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On this day, April 6, 1965, the Beach Boys began recording "California Girls."
Editing ...
Hat tip, This Day in Rock
California Girls
Single by the Beach Boys
from the album Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!)
B-side: "Let Him Run Wild"
Released: July 12, 1965
Recorded: April 6 – June 4, 1965
Studio: Western and Columbia, Hollywood
"California Girls" is a song by the American rock band the Beach Boys from their 1965 album Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!). Written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love, the lyrics describe an appreciation for the qualities of girls around the world and the narrator's "wish that they all could be" in his home state of California. It was released as a single, backed with "Let Him Run Wild", and reached number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was also a top 10 hit in several other countries, becoming one of the band's most successful songs globally.
Wilson conceived "California Girls" during his first acid trip while thinking about females and Western film scores. The song is distinguished for its orchestral prelude, layered vocals, and chromaticism. Wilson later referred to it as "a hymn to youth", the Beach Boys' "anthem", and his favorite record by the group, although he remained dissatisfied with their vocal performance. It was the band's first recording with touring musician Bruce Johnston, who was not yet an official member of the group.
"California Girls" inspired the Beatles' parody "Back in the U.S.S.R." and many songs with similar or identical titles, including Big Star's "September Gurls", the Magnetic Fields' "California Girls", and Katy Perry's "California Gurls". In 1984, David Lee Roth recorded a cover version that also peaked at number 3. In 2010, the Beach Boys' recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, and in 2011, Rolling Stone ranked it number 72 on its list of the greatest songs of all time. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame included it as one of "500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll".
{snip}
Recording
On April 6, 1965, Wilson produced the backing track of "California Girls" ( then given the working title "We Don't Know" ) with a host of session musicians at Western Studio in Hollywood. It required 44 takes before Wilson could deem a satisfactory performance, with the session concluding after midnight. Problems had arisen from the tempo and guitar part in the introduction, which fatigued Wilson, engineer Chuck Britz, and the dozen-plus session players.
The song did not appear to have lyrics or a title at this juncture, and Wilson can be heard calling the song "Oh Yeah" and "You're Grass and I'm a Power Mower". In his 2016 memoir, Wilson remembered: "When we got into the studio with Chuck, he said that he wanted Carl's twelve-string guitar in the intro to sound more direct. I didn’t know what that meant. 'Can he play it in the booth?' Chuck said. I had never thought about that before, but it seemed like a good idea. Carl was standing next to me in the booth and all the other musicians were out in the studio. I conducted it like an orchestra." According to biographer Peter Ames Carlin, Wilson's father Murry urged Brian to eliminate the orchestral prelude, as he felt that it made the song excessively complex.
Vocal overdubs followed on June 4 at Columbia studio.[28] Wilson recorded the Beach Boys' vocals using Columbia's new 8-track recorder, allowing Love's lead vocals to be triple-tracked and the group's vocals spread over three more. According to historian Keith Badman, the song still lacked "a proper title", as Wilson can be heard referring to it as "Yeah, I Dig the Girls" on the session tape. It was the first Beach Boys recording to feature vocals from Bruce Johnston, who had recently joined the group to substitute for Wilson on concert tours. As Johnston remembered, "I came home from The Beach Boys' tour [on June 1] and they said, 'Why don't you come and sing on our next album?' The first song I sang on was 'California Girls'. At this point I still wasn't a proper member of the group."
{snip}
Single by the Beach Boys
from the album Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!)
B-side: "Let Him Run Wild"
Released: July 12, 1965
Recorded: April 6 – June 4, 1965
Studio: Western and Columbia, Hollywood
"California Girls" is a song by the American rock band the Beach Boys from their 1965 album Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!). Written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love, the lyrics describe an appreciation for the qualities of girls around the world and the narrator's "wish that they all could be" in his home state of California. It was released as a single, backed with "Let Him Run Wild", and reached number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was also a top 10 hit in several other countries, becoming one of the band's most successful songs globally.
Wilson conceived "California Girls" during his first acid trip while thinking about females and Western film scores. The song is distinguished for its orchestral prelude, layered vocals, and chromaticism. Wilson later referred to it as "a hymn to youth", the Beach Boys' "anthem", and his favorite record by the group, although he remained dissatisfied with their vocal performance. It was the band's first recording with touring musician Bruce Johnston, who was not yet an official member of the group.
"California Girls" inspired the Beatles' parody "Back in the U.S.S.R." and many songs with similar or identical titles, including Big Star's "September Gurls", the Magnetic Fields' "California Girls", and Katy Perry's "California Gurls". In 1984, David Lee Roth recorded a cover version that also peaked at number 3. In 2010, the Beach Boys' recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, and in 2011, Rolling Stone ranked it number 72 on its list of the greatest songs of all time. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame included it as one of "500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll".
{snip}
Recording
On April 6, 1965, Wilson produced the backing track of "California Girls" ( then given the working title "We Don't Know" ) with a host of session musicians at Western Studio in Hollywood. It required 44 takes before Wilson could deem a satisfactory performance, with the session concluding after midnight. Problems had arisen from the tempo and guitar part in the introduction, which fatigued Wilson, engineer Chuck Britz, and the dozen-plus session players.
The song did not appear to have lyrics or a title at this juncture, and Wilson can be heard calling the song "Oh Yeah" and "You're Grass and I'm a Power Mower". In his 2016 memoir, Wilson remembered: "When we got into the studio with Chuck, he said that he wanted Carl's twelve-string guitar in the intro to sound more direct. I didn’t know what that meant. 'Can he play it in the booth?' Chuck said. I had never thought about that before, but it seemed like a good idea. Carl was standing next to me in the booth and all the other musicians were out in the studio. I conducted it like an orchestra." According to biographer Peter Ames Carlin, Wilson's father Murry urged Brian to eliminate the orchestral prelude, as he felt that it made the song excessively complex.
Vocal overdubs followed on June 4 at Columbia studio.[28] Wilson recorded the Beach Boys' vocals using Columbia's new 8-track recorder, allowing Love's lead vocals to be triple-tracked and the group's vocals spread over three more. According to historian Keith Badman, the song still lacked "a proper title", as Wilson can be heard referring to it as "Yeah, I Dig the Girls" on the session tape. It was the first Beach Boys recording to feature vocals from Bruce Johnston, who had recently joined the group to substitute for Wilson on concert tours. As Johnston remembered, "I came home from The Beach Boys' tour [on June 1] and they said, 'Why don't you come and sing on our next album?' The first song I sang on was 'California Girls'. At this point I still wasn't a proper member of the group."
{snip}
Same performance, fuzzier video, but you get the whole thing.
The Beach Boys- California Girls (1965)
4,456,164 views•Jul 30, 2013
Daniel Allen
4.74K subscribers
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The Beach Boys - California Girls
5,266,691 views•Apr 7, 2012
Anthony Pascal
4.76K subscribers
4 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
