The Beach Boys was a band.
The Beach Boys are an American rock band formed in Hawthorne , California , in 1961 . The continued success of their greatest hits albums during the mid 1970s precipitated the band 's transition into an oldies act , a move that was denigrated by critics and many fans . The Beach Boys are one of the most critically acclaimed , commercially successful , and widely influential bands of all time . The group had over eighty songs chart worldwide , thirty-six of them US Top 40 hits ( the most by an American rock band ) , four reaching number-one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart .