The Beach Boys - Live in Chicago 1965 (2015)

Over the past several years since copyright laws were changed in the EU, it has become a tradition at the end of the year for record labels to release “copyright extension” releases featuring unreleased material from their biggest artists to protect their interests in said material. Hot off the heels of a compilation of Motown unreleased material from 1965 comes another release in this vein from a group who has made this a yearly tradition: The Beach Boys. This last Friday, Capitol put up quietly (as is the norm with these releases) on all digital download services a set of two unreleased concerts: Live In Chicago 1965.

Recorded on March 26 and 27 at the Arie Crown Theater in Chicago, this set presents two full concerts. The Beach Boys sang many of their biggest hits up to that point in time and also threw in some covers like “Monster Mash.” The two concerts feature a nearly identical tracklisting just with some shuffled songs and the second concert being slightly longer. As a matter of fact, the song lineup is fairly similar to the Beach Boys Concert album released in 1964, which was expanded with one of last year’s copyright extension releases: Live in Sacramento 1964. Also in this new release are four rehearsal takes for the concerts.

Three studio albums were released by the Beach Boys in 1965. The final one of those, Beach Boys’ Party! was just expanded to two CDs and 81 tracks a little under a month ago as a physical release. The Beach Boys Today! and Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!) have yet to see any unreleased material freed from the vaults as of yet in 2015. Last year, Capitol put out a second “copyright extension” release for studio outtakes (Keep An Eye on Summer), so there is the chance of something else appearing before the New Year.