Endless Harmony Soundtrack

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{{Infobox album

| name = Endless Harmony Soundtrack

| type = Compilation album

| artist = The Beach Boys

| cover = Endless1Cover.jpg

| alt =

| released = 11 August 1998

| recorded = 12 June 1963 – 4 July 1998

| venue =

| studio =

| genre = Rock

| length = 74:01

| label = Capitol

| producer = Phil Sandhaus, Michel Etchart

| prev_title = The Pet Sounds Sessions

| prev_year = 1997

| next_title = Ultimate Christmas

| next_year = 1998

| misc = {{Extra album cover

| header = Alternate cover

| type = Compilation album

| cover = Endless2Cover.jpg

| border =

| alt =

| caption = The cover for the re-released version, issued on 28 March 2000.

}}

{{Music ratings

|rev1 = AllMusic

|rev1score = {{Rating|4|5}}{{cite web |first=Bruce |last=Eder |title=Review: Endless Harmony |url={{AllMusic|class=album|id=r371748|pure_url=yes}} |publisher=Macrovision Corporation |access-date=5 September 2009}}

| rev3 = Encyclopedia of Popular Music

| rev3Score = {{Rating|4|5}}{{cite book|editor-first=Colin|editor-last=Larkin |year=2006|title=The Encyclopedia of Popular Music |edition=4th|location=London |publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-531373-4|page=479}}

| rev5 = The Rolling Stone Album Guide

| rev5Score = {{Rating|2|5}}{{cite book |editor1-last=Brackett |editor1-first=Nathan |editor2-last=with Hoard |editor2-first=Christian |year=2004 |title=The New Rolling Stone Album Guide |edition=4th |location=New York, NY |publisher=Fireside/Simon & Schuster |isbn=0-7432-0169-8 |page=[https://archive.org/details/newrollingstonea00brac/page/46 46] |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/newrollingstonea00brac/page/46 }}

}}

Endless Harmony Soundtrack is an anthology album of previously unheard material by The Beach Boys, originally released by Capitol Records in August 1998. Named for Bruce Johnston's song on the 1980 album Keepin' the Summer Alive, it was designed as a tie-in with the band's biographical documentary of the same name. The soundtrack was re-issued in March 2000 with some remixing and different artwork (European pressings retained the original mixes), while the original 1998 edition (with the orange/yellow cover) went out of print shortly thereafter.

Background

The Endless Harmony project was undertaken shortly after the death of founding member Carl Wilson, who died of lung cancer in February 1998. At this point, Brian Wilson decided that the band was officially finished and disassociated himself from any further group activity. At odds with Mike Love for continuing after Carl's passing, Al Jardine did the same. Both Love and Bruce Johnston (with their accompanying concert act) continued to perform live as The Beach Boys until all five surviving members reunited for their 50th anniversary in 2012.

The Endless Harmony Soundtrack itself is patterned like The Beatles' Anthology albums, with alternate versions and live renditions of songs, as well as previously unreleased ones. Spanning from a stereo remix of 1963's "Surfer Girl" to the completion of the unreleased 1969 recording "Loop de Loop (Flip Flop Flyin' in an Aeroplane)", the album also includes a brief snippet of both Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks routining three Smile songs in 1966.

Endless Harmony Soundtrack never charted in the U.S. or the UK. Although the album was not a commercial success, it did encourage Capitol Records to issue a more comprehensive archival package in Hawthorne, CA, released in May 2001.