“Good Vibrations” is a song by American rock band the Beach Boys, released as a single in October 1966. The song was composed and produced by Brian Wilson with lyrics by Mike Love. Initiated during the sessions for the Pet Sounds album, it was not taken from or issued as a lead single for an album, but rather as a stand-alone single, with the Pet Sounds instrumental “Let’s Go Away For Awhile” as a B-side. “Good Vibrations” would later be considered for the aborted Smile project, and ultimately was placed on the album Smiley Smile 11 months after its release. (More from Wikipedia)
On the heels of Pet Sounds, the Beach Boys released one of the most incredible singles by anybody in the mid-1960’s: “Good Vibrations”. The song was originally intended as one of the tracks on Pet Sounds, but Brian Wilson knew that he would never be able to complete the song to his satisfaction in time for the album’s release.
John Bush in Allmusic says of the background behind this classic: “‘Good Vibrations’, the Beach Boys’ 1966 entry into the best-single-of-all-time sweepstakes, announced the coming era of pop experimentation with a rush of riff changes, echo-chamber effects, and intricate harmonies, plus the very first theremin ever heard on a pop record. The natural grace of the song belied the months of recording and mountain of tape reels it required, however. Though Brian Wilson’s self-described ‘pocket symphony’ was his masterpiece, its creation effectively put the coda on his production career, and he was never the same again. . . . In the end, ‘Good Vibrations’ cost over 50,000 dollars to produce, making it one of the most expensive singles recorded up to that point.”
Brian Wilson was none too happy that Pet Sounds wasn’t a bigger hit; though the album peaked at #10 in the American album charts (and #2 in the U.K.), “Good Vibrations” was #1 with a bullet in the U.S. and U.K. alike. Thus, in August 1966, Wilson began working feverishly on another album that would be called SMiLE to prove beyond doubt that Americans could outdo the English.
* * *
Terry Melcher put Van Dyke Parks in touch with Brian Wilson; Wilson needed a lyricist who could match his musical visions that he was struggling to get on tape. Just imagine: an album full of “Good Vibrations”-level music! John Bush continues: “[Brian Wilson] labored over every note and, more than that, every tone, often asking his musicians or the Beach Boys themselves to revise when the results didn’t match his conception of the music going on inside his head. Such care and control produced music that was far beyond Pet Sounds, and when the impressionistic themes and lyrics of collaborator Van Dyke Parks were added, SMiLE began shaping up as the most unique LP ever produced by a pop group.”
(June 2013/2)
* * *
Items: Good Vibrations
