The Beach Boys—1978-1981 outtakes

Over the last couple of days, a treasure trove of Beach Boys outtakes has slipped out into the wild. It’s on Google Drive, archive.org, and other places.

The leaked songs span the band’s career, but I’m most interested in the songs from 1978-1981. They mark a point where the band still had a creative spark, but their albums were spotty. The band was democratic, with six writers sharing space, but some members were more talented than others. So on their late 1970s albums, gems like ‘Good Timin” and ‘Angel Come Home’ share space with atrocities like ‘Match Point of Our Love’ and the ten-minute disco version of ‘Here Comes The Night’.

Here are some fascinating songs from the leak – apologies if they’ve been taken down by the time you read this.

Starbaby

‘Starbaby’ turned up on the self-titled 1979 album by Mike Love’s band Celebration, but here’s a Beach Boys version with Mike on vocals:

Surfer Suzie

Also from the 1978-79 sessions, ‘Surfer Suzie’ is clearly an echo of the Beach Boys’ early 1960s surf songs. But it’s accomplished anyway, with an updated sound palette for the new wave era. It was written by longtime sideman Ed Carter, with lead vocals from Al Jardine.

Bucks

‘Bucks’ was recorded in May 1980 for the follow-up to Keeping The Summer Alive – the band didn’t make another album until 1985. But it’s fascinating – more hard-edged than anything else in their catalogue, a little like The Rolling Stones ‘Bitch’.

Are you interested in The Beach Boys leak?

10 Best Beach Boys Songs

8 Comments

Christian's Music Musings

February 8, 2026 / 8:56 am Reply

Thanks for flagging these leaked Beach Boys songs. I completely missed that. Perhaps not surprisingly, “Bucks” is my favorite, even though it really does sound like a “Bitch” rip-off. It probably helps the latter is among my favorite songs by the Stones. Who knew the Beach Boys had some bad-ass Stones in them? 😂
- Aphoristical
  
  February 8, 2026 / 9:01 am Reply
  
  Have you heard about Mike Love’s RNRHOF speech?
  
  I know Mick Jagger won’t be here tonight, he’s gonna have to stay in England. But I’d like to see us in the Coliseum and he at Wembley Stadium because he’s always been chickenshit to get on stage with the Beach Boys.
  - Christian's Music Musings
    
    February 8, 2026 / 9:53 am Reply
    
    Nope, that speech is new to me – sounds strange yet intriguing. I’ll look for it, assuming it’s somewhere on the Internet.
  - Christian's Music Musings
    
    February 8, 2026 / 10:06 am Reply
    
    Found it. Love lived up 100 percent to what I’ve thought of him for many years – a big jerk who’s completely full of himself!
    
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZSAQX2uuUY
    - Aphoristical
      
      February 11, 2026 / 9:11 pm Reply
      
      Yeah, I normally have a rule on my site to write nicely, like the person I’m writing about might read it. But doesn’t apply to Love, who seems nasty. Although, two pretty good songs in this batch, plus an NBA star nephew.
Badfinger (Max)

February 14, 2026 / 6:59 am Reply

Wow…I knew nothing of this. Listening to it now. Yes…Bucks does sound like Bitch but it’s good…kinda like The Kinks borrowing Jumping Jack Flash for Catch Me Now I’m Fallin’.
I do need to explore everything after the mid seventies….thanks for this…I’ll be lsitening.
- Aphoristical
  
  February 15, 2026 / 7:17 am Reply
  
  There’s a box set coming out of the Adult/Child sessions. That and Love You are the most interesting Beach Boys projects after the mid-1970s, but they’re more like Brian solo projects and a long way from the core Beach Boys sound. There are some good songs on L.A. Light Album too.
  - Badfinger (Max)
    
    February 15, 2026 / 7:45 am Reply
    
    I commented on Christian’s post today asking him about this as well. I do want to hear more of this…