Bruce Johnston, Grammy-award winning songwriter, joined The
Beach Boys in 1965 as a bass player/vocalist taking Glen Campbell’s
place, who filled in for Brian Wilson when he retired from touring.
In
1958, at the age of sixteen and while still in high school, Bruce
played keyboards in a house band in Los Angeles County. The band
performed on weekends and backed up touring rock artists such as the
Everly Brothers, Ritchie Valens and Eddie Cochran.
Bruce
combined school and music over the next few years and was “bitten by
the surfing bug,” a sport in which he still participates. He began
writing songs and making demo records and wrote (though not credited)
the Billboard Top 10 hit “Teen Beat” recorded by Sandy Nelson
in 1959. At seventeen, Bruce worked at Del-Fi Records in Hollywood
where he was a producer and artist. The label was best known for
artists Ritchie Valens, Ron Holden and Johnny Crawford.
While
attending UCLA in the “Animal House” era, Bruce formed a band and
played the L.A. fraternity circuit. He performed on demo recordings
alongside Herb Alpert for the grand sum of $10 per song. Bruce then
dropped out of college to go to work as a staff record producer with
Terry Melcher at Columbia Records in 1963. They immediately produced a
Beach Boys sound-a-like band “The Rip Chords” and had the Top 5 Billboard
hit “Hey, Little Cobra.” Bruce and Terry were the only voices on the
recording.
In
1963, Bruce went to Hawaii on a surf trip for a week where he met The
Beach Boys. When he returned to work in Hollywood at Columbia Records,
Jan & Dean (high school friends of Bruce) and The Beach Boys were
recording across the street. Bruce and The Beach Boys soon became
friends.
It
was April of 1965 when Bruce initially replaced Glen Campbell (who was
filling in for Brian Wilson on the road) as a “temporary” Beach Boy.
Almost immediately, Bruce completed his first recording with the
band—“California Girls.” In his first year, Bruce recorded three Beach
Boys albums between April of 1965 and May of 1966: Summer Days,
Summer Nights, The Beach Boys Party and Pet Sounds.
Bruce’s amiable style and reputation as a musician’s musician landed
him in many interesting situations i.e., introducing Lennon and
McCartney to Pet Sounds in London.
In
addition to his classic recordings with The Beach Boys, Bruce
participated as vocal arranger and vocalist on Elton John’s “Don’t Let
The Sun Go Down On Me” in 1974, and as vocal arranger and vocalist on
Pink Floyd’s The Wall album in 1979.
Two-term
NARAS Governor, Bruce won a Grammy for the 1976 “Song of the Year” for
composing the words and music to “I Write the Songs.” Recorded by Barry
Manilow, the song reached number one on the Billboard, Cashbox
and Record World charts. In February 2001, Bruce was awarded,
along with The Beach Boys, the NARAS Lifetime Achievement Award.
