August 5, 2016
The Temptations got started in 1960. The Beach Boys followed a year later. Chicago has been around for 49 years.
Next week, all three will be at Pinewood Bowl — Chicago on Tuesday and The Beach Boys and The Temptations sharing a double bill on Thursday.
Not surprisingly, none of the bands has all of its original members.
The Beach Boys have both lost Carl and Dennis Wilson and have seen Brian Wilson and Al Jardine split from Mike Love and longtime member Bruce Johnston.
Touring under Brian’s name, Wilson and Jardine played Stir Cove in Council Bluffs, Iowa, a couple of weeks ago, playing “Pet Sounds,” the Beach Boys’ 1966 masterpiece in its entirety.
Love and Johnston will perform at Pinewood.
The Temptations now have just one original member, but some have been with the group for more than 30 years.
The stories of each group are well known to their fans — from the Motown success of the Tempts to the Beach Boys’ move from surf hitmakers to makers of some of the most-hailed music of the ‘60s to Chicago’s incorporation of jazz-inflected horns into its ‘70s sound and its rise to adult contemporary hitmakers in the ’80s.
Chicago released its 24th studio album and 36th overall, “Chicago XXXVI: Now” in 2014, a disc that drew on both the horns and the adult contemporary sounds.
The most recent recording by The Beach Boys, “That’s Why God Made The Radio,” a gorgeous revisiting of the classic harmony-filled sound recorded during a brief reunion of Wilson, Jardine and Love in 2012. The Beach Boys previous album was released in 1998.
The Temptations haven’t had an album since 2010’s “Still Here.”
But, for Otis Williams, the only original Temptation still with the group, new material isn’t necessary for shows. That, he said before a Temptations Bourbon Theatre show two years ago, isn’t what people come to hear.
“People pay their money to come see us do the old songs,” Williams said. “We should be happy to do the old songs, they’re the blueprint for people’s lives. When I hear artists whining about doing their old songs, I think they should quit. Leave it alone. People don’t need to pay their money to come see them do their songs lackadaisical or half-assed. We do the old songs, we do them right and we love to do them.”
The same could likely be said for The Beach Boys and Chicago. At a recent Washington, D.C. two-set show, The Beach Boys did 35 songs, all of them old hits or covers of classic rock ‘n’ roll songs. Chicago’s 31-song set at a Utah amphitheater last month was much the same, including all the songs that fans would want to hear.
Tickets were still available for Chicago’s Tuesday show, but Ticketmaster has flagged the show with “Few Tickets Left.” The Beach Boys and The Temptations Thursday show is sold out. Tickets for the Chicago show are $36, $46, $71, $96 and $126. Tickets are available at the Pinnacle Bank Arena ticket office, Ticketmaster outlets, ticketmaster.com and by phone at 800-745-3000.
