Celebration (band)
Celebration was the name of a band that mostly consisted of touring musicians from the Beach Boys . Beach Boys singer Mike Love was also an integral part of the band.
Band history
In 1978 a theme music was sought for the film project High School . Beach boy Brian Wilson was asked to write a song for it. He delivered the piece Almost Summer , which fascinated the film producer so much that he then renamed the film title after the song.
The Beach Boys should play this song. Since they were still under contract with Warner Bros. at the time, there were legal difficulties because the film company had a contract with MCA . In order to be able to fit the song into the film, Mike Love formed the band Celebration with studio musicians from the Beach Boys. They released Almost Summer in April 1978 and, quite surprisingly, the single hit # 28 on the US Billboard charts.
The following album - also called Almost Summer - flopped, as did the successor Celebration from 1979. The band had a solid core consisting of Ron Altbach, Ed Carter and Mike Kowalski; however, the other musicians changed. In 1979 the band tried to jump on the disco wave with a third album . The album Disco Celebration represents a rather embarrassing attempt to achieve further popularity, in addition, only Ron Altbach and Mike Love were represented by the original band, whereby their activity was limited to the composition of the songs. Suzanne Wallach and Paul Fauerso sang the songs. Only a few albums were shipped before it was withdrawn from the market.
In 1978 Celebration organized a small concert tour through the USA. Most of the gigs, however, were done with the Beach Boys. At first the Beach Boys played the first part of their program and then went off the stage. From there on, Celebration started playing four to five songs, after which the Beach Boys came back on stage and played the second part of their show. After a few concerts, however, the other Beach Boys also took part in the celebration songs.
Discography
- Almost Summer (1978, MCA Records)
- Celebration (1979, Pacific Arts Records)
- Disco Celebration (1979, ACD Records / Love Songs Production)