This came out in 2000 — or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
The ’70s and ’80s weren’t exactly The Beach Boys’ golden age: Brian Wilson’s mental health was on that long, slow slide into the sandbox; their Good Vibrations days were long past; and they had parted ways with their longtime label to start up a vanity imprint called Brother.
Even so, now and then they were still capable of the old magic, as Greatest Hits Vol. 3 — subtitled Best of the Brother Years — verifies. Rock And Roll Music is the biggest hit of the set, but it’s the more obscure tracks that rise to the forefront. Like The Whole World, a burst of vintage Beach Boys sunshine, complete with infectious “ah-uuuuum-dop-diddit” backups. Or the psychedelic Surf’s Up, intended as the centrepiece of the lost Smile album. Or the cool covers of Peggy Sue, Come Go With Me and California Dreamin’. Amazingly, none of this is new or unreleased — it’s just that almost nobody was listening the first time around. Now we know better. The Brother years may not have been the best of times for The Beach Boys, but they were far from the worst.
