How The Beach Boys Promoted ‘Kokomo’ When the Label Would Not
TL;DR:
- The Beach Boys’ “Kokomo” appeared on the soundtrack of a Tom Cruise movie
- Mike Love was dissatisfied with the way Electra Records promoted the song.
- The members of the band decided to take the song’s promotion into their own hands.
The Beach Boys‘ “Kokomo” famously appeared in the Tom Cruise movie Cocktail. Despite this, The Beach Boys’ Mike Love felt the band’s label was doing very little to promote the song. He revealed what the band did to give the song exposure.
Mike Love said The Beach Boys’ ‘Kokomo’ appeared on an album with an ‘eclectic’ group of songs
In his 2016 book Good Vibrations: My Life as a Beach Boy, Love mentioned that “Kokomo” was included on the soundtrack of the film Cocktail alongside other famous songs such as Bobby McFerrin’s “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” and Little Richard’s “Tutti Frutti.” Love described the songs on the soundtrack as “eclectic.” “But Elektra Records released ‘Kokomo’ two weeks before the album,” Love wrote.
“The label didn’t do much to promote it, so we hired our own promoters and tried to get it airplay, first on adult contemporary stations and then contemporary hit radio,” Love added. “And it caught on.”
Mike Love discussed The Beach Boys’ appearances on ‘Full House’ and ‘One Life to Live’
Love discussed the exposure that “Kokomo” received. “It was just one of those catchy songs that when people heard it, they wanted to hear it again, and it got exposure from some unlikely places,” he said. “Some of our fans recall that we performed it on Full House, at the half-time in a college football game at the Los Angeles Coliseum.”
Full House wasn’t the only show on which The Beach Boys performed “Kokomo.” “Less well remembered, but still raising the song’s visibility, was the performance on the daytime soap opera One Life to Live, in which we played ‘Kokomo’ as part of a story line about a high school reunion,” he added. “Then there was the movie Cocktail, which became an unexpected hit.”
How ‘Kokomo’ and the album ‘Still’ Cruisin’ performed on the charts in the United States
“Kokomo” topped the Billboard Hot 100 for a single week. It stayed on the chart for 28 weeks altogether. None of the band’s other singles lasted longer on the chart. The Beach Boys never reached the top 10 again.
The Beach Boys released “Kokomo” on the album Still Cruisin’. The album featured several of the group’s earlier hits, including “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” “California Girls,” and “I Get Around.” Still Cruisin’ reached No. 46 on the Billboard 200, staying on the chart for 22 weeks.
“Kokomo” became a massive hit even if Electra Records didn’t promote it much.
