good vibrations

The Beach Boys reached the pinnacle of their commercial and creative powers with the pop perfection of this pocket symphony. Brian Wilson remembers: "My mother used to tell me about vibrations. I didn't really understand too much of what she meant when I was a boy. It scared me, the word 'vibrations' - to think that invisible feelings existed. She also told me about dogs that would bark at some people, but wouldn't bark at others, and so it came to pass that we talked about good vibrations."

Building on the approach he took with ‘Pet Sounds’, Wilson spent months layering tracks for the song. It eventually took seventeen recording sessions at six different recording studios, over ninety hours of recording tape, and a budget of fifty thousand dollars. Tony Asher wrote the original lyrics for ‘Good Vibrations‘, but the hit version used a new set of lyrics co-written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love. Wilson had asked Van Dyke Parks to write new lyrics for the song; but Parks declined, preferring not to enter a project which was already underway. There were numerous studio musicians who contributed to the track: Hal Blaine on drums and percussion, Jimmy Bond on upright bass, Glen Campbell on guitar, Al de Lory on tack piano, Jesse Ehrlich on cello, Jim Gordon on drums, Carol Kaye on bass guitar, Larry Knechtel on Hammond organ, Tommy Morgan on harmonica, Ray Pohlman on bass guitar, Don Randi on harpsichord, Lyle Ritz on upright bass, and Paul Tanner on electro-theremin. Carl Wilson also played bass guitar and did some percussion while Dennis Wilson played Hammond organ. Al Jardine and Bruce Johnston contributed vocals, as did all of the Beach Boys. Carl Wilson was the lead singer on the verses, Mike Love sang lead on the chorus and bridge, and Brian did the falsetto leads.

’Good Vibrations’ was only their third number one hit (but their first to sell over a million copies) in the US and their first in the UK. When the ‘Smile’ project was shelved, the song eventually was included on the ‘Smiley Smile’ album.









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I, I love the colorful clothes she wears
And the way the sunlight plays upon her hair
I hear the sound of a gentle word
On the wind that lifts her perfume through the air

I’m pickin' up good vibrations
She’s giving me excitations
I’m pickin' up good vibrations
(oom bop bop good vibrations)
She’s giving me excitations
(oom bop bop excitations)
Good good good good vibrations
(oom bop bop)
She’s giving me excitations
(oom bop bop excitations)
Good good good good vibrations
(oom bop bop)
She’s giving me excitations
(oom bop bop excitations)

Close my eyes
She’s somehow closer now
Softly smile, I know she must be kind
When I look in her eyes
She goes with me to a blossom world
I’m pickin' up good vibrations
She’s giving me excitations
I’m pickin' up good vibrations
(oom bop bop good vibrations)
She’s giving me excitations
(oom bop bop excitations)
Good good good good vibrations
(oom bop bop)
She’s giving me excitations
(oom bop bop excitations)
Good good good good vibrations
(oom bop bop)
She’s giving me excitations
(oom bop bop excitations)

(ahhhhhhh)
(ah my my what elation)
I don't know where but she sends me there
(ah my my what a sensation)
(ah my my what elations)
(ah my my what)

Gotta keep those lovin' good vibrations
A happenin' with her
Gotta keep those lovin' good vibrations
A happenin' with her
Gotta keep those lovin' good vibrations
A happenin'

Ahhhhhhhh
Good good good good vibrations
(oom bop bop)
(I’m pickin' up good vibrations)
She’s giving me excitations
(oom bop bop)
(excitations)
Good good good good vibrations
(oom bop bop)
She’s na na...

Na na na na na
Na na na
Na na na na na
Na na na
Do do do do do
Do do do
Do do do do do
Do do do






Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks rerecorded the song for their 2004 version of the ‘Smile’ album, including some of the original lyrics that Tony Asher had written back in 1966.