Happier moments are plentiful, too, especially from the earliest years. Jardine gets emotional in the film when he talks about the boys auditioning a capella for his mother, singing her a Four Freshmen tune and the first Beach Boys original, “Surfin,” so they could buy instruments and become a real band.

It’s a surreal enough experience to walk into the famous Abbey Road Studios – past the tourists clamouring for a picture on the zebra crossing outside, a la The Beatles on the cover of 1969’s Abbey Road,