How transcendental meditation destroyed a collaboration between The Beach Boys and The Beatles
They were two of the most celebrated bands of their generation. Divided by the Atlantic, The Beach Boys and The Beatles were united by what Al Jardine would later call “mutual inspiration”. Supposedly, there was nothing but respect between the two groups, a rare thing in an era in which everything was about success. The competition was fierce, but the mood of the day fostered a certain camaraderie among British and American artists. British rock was, after all, deeply indebted to American blues and rock ‘n’ roll. How strange, then, that The Beatles (a shining example of British skiffle turned avant-garde) and The Beach Boys (those innovators of West Coast pop) never collaborated.
The Beach Boys were no strangers to collaboration. By the time Al Jardine was asked which artist he’d most like to work with, they’d already joined forces with an array of other artists, including John Stamos of Full House. “I know: The Beatles,” Jardine said. “I thought we were going to. John [Lennon] and George [Harrison] came up to my hotel room in London back in the Sixties. We were on our way to do a show in Paris.” Jardine must have been levitating with excitement. The two groups were already titans of the music scene, and the collaboration would surely have resulted in a raft of hit singles. That being said, I expect the combination of Brian Wilson and John Lennon wouldn’t have made for an easy recording process.
Driving through Paris, Jardine was filled with a sense of possibility. Sadly, the Beatles had no intention of working with The Beach Boys. So, what did they want with him? “I thought they were going to discuss some music with me,” he later remembered. “I thought we were going to do something. In fact, they taught me transcendental meditation,” he added. You can just imagine the blood draining from Jardine’s face, can’t you? This was early 1967, and John Lennon and George Harrison were about to travel to India. “They wanted to talk to me about something called TM,” Jardine recalled during a speech at the Henry Miller Memorial Library. “They proceeded to inform me about this new meditation and this fella called Maharishi… the guru to the stars.”
By that time, Maharishi had already “made his mark” on the western world, though, as Jardine remembers, “People thought he was a little strange.” Still, he had a plan: to work with The Beatles and use their enormous influence to get the word out about TM. The Beach Boys followed suit, using their music to bring the practice to people all around the world. They even ended up recording a song called ‘Transcendental Meditation’, which was the final track on their 1968 album, Friends. In this way, The Beach Boys did collaborate with The Fab Four, just not in the way they had expected.
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