Keepin' the Summer Alive is the 24th studio album by American rock band the Beach Boys, released March 24, 1980 on Brother, Caribou and CBS Records. Produced by Bruce Johnston, the album peaked at number 75 in the US, during a chart stay of 6 weeks, and number 54 in the UK. It is the group's last album recorded with Dennis Wilson, who drowned in 1983. The album included new material alongside several older songs that had not been released up until that point. Two of the new songs were written by Carl Wilson and Randy Bachman, the title track and "Livin' with a Heartache". The latter was released as a single alongside "Goin' On", written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love. Brian wrote or co-wrote five of the other seven tracks.
Background and recording
After the band's previous album, L.A. , failed to live up to commercial expectations, the executives at CBS expected another album as soon as possible. In July 1979, the Beach Boys convened at Western Studio in Los Angeles — the studio where most of the band's 1960s material had been produced by Brian Wilson — to begin work on a new studio album. The album was also recorded at various other studios, including regular backing band member Daryl Dragon's Rumbo Recorders in San Fernando, and Al Jardine's recording studio in his Big Sur barn. Working titles included Cousins, Friends and Brothers and Can't Wait Till Summer. The group wanted Brian to return as their producer and felt that he would be more comfortable recording at the familiar studio environment of Western. They were briefly successful, as Carl Wilson said, "Brian got hot for about three days in the studio. He was singing like a bird. All the protection he usually runs just dropped; he came out of himself, he was right there in the room." One of these, Chuck Berry's "School Days", appears on the album's final track listing. In late August, Carl collaborated with Randy Bachman on the writing of four songs, two of which were included on the record, "Keepin' the Summer Alive" and "Livin' with a Heartache". Bachman declined an invitation to co-produce the album because he was struggling with personal issues. In October 1979, the band reconvened with Bruce Johnston taking complete control of the album's production. The resulting album included a mixture of brand new songs alongside older songs that had not been released up until that point. The older songs date back to 1969, 1972 and 1978. Sessions wrapped on February 14, 1980. The outtake "Goin' to the Beach" was later released on the 2013 compilation Made in California. In 2013, Johnston expressed dissatisfaction with the production of the title track, which he perceived as being weaker-sounding due to Carl's intervention.
Critical reception
In a retrospective review for AllMusic, Rob Theakston referred to Keepin' the Summer Alive as "the low point" in the band's discography: "Ripe with mindless throwaways and lifeless filler... The two exceptions to the rule reside in the title track and the closing 'Endless Harmony.'" In The New Rolling Stone Album Guide, the album is cited as an "abysmal" entry in "a string of inconsequential records" that had not abated since 1978's M.I.U. Album.
