The Beach Boys: Brian Wilson, Dennis Wilson, Carl Wilson, David Marks, Mike Love, Al Jardine, Bruce Johnston.

Additional personnel includes: Glen Campbell, Tommy Tedesco, Jerry Cole, Barney Kessel, Billy Strange (guitar); Tommy Morgan (harmonica); Carl Fortina, Frank Marocco (accordion); Steve Douglas, Jay Migliori, Roy Caton, Lou Blackburn (horns); Al De Lory, Don Randi, Leon Russell (piano); Ray Pohlman, Carole Kaye, Lyle Ritz, Julius Wechter, Bill Pitman (bass); Hal Blaine (drums); Gene Estes, Frank Capp, Jim Gordon (percussion); The Sid Sharpe Strings.

Producers include: The Beach Boys, Hite Morgan, Dorinda Morgan, Nick Venet, Murry Wilson, Brian Wilson.

Compilation producers: Mark Linett, David Leaf, Andy Paley.

Engineers include: Larry Levine, Dave Hassinger, Armen Steiner.

Recorded between 1961 & 1988. Includes liner notes by David Leaf.

A five-CD box set, containing a whopping 142 tracks and covering the group's entire career, that manages to feel like too much and not enough at the same time. True, all of the key hits and most of their finest album tracks are here. The group's decline after 1966 -- and very sharp decline after 1970 -- is inescapable, and even though most of the material here is from the 1960s, the fourth disc especially (spanning the early '70s to the late '80s) is very rough sailing indeed. It's true that about 50 of these tracks are previously unreleased, but be warned that many of them are demos, backing tracks, and alternate versions of well-known songs that aren't a great deal different from the officially released versions. Also, some of the unreleased "tracks" are radio spots. That's not to say that these rare items aren't interesting for the fan; they are. It's just that it's too overwhelming a package for the nonfanatic, and a rather expensive, spotty one for the devoted fan (who will undoubtedly already have at least half the contents). By far, the most interesting unreleased tracks date from the legendary Smile sessions (nearly an album's worth). Never actually completed, they aren't quite the masterpiece that some have claimed, but are extremely interesting, often beautiful excursions into psychedelic production and songwriting that often resemble sound paintings more than songs. Comes with a 60-page booklet by Beach Boy historian David Leaf. ~ Richie Unterberger

From a previously unreleased 1961 recording of their first single "Surfin" to their 1988 #1, "Kokomo," GOOD VIBRATIONS collects everything anyone would want to hear by The Beach Boys. The first disc in this 5-disc set collects the sun and surf hits like "Barbara Ann" and "Fun, Fun, Fun" that summed up the mythical California dream for generations of Americans. While The Beach Boys certainly created some wonderful rock and roll in their 1962-1966 heyday, it's for the brilliant music on discs two and three that they have become rock legends.

These two CDs capture Beach Boys leader Brian Wilson at the peak of his powers, creating still-astounding singles like "Good Vibrations" and the incomparable, otherworldly PET SOUNDS album. One of the real highlights of GOOD VIBRATIONS is that it features many of the fascinating, previously unreleased songs recorded for the aborted SMILE--the legendary unreleased album that allegedly drove Brian Wilson to his 1967 nervous breakdown. Though The Beach Boys were never quite the same after SMILE, this near-perfect box set contains plenty of songs that prove there was much more to the band than Brian Wilson's fragile genius.