Bruce Johnston

In high school, Johnston switched to contemporary music. He performed in a few "beginning" bands during this time and then moved on to working with young musicians such as Sandy Nelson, Kim Fowley, and Phil Spector. Soon Johnston began backing people such as Ritchie Valens, the Everly Brothers, and Eddie Cochran. In 1959, while still in high school, Johnston arranged and played on his first hit record, "Teen Beat" by Sandy Nelson. The single reached the Billboard Top Ten. The same year, Johnston made his first single under his own name, "Take This Pearl" on Arwin Records (a record label owned by Doris Day) as part of the Bruce & Jerry duo (Jerry Cooper was a high school friend of Bruce's).

In 1960, Johnston started his record production career at Del-Fi Records, producing five singles and an album – Love You So – by Ron Holden (many of the album's eleven tracks were written or co-written by Johnston). In 1962 and 1963, Johnston continued his recording career with a series of surfin' singles (vocal & instrumental) and an album, Surfin' 'Round The World, credited to Bruce Johnston, and another "live" album, the Bruce Johnston Surfin' Band's Surfer's Pajama Party. In 1963 came the first collaboration with his friend Terry Melcher (Doris Day's son), a mostly instrumental covers album credited to the Hot Doggers. The first artist the pair produced was a group called the Rip Chords. Johnston and Melcher were now working as staff producers at Columbia Records, Hollywood, and by the time they were producing the million-selling "Hey Little Cobra", a knock-off of the Beach Boys car song vocal style, they also wound up singing every layered vocal part for the recording. The two of them made a few recordings as Bruce & Terry and the Rogues, but Melcher began to focus more on his production career (with the Byrds, Paul Revere & the Raiders).

On April 9, 1965, Johnston joined the Beach Boys in New Orleans, replacing Glen Campbell, who briefly filled in as a touring member for Brian Wilson, and had declined an offer to officially join the band. Johnston did not start playing bass until his first tenure with the Beach Boys, and the first contributions Johnston made as one of the Beach Boys was on Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!). For contractual reasons, however, he would not be credited or photographed on a Beach Boys album cover until Wild Honey in 1967. Johnston has been credited by the Library of Congress as one of the original greatest supporters of the Beach Boys' 1966 signature album Pet Sounds. He flew to London in May 1966 and played the album for John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and Keith Moon, who was a notable Beach Boys fan. Johnston wrote several Beach Boys songs during this period, starting with the instrumental "The Nearest Faraway Place" off the album 20/20. His most notable written composition for the band during this period was "Disney Girls (1957)", which appeared on Surf's Up and was subsequently recorded by, among others, Cass Elliot, Captain & Tennille, Art Garfunkel, Jack Jones, and Doris Day.

Johnston was dismissed from the Beach Boys in 1972 by manager Jack Rieley at the request of the Wilson brothers, with his final contribution before departing consisting of backing vocals on "Marcella" for the album Carl and the Passions – "So Tough". Johnson then embarked on a solo career; during this period Johnston wrote the song "I Write the Songs", which was originally recorded by Captain & Tennille. The song went on to become a Billboard number one hit by Barry Manilow, for which Johnston won a Grammy Award for Song of the Year in 1977. "I Write the Songs" would go on to be recorded by over two hundred artists, including Frank Sinatra, among others. Regarding the Grammy win, Johnston stated: "How did I win a Grammy for a song that I wrote in my car and Brian Wilson and Mike Love have not won a well-deserved songwriting Grammy? Why is fate being so unfair to two of my pop music songwriting heroes?".

Johnston married Harriet Johnston in 1976 and has four sons: Ozzie, Justin, Ryan, and Max. Politically, Johnston identified as a Republican in 2012. He was the subject of some controversy during the band's 50th Anniversary Tour when a fan video during a meet and greet caught him being critical of then-US President Barack Obama as well as 2012 Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney.

In 1977 Johnston released his third solo album Going Public, which included among its tracks Johnston's own recording of "I Write the Songs" as well as a disco remake of his 1970 Beach Boys song "Deirdre". Johnston would also score a hit off the album on the disco charts with a dance-oriented remake of the Chantays' hit "Pipeline". Also in 1977, Johnston provided vocal arrangements and sang back-up vocals on Eric Carmen's LP Boats Against the Current and can be heard on the hit single "She Did It", with inspiration taken from the 1968 Beach Boys' hit "Do It Again". Additionally, during this period Johnston wrote backing vocal arrangements and also sang on the recordings for Elton John including "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me", as well as several songs on Pink Floyd's album The Wall.

In 1998 Johnston produced Symphonic Sounds - Music Of The Beach Boys with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Symphonic Sounds

In June 2012, Johnston, Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine, and David Marks reunited for a new album and 50th-anniversary tour. Johnston still retains his equal ownership of the band's ASCAP publishing company, Wilojarston, and is the only member of the band to have earned a Grammy Award for Song of the Year. Johnston is currently working on a Skrillex project produced by Sonny Moore, providing vocals as well as vocal arrangements and keyboards.

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Happy 70th Birthday to Bruce Johnston of The Beach Boys! Here's our profile on the band. Do you have a favorite Beach Boys tune?