Saturday July 2, 2022 “Good Vibrations” Beach Boys
Could we possibly have summer without the Beach Boys?
Brian Wilson called ”Good Vibrations” a "pocket symphony," and he experimented with it over the course of seventeen separate recording sessions. At the time, it was the most expensive pop song ever recorded, costing about $50,000 to make, that would be nearly $500,000 in today's dollars. This would be the last US number one hit for the Beach Boys until "Kokomo" which went to number one 22 years later, setting the record for longest gap for an artist between number one hits on the Hot 100.
Released in October of 1966, against the strong advice of the Beach Boys record label, "Good Vibrations" immediately became a number one song, driven by sales reported to have reached almost 100,000 records per day in the first week, with an additional tens of thousands back-ordered. "Good Vibrations" is an amazingly free-form song as it's just barely connected to the verse-chorus-verse standard configuration for pop songs of that time, as it is continually switching from section to section.
None of the Beach Boys played instruments on this track as Brian Wilson used the great LA session group the Wrecking Crew which then would have included Glen Campbell on guitar, Carol Kaye on bass and Hal Blaine on drums along with many other seasoned studio professionals. He also brought in the inventor of the electro-theramin to produce that very high pitched sound that is so much a part of the song. The Beach Boys did all of the vocals with Carl Wilson singing lead.
There are several apochraphyl stories that suggest “Good Vibrations” along with the amazing Beach Boys Pet Sounds album, released at the same time, pushed the Beatles to create their own groundbreaking album Revolver.
Stay safe and well…and you should pack up a lunch along with appropriate beverages and head to the beach or the pool or the park or maybe just your backyard so you can pick up those Beach Boy ‘good vibrations’... and enjoy summer!!