The Beach Boys’ New Splash

The Beach Boys are riding their biggest wave in two decades. They’re coming off their first No. 1 single in 22 years (“Kokomo”), “genius” Brian Wilson is back in the fold, they’ve re-turned to Capitol Records and are on the road with Chicago for a hot-ticket summer tour.

You’d think these purveyors of good vibrations and endless summer fun, fun, fun would be coasting along quite comfortably. But the mood at a Culver City sound stage during the band’s final rehearsal for the Chicago tour was anything but light.

The tension seemed to mirror the band’s determination to take advantage of the current resurgence and re-establish itself as a contemporary hit-maker--or be doomed to a life as nostalgia merchants.

Carl Wilson, who had spent much of the night before working on new songs in a recording studio, declined to be interviewed. And Wilson, Bruce Johnston, Mike Love and Al Jardine seemed pretty businesslike as they worked out choreography steps to “Barbara Ann” with the six bikinied surfer girls who are decorating the stage on this tour (which includes shows Saturday at the Pacific Amphitheatre and Sunday at the Hollywood Bowl).

Explained Johnston, who joined the Beach Boys in 1965 after Brian Wilson gave up full-time touring: “I don’t want the Beach Boys to be the futile endless road show of ‘The King and I’ or ‘I Love Lucy’ reruns. I live, eat and breathe getting on the radio. I just think, ‘How can we get back on the radio?’ ”

Johnston didn’t pause before answering himself: “With great songs, that’s how!”

An odd question, coming not long after the band’s “Kokomo,” a song from the “Cocktail” movie score, became the Beach Boys first No. 1 single since 1966’s “Good Vibrations.”

And that was only one highlight from what was the group’s best year in eons. It began with its induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, built through the attention focused on the solo album debut of Brian Wilson--the architect of the Beach Boys’ often-imitated sound--and crested with “Kokomo.”

The new Capitol release will be the band’s first album in four years. Titled “Still Cruisin’ ” and due this summer, the record will be a combination of movie-related tracks including “Kokomo” and “Wipe Out” (a pairing with the rapping Fat Boys) and several new songs. After that, the contract contains an option for an album of all new material. Johnston calls it “the album of doom.”

“Just because you’ve had a No. 1 doesn’t mean you’re automatic,” Johnston said during a rehearsal break, acknowledging that the Beach Boys could go on forever recreating the endless summer with its stockpile of old hits. But that isn’t good enough for him.

“It’s records that matter,” he said. “There’s no point in touring without new records. It’s just huge payments to me. We’ve got to be better than that.”

David Berman, president of Capitol Records, was pleased to hear that the Beach Boys are going into their new arrangement with the label with that attitude.

“I think it’s a pivotal point in their career,” he said. “I hesitate to say with them that it’s ever make or break. As a touring entity so continually successful, I wouldn’t say that if this record doesn’t happen it’s the end of them as a recording entity. They’re too good and represent too much so that they won’t ever be dated. But on the other hand, I’m glad they feel that way because it bodes well for the record.”

It’s clear to the Beach Boys what Capitol expects from them.

“Three hit singles, to tell you the truth,” Jardine said. “That’s what they told us.”

“That’s fair,” Berman said. “That’s what I would hope for.”

But even one hit, coming on the heels of “Kokomo,” would pay double dividends for Capitol, which still owns the Beach Boys’ ‘60s catalogue, some of which is now on CD, with the much-anticipated and much-delayed CD release of the hailed “Pet Sounds” 1966 album still to come.

Said Berman: “We do anticipate that a new hit Beach Boys record will help us exploit the catalogue, including but not limited to a ‘Pet Sounds’ CD.”

Much is being made of Brian Wilson’s role with the group. He will play only selected dates on this tour, including the Southland shows, with a four-song solo set included. But he will be working throughout the summer in the studio creating new songs for the band, which is essentially the role he has played for the past 25 years.

“We’re going back to the original formula,” said Dr. Eugene Landy, Brian’s controversial therapist, guide and co-writer who hovered around while Brian was being interviewed. “Brian is most valuable to the Beach Boys using his time in the studio.”

Still, many are perceiving this as a return to the fold for Brian, given his solo activities and the fact that he was not involved with “Kokomo.” That impression was heightened last year when Love said in interviews that “Kokomo’s” commercial superiority over Brian’s solo album might prove to Brian that he needed the Beach Boys.

And Brian himself spoke of being accepted back into the Beach Boys.

“I’m very happy about it,” he said. “And Mike seems to be happy for me being in the Beach Boys.”

In any case, Brian’s presence is paramount to Capitol. “Brian’s involvement on this record is extremely important,” Berman said. “But the fact that Mike Love and (producer) Terry Melcher came up with ‘Kokomo’ on their own without Brian means you’ve got a tremendous amount of talent there. I’m confident we can have quality material from all the Beach Boys.”