The Beach Boys cover Brian Wilson said had his “favourite riff ever”
Brian Wilson had a musical mind that was so kaleidoscopic and pioneering that you would think it would be difficult to blow him away. Turns out, just four simple notes did the trick.
You can put out as many Pet Sounds and ‘Good Vibrations’ as you like, but sometimes the simple route in life can be the better one. That’s why, in the short time leading up to his ultimate magnum opus, Wilson clearly got thinking – and realised that if he was to become a sonic icon of his time, he would also have to rely on the strength of others to get there. Investing in the greatness of the world’s songbook already out there, he decided to dip into one example and make it his own.
This is an extensive way of saying that for The Beach Boys’ ninth album, Summer Days (and Summer Nights!!), released in 1965, he decided that the band should cover a girl group classic and put their own spin on it, in order to win over the hearts of the American teenage masses. The weapon of choice was ‘Then He Kissed Me’, a hit originally made famous by The Crystals in 1963. With five singers telling the tale of a beguiling adolescent romance, it was easy to see why The Beach Boys thought it would be right up their street.
However, to suit their needs and to fulfil the archetype of the most stereotypical form of young love, they gender swapped the title and lyrical perspective of the song to become ‘Then I Kissed Her’ – and all of a sudden sent the whole world swooning. Like everyone, Wilson was also enamoured by the tune, but not in the way you might think. For him, its magic lay in just four simple notes.
“The opening riff is my favourite riff ever written,” he said of ‘Then I Kissed Her’ in an interview in 2007, many decades after the event. “On the record, I wanted to feature Al and give him a chance to stand up and sing. It’s hard to describe Al’s vocals, but he can go up there and get pretty high.” As a result, Al Jardine’s slightly shrill singing voice sent the song shrieking all the way to number four in the chart, making it one of the band’s most successful efforts in their foray as a cover outfit.
Of course, a little over a year later upon the release of Pet Sounds, the whole world completely and utterly changed for The Beach Boys. No longer were they just a shining example of surf pop that people wanted to join in order to cash in on the trend, but they were an outfit with a true artistic genius at the helm, whom the entire sonic scene clamoured after for even a morsel of the same success.
But therein marked the true genius of a man like Wilson, because he knew how to strike the balance right to get the best of both worlds. On one hand, having all the artistic magic and sonic sorcery up his sleeve to create a slew of iconic records would all come in time; but on the other, using popular tunes and even bigger earworms of riffs was a key to cementing The Beach Boys with an even more adoring fanbase on their path to glory. It may just have seemed like young love, but there was always method in the madness.
