| Becoming the Beach Boys, 1961–1963 | |
| Author: | James B. Murphy |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Subject: | The Beach Boys |
| Publisher: | McFarland & Company |
| Release Date: | 2015 |
| Pages: | 436 |
| Isbn: | 9780786473656 |
Becoming the Beach Boys, 1961–1963 is a 2015 book covering the early years of the American rock band the Beach Boys, authored by American writer James B. Murphy.[1] Dissatisfied with the inconsistent and sparse accounts of this period found in prior literature, Murphy spent eight years writing and researching the 436-page book, which includes 12 appendices, 1,100 end notes, a bibliography, and an index.[2]
In August 2016, Omnivore Recordings issued an audio companion piece to the book in the form of the compilation .[3]
In his review for the Association for Recorded Sound Collections, Robert Iannapollo deemed Becoming the Beach Boys to be the second-best book about the Beach Boys ever written, behind only Philip Lambert's Inside the Music of Brian Wilson. Iannapollo wrote, "There’s a lot to recommend this book. Murphy’s writing style is engaging and entertaining, not an easy thing to do when delving into the minutiae of music."[4]