1962–1965

The Beach Boys signed a seven-year contract with Capitol Records at the urging of Capitol executive and staff producer Nick Venet who signed the group, seeing them as the "teenage gold" he had been scouting for. On June 4, 1962, the Beach Boys debuted on Capitol with their second single, "Surfin' Safari" backed with "409.” In January 1963, the Beach Boys recorded their first top-ten single, "Surfin' U.S.A.", which began their long run of highly successful recording efforts. When "I Get Around" was released in May of 1964, it would climb to No. 1 in the US, their first single to do so, proving that the Beach Boys could compete with the Beatles and contemporary British pop groups. By the end of 1964, the stress of road travel, writing, and producing became too much for Brian. In January 1965, he announced his withdrawal from touring to concentrate entirely on songwriting and record production.

Now a full-time studio artist, Brian wanted to move the Beach Boys beyond their surf aesthetic, believing that their image was antiquated and distracting the public from his talents as a producer and songwriter. Musically, he said he began to "take the things I learned from Phil Spector and use more instruments whenever I could. I doubled up on basses and tripled up on keyboards, which made everything sound bigger and deeper." In 1965 the Beach Boys released their Summer Days (and Summer Nights!!) album, with “California Girls,” charting at No. 3 in the US while the album went to No. 2. The album also included a reworked arrangement of "Help Me, Rhonda" which became the band's second number one US single in the spring of 1965. This incredibly productive period included eight albums and a wave of hits that would make the Beach Boys the most popular American band.