State unveils historical landmark to mark site of Beach Boys' home

Brian Wilson sang some of the band's signature tunes at the ceremony Friday night.
HAWTHORNE, Calif. (AP) -- Hundreds of fans and two Beach Boys gathered Friday to unveil a state historical landmark at the site of the home of the legendary band's founding brothers -- demolished in the mid-1980s to make way for a freeway.
"A wonderful monument, isn't it?" laughed Al Jardine, holding his palms upward toward the tree-lined Interstate 105 embankment and sound wall. "Progress. Can't stop progress."
Jardine was 19 in September 1961 when he joined his friend and classmate Brian Wilson in the carpeted music room of Wilson's home in this Los Angeles suburb. A piano sat on one end, an organ at the other.
With Wilson's cousin Mike Love, and Wilson's brothers, Carl and Dennis, the group rented instruments for $300 from a nearby music shop and recorded a demo tape of "Surfin'." Jardine said he played bass while Wilson kept the beat on drums with his fingers. The Beach Boys were born.
Carl and Dennis Wilson have since died. Love, who is estranged from Jardine and Brian Wilson, didn't attend Friday's event.
Brian Wilson wrote some of the group's most beloved hits inside the home of his parents, and sang two of them -- "Surfer Girl" and "In My Room" -- at Friday's ceremony.
"It makes me feel sentimental about the old house," he said afterward. "It was a big thrill for me to come back to my old stomping grounds."
The idea
The idea for a landmark came from a Beach Boys fan who lives in Northern California, construction engineer Harry Jarnagan. It eventually gained the support of the musicians themselves and local politicians. The city's mayor, wearing a Hawaiian shirt at the sun-drenched ceremony, showed off his "Endless Summer" 8-track.
"This will end up in the Hawthorne museum," Mayor Larry Guidi said.
The actual landmark rests about where the Wilson family's lawn began. It is a brick wall emblazoned with names of donors, a bronze plaque, and an etching of six Beach Boys carrying a surfboard, reminiscent of the group's "Surfin' Safari" album cover.
"I don't miss the neighborhood," Wilson said, adding, however, he was sad when he learned the house was gone.