Beach Party Related
Recordings
The
popularity of the AIP Beach Party movies led a number of record
companies to produce and release movie related singles and LPs. This was facilitated by the
fact that several of those in the initial starring cast had existing
recording contracts with major labels like Buena Vista and MGM.
Before
you enter this discography it must unfortunately be noted that most
of these recordings are not readily
available for those who wish to hear this music (and the record
companies want to know why Napster was so popular!!!!)
While
a song or two from various albums appears on some anthology “best
of” CDs out there, only four of these records are confirmed to
have been fully re-released on CD (unfortunately, most in small
numbers on no-name labels with very limited distribution, only one
is currently in print). So in most cases the easiest (or
only) way to hear this material is to (a) have a
working turntable handy and (b) track down either an original or
re-released vinyl copy.
In my experience, the best place to find those is through
on-line auction sites such as eBay. At any given time, these
sites tend to have some Beach Party related albums available. I really don’t recommend
going through used record stores/dealers. I’ve dealt with some of the
largest in the U.S. and Europe, and have found most to rarely have
any Beach Party material available (and anything they do tends to be
ridiculously priced irrespective of condition).
What
you hear in the Beach Party movies vs. what you hear on the
“soundtrack” albums 
Visitors should also note that most of
the these records aren’t true soundtrack albums. In fact, with the exception
of the Wand How to Stuff A
Wild Bikini album, two selections from the Annette’s Beach Party LP and
two from her Pajama Party
album, none of this vinyl contains the actual recordings used in the
films. Rather, most are
made up of
“re-recorded” versions of some or all of material from the
given film by a particular artist, usually with covers of related
pop material or even instrumentals thrown in for the sake of filling
up the LP.
As
a result, when listening it becomes interesting to compare the
“re-dos” on these albums with the actual music in the films, for in
some cases they are major improvements, in other cases much less so.
As
example, the version of the title song “Beach Party” Annette sings
on her “Annette’s Beach
Party” LP is faster, punchier and overall a clearly superior
listen than the slower, softened, comparatively mushy version she
and Frankie Avalon do in the movie. On her Annette at Bikini
Beach LP, she performs a solo version of “Because You’re You” that
takes a nice but simple duet from the film and turns it into
one of the most hauntingly beautiful ballads she ever
recorded.
On
the other hand, what you hear in the film is sometimes better –
occasionally, much better --than what’s on the record. Both
Avalon’s and Funicello’s “Muscle Beach Party” LPs
contain tame, diluted versions of the Dick Dale authored “Surfer’s Holiday” (a song
whose refrain melody borrows heavily from Freddie Cannon’s Palisades Park) that are
much less interesting than the version they and Dick performed in
the title sequence of the movie. The version of “It Only Hurts When I Cry”
that Donna Loren performs in Beach Blanket Bingo is also
much better than the one she re-recorded for her Capitol album.
And
now, without further adieu, here are the
records:
Plus one "what could have
been" unborn record:
Note: while the focus of this
discography is on LPs, every single related to the
series is also
covered. | 
