Charter member and Beach Boys’ co-founder Al Jardine will perform on Saturday at the Scottish Rite Auditorium in Collingswood –
Any time a member of the Beach Boys takes the stage, you can be sure a jukebox of hits from the legendary band’s prodigious songbook will fill the air.
But charter member and group co-founder Al Jardine – who performed on April 11 at the Scottish Rite Auditorium in Collingswood – has dug deeper into the group’s musical vault, using his concerts to highlight many of the 14 songs that comprise the Beach Boys’ relatively obscure 1977 album, “The Beach Boys Love You.”
That album, coincidentally, was released on April 11, 1977. At a concert last month in Sarasota, Florida, the 83-year-old Jardine’s entire set was devoted to 12 of the LP’s 14 tracks. As he explained during a recent phone call, the idea to break out the material of one album predated the June, 2025 death of the Beach Boys’ guiding light, Brian Wilson.
“It was something we talked about when Brian was touring with (the Beach Boys),” Jardine recalled of Wilson, who died at 82. “We always said, ‘Why don’t we do something really esoteric and different?’ And then the ‘Love You’ album came up time and time again, but it just never happened.
“So now it’s just time for it, I guess,” Jardine added. “And it’s really charming.”
There has been a well-documented and decades-long schism in the group’s camp, primarily the result of long-standing animosity between Jardine and fellow band co-founder Mike Love, who continues to perform under the Beach Boys banner. Jardine explained that touring on his own is far better than sitting around his California ranch.
“I got sick of staying home,” he said with a chuckle. “We wanted to get out there and spread the word, and to bring the Brian Wilson Band back into action. And then Brian passed away, of course, but we had already planned to do this before he passed.
“We really wanted to get out and work again and bring the music to the folks.”
As he noted, Jardine’s musical support is provided by the same group of musicians – including his singer-percussionist son Matt – who backed Wilson on his solo tours. Their unit has been dubbed the Pet Sounds Band, after the group’s epic 1966 album.
Jardine noted that the original idea was to include Wilson.
“I was hoping Brian would be there to help us to some degree,” Jardine recalled, “but it wasn’t meant to be. So, we’re out there now as a tribute to Brian’s music, because it’s so important, especially now.”
To be clear, there is more to the set list than just material from “The Beach Boys Love You,” which is presented in its own segment. Jardine’s Florida set list also included Beach Boys signatures like “California Girls”; “Surfer Girl”; ”God Only Knows”; and, of course, “Good Vibrations.”
Touring hasn’t been Jardine’s only dip into musical waters over the past year or so. He released a four-song digital EP last year called “Islands in the Sun,” which includes the track “My Plane Leaves Tomorrow (Au Revoir),” about a soldier heading off to war; Neil Young on vocals; and the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ bassist Flea, who plays the “Taps” sequence on trumpet.
The song was recorded in 2010. So why did Jardine wait 15 years to release it?
At first, he simply said, “I don’t know,” to the question, but ultimately added that “There was so much going on in the Beach Boys’ world” at the time of its recording.”
But Jardine did offer his reason for releasing “My Plane Leaves Tomorrow (Au Revoir)” when he did, around the time of the first U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran last June.
“When I released it,” he noted, “there was a lot of stuff going on (in the Middle East). I thought, ‘We better get this out there now,’ because in the beginning of the song, you hear the BBC commentator say, ‘The president cannot start a war with Iran without Congressional approval.’
“It’s an actual recording that I took from the BBC (in 2010),” Jardine said, “and I thought, ‘Wow, that thing’s never changed.’”
For tickets, go to etix.com.
Anka at the Borgata
Al Jardine isn’t the only octogenarian pop immortal on tour. The indefatigable Paul Anka performs at Atlantic City’s Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa on Saturday.
The 84-year-old’s unprecedented, almost-70-year career as a singer-composer has long impacted popular culture.
- Canadian born, Anka became a teen pop idol in the late 1950s, with hits like “Diana,” “Puppy Love” and “Put Your Head on My Shoulder.” In 1962, he composed the theme song for Johnny Carson’s “Tonight Show.” And in 1968, he wrote “My Way” specifically for Frank Sinatra.
- Anka has also been responsible for launching the careers of Grammy-winning record producer David Foster and superstar crooner Michael Buble, and he wrote the Tom Jones’ signature, “She’s A Lady.” According to his 2013 book, “My Way: An Autobiography,” Anka and Buddy Holly had made plans to collaborate before the latter died in the 1959 plane crash that also claimed the lives of Ritchie Valens and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson.
The point is that Anka is a legitimate pop-culture titan and an artist who should be seen at least once by anyone and everyone.
For tickets go to ticketmaster.com.
