Extra: Peoria's Beach Boy Bruce Johnston wasn't always a California dreamer

When you say Beach Boys, you think about places like La Jolla, Del Mar, Pacific Palisades and Redondo Beach.

Now add Peoria to that list.

Bruce Johnston, who joined the Beach Boys in April 1965, was born in Peoria on June 27, 1942, at the Florence Crittenton Home.

He was adopted by a wealthy Chicago family, who later moved to California. The rest, as they say, is history.

Johnston returned to the Crittenton center in 1996 in search of his own history. “He came back to look for information on his birth parents. While here he toured the center and visited with the children,” said Sandy Garza, Crittenton’s marketing director.

The next year, Johnston received the Charles Crittenton Distinguished Merit Award after providing Beach Boy memorabilia to help raise funds for the Crittenton cause, no longer an orphanage but a shelter for families.

Johnston was making music long before he became a Beach Boy. In 1959, while still in high school in California, Johnston arranged and played on his first hit record, “Teen Beat” by Sandy Nelson.

In 1960, the 18-year-old Johnston was already doing production work for Hollywood’s Del-Fi Records, the record company that signed Ritchie Valens. Then came two solo efforts for Johnston: “Surfin’ ‘Round The World” and a live album, “Surfer’s Pajama Party” (recorded on the UCLA campus).

Then came a collaboration with Terry Melcher (Doris Day’s son). As Bruce and Terry, they recorded “Summer Means Fun” with its line about “surfing every day down at Malibu” in 1963. The duo also produced the Rip Chords, adding their own voices to the group’s only hit, “Hey Little Cobra,” in 1964.

Having cut his teeth on the surf sound, Johnston was a natural to join a band like the Beach Boys who, in 1965, were busily doing their best to hold off the invasion of British bands on U.S. record charts.

Joining the Beach Boys in the mid-’60s was like shooting the curl at Honolua Bay. “When I joined the band, we made and released three albums in 11 months,” said Johnston in a 2013 interview with Rock Cellar magazine.

Those albums, “The Beach Boys Today” (that included “Help Me Rhonda”), “Summer Days (and Summer Nights)” (that had “California Girls”) and “Beach Boys Party” (with “Barbara Ann”), were among the group’s biggest-selling records ever.

Johnston was the “quiet” Beach Boy. Although he recorded with the group for the first time on the top-10 smash, “California Girls,” in 1965, he wasn’t credited or pictured on a Beach Boys album (for contractual reasons) until the 1967 “Wild Honey” album.

While the Beach Boys biggest hits were bunched in the 1960s, it was the 1970 release “Sunflower” that Johnston calls his favorite album by the group. “Everybody was beginning to semi-mature artistically. We had all learned so much from Brian (Wilson),” he said in the Rock Cellar interview.

Johnston left the Beach Boys in 1972 for a solo career, writing “I Write the Songs” for Barry Manilow, a work that received a Grammy Award as song of the year.

In 1978, Johnston returned to the Beach Boys at Brian Wilson’s request for the album “L.A. (Light Album).” He’s been with the Beach Boys ever since and has continued touring with Mike Love since the death of Carl Wilson.

In 2012, Johnston, Love, Brian Wilson, Al Jardine and David Marks reunited for the group’s 50th anniversary tour.

Now 73, Johnston is on tour with the Beach Boys this month, partnering with Love for a series of dates in Germany.

In a recent interview with the British newspaper, the Guardian, Love talked about the present situation with the Beach Boys. “Brian has a great band and he does his own thing, and Bruce and I have a fabulous band and we enjoy going places, big and small,” he said.

Peoria’s Beach Boy — Bruce Johnston — he’s still on the road.

Steve Tarter is Journal Star business editor. He can be reached at 686-3260 or at starter@pjstar.com.