widest possible audience, Capitol couldn't avoid Wilson's more ambitious musical inclinations -- also present were "Warmth of the Sun," which had been written on the night of President Kennedy's assassination, and the exquisite "Wendy," resplendent in glowing harmonies and an organ break, whose lush timbres pointed toward Pet Sounds.

 

(REVIEW REPRINTED COURTESY OF BRUCE EDER, ALL MUSIC GUIDE  /ALLMUSIC.COM/)

 

TO SEE IF WE HAVE OTHER LISTED ITEMS BY THIS GROUP OR ARTIST ► 

 

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·      CONDITION:

 

·      THE RECORD

 

(IMPORTANT NOTE: unless otherwise noted, ALL records are graded visually, and NOT play-graded!; we  grade records under the strong, diffuse room light or discrete sunlight)

 

(a)         WE GRADE THE VINYL AS STRONG VG++. A few light abrasions  ARE VISIBLE, but they appear fairly  insignificant relative to the overall condition of the vinyl, and are only moderately visually distracting. For most part, the vinyl looks impeccable, without any MAJOR visual flaws or imperfections. Much of the original luster is intact, and the vinyl shines and sparkles almost like new.

 

(b)          The record is pressed on a beautiful, thick, inflexible vinyl, which was usually used for the first or very early pressings. Usually, the sound on such thick vinyl pressings is full-bodied, vivid, and even dramatic. Do not expect to obtain such a majestic analog sound from a digital recording!

 

(c)         The record comes in the original stock inner sleeve.

 

(d)         Mono pressing of this title is much rarer, and by far more  preferable to its stereo counterpart. We think that the mix is more natural, humane, "organic" and that the mixes are somewhat different than on the stereo version. We estimate that stereo copies of this album outnumber mono pressings by a ratio of at least 20:1.

 

(e)         Of course, this is a full-bodied ANALOG recording, and not an inferior, digital recording!!!

 

 

·      THE COVER

 

THE COVER IS STILL IN ITS ORIGINAL ►SHRINK WRAP;  HOWEVER, WE ARE UNABLE TO GRADE IT NEAR MINT DUE TO MINOR FLAWS LISTED BELOW; WE GRADE THIS COVER AS EXCELLENT OR VG++

 

The following flaws or imperfections are noted on the cover:

 

-       Cover has some light ring wear in one small area not covered by the shrink wrap (nothing significant)

-       Cover has some light ring wear (nothing significant); On the scale from 1 to 10 (1 being the least, and  10 being the most severe), we assess the severity of ring wear as 3

 

-       Cover shows some light yellowing on both sides, apparently from aging.   (nothing significant)

 

-       Tiny water stain noted on one top corner on the back panel  (VISIBLE ON BACK SIDE ONLY)   (less than 1/2 square inch in size)

 

-       Cover has one corner slightly dinged (nothing significant)

 

 

NO OTHER VISIBLE FLAWS OR IMPERFECTIONS ON THE  COVER

 

 

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POSTAGE & SHIPPING:

 

We offer three postage rates for domestic orders: USPS Media Mail, USPS Priority Mail and USPS Express Mail and three rates for international shipments:  USPS First Class, USPS Priority International Mail, and USPS Express International Mail (in a small number of cases, we will, at our discretion and for purely technical reasons, substitute First Class Mail with eBay's Global Shipping, which is fundamentally the same service at about the same cost). INTERNATIONAL CUSTOMERS PLEASE NOTE: WE RECOMMEND (BUT DO NOT INSIST) that you select USPS International Priority Mail when making a payment.

 

INTERNATIONAL POSTAGE rates vary from one region of  the world to another. For SPECIFIC international and domestic postage rates, please click on " Shipping, returns, and payments" tab in the header of our listing.

 

 

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CRITICALLY IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

 

(A) All orders valued at $50.00 or more will be shipped fully insured against loss, damage or theft by ShipCover, eBay's contracted insurer, at our expense (B) Yes, we do combine items into a single shipment; in order to enable this feature, the winning bidders should WAIT until their last item of interest ends and ONLY THEN make a payment. Doing otherwise will result in multiple shipments to the same customer and forfeiture of multiple shipping charges already paid. (C) Because we do not play-grade our items, we do not know how the purchased item will play on the buyer's equipment. We can only make reasonable inference on the record's playing condition based on its visual appearance. (D) This seller will NOT cancel erroneous, frivolous and prank bids. The bidders can do so on their own, by visiting eBay's Site Map, then clicking on Bid Retractions link. (E) This seller does not specifically grade or describe certain items, such as: shrink (cellophane) wrap and accompanying extras (inserts, booklets, etc.); however, the presence of these items WILL be noted and accompanied by the gallery photo(s). (F) Please do not submit any bids on our items if you have insufficient user history. (G) Other than in very rare justified cases, failure to pay for the item you won amounts to a fraud and will result in a permanent ban on bidding on our future listings. (H) We will NEVER deliberately, knowingly or willingly provide a false, deceitful or misleading information.

 

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OUR REFUND POLICY :

 

WE OFFER UNCONDITIONAL MONEY-BACK GUARANTEE (POSTAGE INCLUDED) WITHIN 30 DAYS FROM THE RECEIPT OF THE MERCHANDISE, NO QUESTIONS ASKED; STILL SEALED ITEMS MUST BE RETURNED SEALED IN ORDER TO BE ELIGIBLE FOR A REFUND.   NO EXCEPTIONS!

 

 

FINE (BUT IMPORTANT!) PRINT

 

 (1) The year indicated in the title bar is the year of the original release,  NOT necessarily the year of the actual pressing; for the actual generation of the pressing, please see our item description (top section, the text in red letters). (2) Please do NOT bid based on the title bar, subtitle bar or item specifics box alone; instead, please read the entire description before bidding; (3) Absolutely NO order cancellations after the auction closes. ever, under any circumstances. We can ONLY cancel bids before the item closes. (4) We are unable to provide matrix-, stamper- or other pressing  information in the final 24 hours of the auction. (5) All disagreements and miscommunications can be - and will only be - solved in a civil and mutually respectful manner; please avoid puerile, offensive, abrasive or menacing language (6) This seller will accommodate all reasonable requests and - unless seriously molested - is generally a flexible, pragmatic and agreeable person.

 

Our love & appreciation for your trust, loyalty and business, always and forever;  Thank You & Good Night!

 

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