Cherry Red [Release date 13.11.26]

It’s tempting to say that this is a departure for the Cherry Red label. But that would not be true.
This is a label who takes his music from a diversity of sources and styles. Punk, Pop, Indie pop, Shoegaze, Psychedelic, Progrock and a whole slew of back catalogue material.

While this 3 CD boxset might be almost impossible to categorise, the variants contained within have a common theme.

It aims to delineate the life and times of Brian Wilson, the man who formed and led the Beach Boys for many years, achieving great success, multiple awards and global stardom.

The “rivalry” between the Beatles and the Beach Boys has been well documented, some of it based on fact, some apocryphal.

What seems certain is that the key Beach Boys album was Pet Sounds, recorded in 1966, it is claimed, to rival the Beatles’ hitherto magnum opus, Rubber Soul, released the previous year.

Insiders say that Wilson saw ‘Pet Sounds’ less as a collection of disparate tracks and more of a song cycle, as an entity in itself.

Its creation would necessarily be influenced by the music which had captured his imagination:
The innovative vocal harmonies of the Four Freshmen, an American male vocal quartet, that he had studied intently in his early teens.
The urbane style of George Gershwin, who in the 1920s had embodied the new sophistication of American popular song, and
The classical musical universe of Johann Sebastian Bach, whose vast body of work contained the technical prowess and emotional depth to which Wilson aspired.

And so:

CD1 : The Four Freshmen, 28 tracks. (the forties)
CD2 : George Gershwin, 15 tracks (the twenties)
CD3 : JS Bach, 43 tracks (18th century)

CD1 : THE FOUR FRESHMEN

We’re going back, briefly, to the post WWII forties, and the Four Freshmen.

It seemed that no matter the changes in personnel (and there were many) the music and the harmonies remained the same. All four were outstanding vocalists, and importantly, were skilled musicians.

When you listen to these tracks (on CD1) you can hear where Wilson got his inspiration. The Four Freshmen stood apart from the others as innovative and highly distinctive performers who not only sang but played a variety of instruments and expanded the vocal group idiom to encompass challenging jazz-influenced styles. The multipart harmonies, the cohesion, the dynamics, all of which grew into Wilson’s invention of US westcoast pop harmonising.

‘I’ll Be Seeing You’, ‘Graduation Day’ (a Beach Boys’ cover) and ‘I Remember You’ are wonderful popular songs in any time or language.

Disc 2 : GEORGE GERSHWIN

“Brian Wilson Re-imagines George Gershwin” was released in 2010. Confirmation of Wilson’s reverence, and indeed love, of the composer’s music.

Paul Williams: “competitive music has moved into a time of competitive creativity, comparable to the rush of discovery and invention that marked the first flowerings of Impressionism and Cubism”.

‘Rhapsody In Blue’ played a big part, as it does here, the Leonard Bernstein version.
Wilson: “I’ve loved ‘Rhapsody In Blue’ all my life, and still think that this recording is the best”

Here, the ‘Variations On I Got Rhythm’ done by the Boston Pops Orchestra are mind boggling, as are two pieces done by the late great Miles Davis, ‘Prayer (Oh Dr Jesus) and the world famous ‘Summertime’ from the Opera, “Porgy And Bess”.

Disc 3 JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH

Johann Sebastian Bach was born in 1685 and died in 1750.
65 years into which he crammed some of the best known (and most popular) pieces of classical music of all time.
‘Jesus, Mein Freude’ (Jesus, My Joy) is the kind of slice of the classics that would inspire any writer of musical harmonies. It’s the choir that does it, of course.

Three other pieces stand out.
“Mass In B Minor’ is one of the most enduring sacred choral works in classical music history. While ‘Tocata and Fugue in D Minor’ has been a popular piece used in movies over the years, but the main focus on this disc is Bach’s ‘Magnificat in D Major’.

Bach wrote this piece, scored for five vocal parts and Baroque orchestra in 1723. His Christmas version will be familiar to many.
And as you can guess, it is the multiple vocal parts that grabbed Wilson’s attention. The rest is history, and a fine way to close out on “The Music That Inspired the Genius Of Brian Wilson”. *****

Review by Brian McGowan

Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK

Since early 2020 Josh has been entertaining us with exclusive monthly live sessions,

Check out videos here: https://www.facebook.com/getreadytorockradio

Josh now hosts “Taerk’s Tracks” as part of the Singer Songwriter Sunday sequence on Get Ready to ROCK! Radio.

This is the second show broadcast on 25 October Josh presents some of his inspirational artists and tracks.

David Randall presents a weekly show on Get Ready to ROCK! Radio, Sundays at 22:00 GMT, repeated on Mondays and Fridays), when he invites listeners to ‘Assume The Position’. The show signposts forthcoming gigs and tours and latest additions at getreadytorock.com. First broadcast 18 October 2026.

How to Listen Live?

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Get Ready to ROCK! Radio is also in iTunes under Internet Radio/Classic Rock
Listen in via the Tunein app and search for “Get Ready to ROCK!” and save as favourite.

More information and links at our radio website where you can listen live or listen again to shows via the presenter pages: getreadytorockradio.com

Power Plays w/c 26 October 2026

BLACK RIVER DELTA Shame On You (Despotz Records)
DAYTONA Listen To The Silence (Escape Music)
SUCKERTRAP Sacred Lies (indie)
WOOD BURNT RED Count My Blessings (indie)
BLACKLIST UNION Heavy Is The Crown (indie)

Featured Albums w/c 26 October 2026

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2003 – 2025 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003 – 2025 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2003 – 2025 (Singer Songwriter)

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