Beach Boys lead a hit parade

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The Beach Boys (Mike Love, left, and Bruce Johnston, shown at the Ravinia Festival in 2009) will reunite with original members on the Grammy Awards telecast Sunday. | sun-times files

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Updated: March 12, 2012 8:03AM

BURBANK, Calif. — The Beach Boys, flanked by Foster the People and Maroon 5’s Adam Levine, are pouring on the harmonies in a rousing run-through of “Good Vibrations.” After years strained by acrimony and lawsuits, the iconic surf-pop band is having fun, fun, fun.

Beach Boys Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine, David Marks and Bruce Johnston are at a CenterStaging studio here rehearsing for a pivotal performance, their first with Wilson in more than two decades.

The medley, which includes Beach Boys covers “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” by Foster the People and “Surfer Girl” by Maroon 5, is shaping up to be a peak moment at Sunday’s Grammy Awards (7 p.m., WBBM-Channel 2) and a high-profile launch of the band’s 50th-anniversary docket.

Wilson, 69, confesses to Grammy butterflies but adds, “It’s a happy feeling. We all sound good. The songs are as fresh as the day they were made.”

In the band’s heyday, the Beach Boys never won a Grammy (“Vibrations” lost to the Mamas and the Papas’ “Monday, Monday” in 1966), nor have they ever played on the telecast. No hard feelings, Love insists.

“It’s great that we’re regarded highly enough by the powers that be at the Grammys that they want us on the show,” he says, relating how a recent re-recording of “Do It Again” at Capitol Records set the reunion in motion. “Brian told me, ‘You sound pretty good for a 70-year-old guy.’ It’s what we’ve done all our lives. It’s a fantastic milestone, 50 years.”

The reconciliation “was inevitable, despite rumors to the contrary,” says Jardine, 69. “There’s a tendency for bands to fall apart, but if we can get back together and do it again, anybody can, even in this economy. People need hope and a way out of all this despair. We can bring good vibrations to everybody.”

Expect no shortage of drama, entertainment, pop royalty or signature “Grammy moments” of unusual combos during the 3½-hour musical marathon.

The Beach Boys’ return is among the biggest attractions in a revue of roughly 22 songs in 18 production numbers that spotlight nominees and stars Adele, Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, Nicki Minaj, Bruno Mars, Taylor Swift, Foo Fighters, Katy Perry, Rihanna, Coldplay and Glen Campbell.

Adele enters the race with six nominations and is favored to prevail in every slot. If she wins best album, record and song, she’ll be the sixth to capture Grammy’s triple crown and the first since the Dixie Chicks in 2007. The Foos and Mars also have six nods each, and Lil Wayne and Skrillex have five apiece. Most of the 78 awards, trimmed from 109 last year, will be handed out during the pre-telecast, streaming live from 3-5:30 p.m. CST at grammy.com/live and cbs.com. Protesters opposed to the cuts plan a rally outside the venue Sunday.

With Adele poised for a sweep, executive producer Ken Ehrlich feels greater pressure to ramp up the thrills. “I have to let the awards fall where they may,” he says. “I’ve always believed viewers watch more for the performances than the awards.”

“I don’t know that it’s a slam dunk,” Recording Academy president/CEO Neil Portnow says of Adele’s coronation. “The results aren’t always based on sales and popularity and critical acclaim. The suspense is there every year. Last year, I don’t think anybody predicted Arcade Fire [best album] or Esperanza Spalding [best new artist].”

In a spectacle Ehrlich dubs “out there,” Minaj, as doppelganger Roman Zolanski, is set to introduce “Roman Holiday” from her upcoming second album. Kelly Clarkson and Jason Aldean will perform the hit “Don’t You Wanna Stay.” Coldplay and Rihanna, live together for the first time, will do “Princess of China.”

Mars “is going to channel his inner James Brown,” Ehrlich says. “Last year, he was stuck in the ’50s. He’s moved ahead 10 years, and it’s a great look.”

Swift’s retooling of “Mean” “is absolutely delicious,” he says. “She’s done the song on other shows, but never like this.”

A few brief presentations include an Etta James tribute with Bonnie Raitt on guitar and Alicia Keys on keyboard, and a duet of “It Had to Be You” by Tony Bennett and Carrie Underwood. The Civil Wars will introduce “Swift” with a snippet of Barton Hollow.

A few heavyweights, such as the Beach Boys, Springsteen and Campbell, made the bill but not the ballot. McCartney’s only nod is for his part in compiling the “Band on the Run” reissue.

“Bruno, Rihanna, Cold­play, you expect those stars on the show,” Eh­rlich says. “Others you wouldn’t expect. That’s what continues to keep me interested. The focus should be celebrating the music of the past year, but the show has developed into more than that.”

A preview of the Grammy telecast’s big magnets:

♦Bruce Springsteen: The Boss will open the show with the uplifting working-class anthem “We Take Care of Our Own,” from his upcoming “Wrecking Ball.” Why kick off proceedings with a non-nominee? “Based on this particular song and Bruce’s stature in music and given the climate sociologically, we felt this worked and fit very well,” Portnow says.

♦Adele: In her first performance in five months, she’ll sing “Rolling in the Deep” and one other song.

♦Paul McCartney: Ehrlich plans an intimate approach to a performance of new romantic pop-jazz tune “My Valentine,” backed by Diana Krall and Joe Walsh. McCartney also will end the show with a tune from “Band on the Run.”

♦Chris Brown. The singer will take the Grammy stage three years after his infamous assault on Rihanna at a pre-Grammy gala. Brown remains on probation, though a restraining order was eased to allow him within 10 yards of Rihanna at music events. He’s never won a Grammy, but his “F.A.M.E.” is a strong R&B album contender.

♦The dance tent: One of Brown’s performances will be with David Guetta and Lil Wayne in a tent packed with fans outside the Staples Center. The Foos (also slated to rock out on “Walk” indoors) will pair with Deadmau5 on the DJ’s remix of its “Rope.”

“The Grammys for years have been called behind the times, but I don’t think we’re late to this party,” Ehrlich says of the show’s first toast to electronica.

“I didn’t want to do it until we could do it right. That dance environment is so immersive, you can’t do it on a proscenium stage.”

♦Glen Campbell. The country-pop music icon, diagnosed a year ago with Alzheimer’s and soon to retire, will perform as part of a salute anchored by Blake Shelton (“Southern Nights”) and the Band Perry (“Gentle on My Mind”).

♦Katy Perry. This will be the first performance by the pop princess since her split from husband Russell Brand. “A lot of fans will want to see how Katy’s doing and what Katy is going to sing,” says Ehrlich, declining to reveal song titles.

Buzz is swirling on “Part of Me,” a defiant breakup tune on a “Teenage Dream” special edition out next month. Sample lyric: “You’re not gonna break my soul.”

♦MIA: No, not Madonna’s bird-flipping cohort at the Super Bowl, but the conspicuously absent nominees Bon Iver, Jay-Z and Kanye West, who leads this year’s pack with seven nominations.

Bon Iver, up for new artist and best record and song for the delicate “Holocene,” rejected overtures to collaborate with another artist.

The absence of Jay-Z and West, snubbed in the marquee categories, “has to do with the nominations,” Ehrlich says. “I don’t think it has anything to do with the show. We extended offers. I’m disappointed. They should be here, and I’m sorry they’re not. They’re great artists, and they could have done a great number.”

Gannett News Service