“Break Away” (1969) – The Beach Boys * Written by Brian Wilson and Reggie Dunbar * 45: “Breakaway” / “Celebrate the News” * Produced by Brian Wilson and Murry Wilson * Label: Capitol
This 1969 single was written and produced by Brian Wilson and father Murry (as “Reggie Dunbar”), the infamously abusive man whose exile from band business in 1965 gave this later partnership a strange aura. The single was certainly bouncy enough for a higher chart position than #69, where it stalled in the US, but its disappointing performance may also have to do with its potentially confusing coexistence with an ad campaign for the 1969 Pontiac, which used a jingle (written by Steve Karmen) called “Breakaway.” In 1974, the song appeared on the Beach Boys’ nostalgic Endless Summer compilation, where it sounded conspicuously out of place among all the earlier tracks.