“We knew it was a big deal”: The song The Beach Boys spent 36 hours recording
The devil is in the details when it comes to music. When we talk about the best songs in the world, with the best all-round craft bringing incredible songwriting to life with incredible musicians and the kind of production power it deserves – they all have care in common. No stone was left unturned, no expense was spared, no corners were cut. In one case, that meant taking over 30 hours on one element of The Beach Boys song, but all that effort paid off.
It wasn’t uncommon for Brian Wilson. As the band’s principal songwriter, he was also their lead vocalist, their composer, and often their producer. In short, he was the man in charge. The band was his vision, and every detail was done to bring that to life – they’d work on something until he was happy with it, and they followed his creative whims. But Wilson has always been a perfectionist, so getting the track right was often a long, strenuous process for the rest of the band and the session players they’d bring into the room.
The importance of session musicians is all too often understated or underestimated. Some of the best musical moments in all of history have been played by names that have faded now. Too often lost under the shadow of the big name they’re booked by, music’s finest players often aren’t on the album cover but are hidden away in the liner notes.
Carol Kaye is one of them. In her career, Kaye is considered to be one of the most prolific players around, as her bass skills colour over 10,000 recordings. One of them is ‘Good Vibrations’. As a follow-up to Pet Sounds, when the band had levelled their experimental energy up big time, this track was a stand-alone single to keep that energy going, adding to this powerful run the band were on. Kaye was along for the ride, having played on Pet Sounds too. But on ‘Good Vibrations’, she shines, giving the track it’s iconic bassline, even if it took an absolute age to nail it.
In signature Wilson fashion, the ‘Good Vibrations’ sessions were tough. He was furthering his new, experimental form of production and the musicians in the room had to just be along for the ride of where that might take them. Kaye was invested for the simple reason that she knew it would pay off.
“In all we took 36 hours to cut ‘Good Vibrations’”, she explained as Wilson used over 90 hours of recording, captured over 17 separate sessions, to get the track together. That’s a lot of redoes, as Kaye played that bassline over and over and over. But, given the quality of the track she was watching come together, she didn’t mind; “We knew it was a big deal, so we didn’t have a problem with the long hours.”
It was a big deal. The track landed to instant acclaim both critically and commercially, skyrocketing them into the charts. It’s not just the fact that it became their best-selling single. It was the fact that,t once again, Wilson’s insane process had paid off, making his genius apparent again as an explanation for why someone like Kaye would have that patience; “Brian had all the sounds in his head,” she said, having played a role in bringing it to life.
