Billboard #1 Hits: #136: “Help Me, Rhonda”- The Beach Boys. May 29, 1965. #1 for 2 weeks.
- Single: “Help Me, Rhonda”- The Beach Boys
- Record Company- Capitol
- Genre: Rock and Roll
- Written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love
- Time: 3:04
- B-side: “Kiss Me, Baby”
- Album- The Beach Boys Today!
- Grade: A-
- Peaked at #1 for 2 weeks on Billboard Hot 100. #1 in Canada, #27 on UK Singles Chart.
“Help Me, Rhonda”- is the second of four Beach Boys #1 hits. 1964- “I Get Around”- 1965- “Help Me, Rhonda” 1966 ” Good Vibrations”– and then the awful “Kokomo” in 1988. ” Help Me, Rhonda” was the only big Beach Boys hit which was sung by Al Jardine. According to Brian Wilson- “Rhonda” wasn’t a real person. Backing The Beach Boys were members of The Wrecking Crew-including Glen Campbell on guitar, Leon Russell on piano and the ever present Hal Blaine on drums- another of Blaine’s #1 hits he played on. At the first session of “Help Me, Rhonda” a drunken Murry Wilson [father of Brian, Carl and Dennis} broke in and criticized the bands performance and enthusiasm- which pushed the sensitive Brian to a breaking point where he confronted his father.
slicethelife 
While The Beach Boys can sound very repetitive, their harmony vocals are out of this world. I’ve also always liked this particular song.
The Beach Boys from their beginning to say 1967 were pretty awesome- can’t miss.
So this is the song that pushed Brian too far. Were there ever any physical fights between dad and the sons? I know my stepdad was a real azz and loved to push all of our buttons, especially my younger brothers. None of them ever took a swing at him. He would have cleaned their clocks! I remember saying something smartalecky back to him once and he jacked me up against the wall. Never hit me though, ever. He was an irritating person often but he was a good guy at heart.
From what I recall reading- Murry beat the boys often. Brian lost his hearing in an ear due to Murry’s abuse. Murry thought he was the genius in the family.
😦 They often do….
In an unforgivable move he sold off their publishing for $700,000 in 1969. Imagine the millions upon millions of dollars those songs have been worth in the past 50 years. .. the incident where Brian lost his hearing- Murry hit him in the head with a 2 X 4.
What the HELL? Sorry for swearing. When I think of Brian, the sensitive artist, and some ….. hitting him in the head with a 2 x 4. Reminds me of one of my maternal uncles who beat my cousin so badly he was left with brain damage. Back then abusive parents could get away with that sh*t. They often still do, but it’s a little more difficult these days. About the publishing rights, shame on the person who swindled the dad. I’m sure a lot of that swindling BS goes on in the industry 😦
Murry thought the publishing was worthless and thought getting 700 k was a steal of a deal.