Friends

Friends is the fourteenth studio album by American rock band The Beach Boys, released on June 24 1968 on Capitol. As work on the album began in February 1968, Mike Love, who had learned Transcendental Meditation (TM) in December 1967, departed on a two week trip to India (alongside The Beatles and Donovan) to study TM further with his new master, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. In his absence, the remaining Beach Boys – Brian Wilson, Dennis Wilson, Carl Wilson, Al Jardine, and (now an official member) Bruce Johnston – recorded the bulk of Friends along with selected members of The Wrecking Crew. Friends was the first Beach Boys album to feature significant songwriting contributions from Dennis Wilson, "Little Bird" and "Be Still"; the former's bridge incorporates elements of "Child Is the Father of the Man", a then-unreleased song from the aborted Smile. Although production was credited to the group as a whole, this was the band's last album until 1976's 15 Big Ones to feature Brian Wilson as a dominant creative force, writing, co-writing and/or producing every song with the exception of "Be Still." Brian Wilson received no credit on the song "Little Bird," allegedly so that Dennis Wilson…