Good vibrations
Good Vibrations is a song by the Beach Boys . After Barbara Ann and Sloop John B, the lavishly produced piece was the group's third million seller and in 1966 was number one on the music charts in the USA and Great Britain.
History of origin
Beach Boys' composer Brian Wilson remembers that as a child his mother used to talk about the fact that dogs can recognize the bad vibrations that some people have, and that is why they would bark. The play is about a protagonist who feels drawn to a girl who encourages him to continue to do activities. That was the basic idea for the title, which was gradually implemented from February 1966 onwards as part of the studio work on the Beach Boys album Pet Sounds . The textual elaboration turned out to be difficult because the planned copywriters such as Van Dyke Parks or Tony Asher were not available or text suggestions were rejected as unsuitable. Brian Wilson took over the musical supervision as the music producer .
The recordings
Therefore, the focus was initially on the music track, for which the first recording date was February 17, 1966. Around August 24, 1966, the text was not completed until band member Mike Love , who expanded the working title "Vibrations" into "Good Vibrations". After take 26, a stereo mix , there was an instrumental version of the rough music track. The line-up for the song consisted of the Beach Boys and the studio musicians of the Wrecking Crew such as Glen Campbell (lead guitar), Barney Kessel (guitar), Carol Kaye (electric bass), Larry Knechtel (Hammond organ), Don Randi ( harpsichord ) or Hal Blaine (drums). The cello played by Jessie Ehrlich is used experimentally as a rhythm instrument. These musicians were ordered individually by Brian Wilson and their sound was often perfected for hours, adding to studio costs. Rough lyrics were written on February 18th, and on February 25th the resulting recording was put on hold so that the band could concentrate on producing Pet Sounds again.
After a certain period of time, this track was checked on May 24th and processed until June 18th, in order to postpone this recording again until August 24th, 1966. On that day, the various sections of the recording were summarized in the form of a musical collage and overwritten with today's text - this was already the 18th recording session. The high-pitched parts of the music track were generated with an electric tanner , played by and named after its inventor Paul Tanner , who had worked as a trombonist for Glenn Miller and now worked at UCLA . The device can generate sine waves with a span of four octaves . The unusual instrument was described in the music magazine Rolling-Stone as a "psychedelic part of the song". A theremin , a device that produces similar sounds, was not used. In early May 1966 it was decided not to use Good Vibrations for the album Pet Sounds , which was released on May 16, 1966.
It was not until September 21, 1966, exactly seven months after the start of production, that the final mixing of the song at Columbia Recording Studios was made . A total of 22 recording sessions were required in six Los Angeles recording studios, four of which were represented by Good Vibrations during the final mixdown ( Western Recorders Studio 3 from February, Gold Star Studio in April, Sunset Sound in May, Columbia Recording Studios in September) . Since every recording studio has its characteristic sound, the different recording sessions can still be heard today. It took 94 hours of recording to perfect the song. In addition, production costs of $ 50,000 were incurred, which were unusually high at the time, and the use of the tannerin alone cost $ 15,000. The result was the first pop song, which was put together from a large number of takes from different studios and the single was completed with the highest production costs up to then. An official stereo version of the title no longer exists.
publication
Released on the single Capitol # 5676 on October 10, 1966 as Good Vibrations / Let's Go Away For Awhile , the title reached number one in the USA and Great Britain, while in Germany it only climbed to number 8. 400,000 copies were sold in the USA within four days, and a total of 300,000 were sold in Great Britain. On December 21, 1966, the song reached million seller status.
It was first released on LP on Smiley Smile , released on September 11, 1967. When Brian Wilson presented his album Brian Wilson presents Smile in February 2004 , he also re-recorded the title Good Vibrations . However, he staged it with the original lyrics by Tony Asher, which also resulted in a slightly changed melody. The song was released as a single and reached number 30 in the UK charts.
Cover versions and statistics
Good Vibrations has been covered at least 36 times, and the Beach Boys received a Grammy nomination for best vocal group in 1966 for the song. The title earned a BMI award and was ranked 6th of the 500 best songs by the music magazine Rolling Stone . The Beach Boys were awarded a gold record for the fifth time in their career . Good Vibrations was the band's third number one hit after I Get Around and Help Me Rhonda, topping both the US charts in 1966 and the 2004 UK hit list . The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame named the song among the 500 songs That Shaped Rock and Roll .
Web links
- Good Vibrations Song Lexicon, October 8, 2013
Individual evidence
- ^ Steven Gaines, Heroes And Villains: The True Story of the Beach Boys , 1995, p. 156
- ↑ Jim Cogan / William Clark, Temples of Sound , 2003, p. 33
- ↑ Jim Miller, The Beach Boys in (Rolling Stone) Volume: 1 From Jonny Boy Williamson to the Beach Boys , Reinbek near Hamburg, 1979, ISBN 3-499-17283-6
- ↑ Explanation about both devices
- ^ Joseph Murrells, Million Selling Records , 1985, p. 218
- ↑ Cover info about Good Vibrations
- ↑ Rockhall on Good Vibrations ( Memento from February 27, 2009 in the Internet Archive )