Actually, I still can't get enough of that moment before the last chorus, where the group hits that ahhhhhh! and it hangs in the air like mist, just before the hook comes exploding back in. Gives me chills, every time.
Throughout our 4th grade year, my buddy Bill and I would trade mixtapes, sharing whatever we were listening to at the time. Usually, it was stuff like The Fat Boys, Beastie Boys, or Run DMC. But, this one time, Bill got really into surf music right before Spring Break, and he brought me this mix of Jan & Dean and Beach Boys songs, dubbed from his mom's old vinyl. I remember he kind of front-loaded the tape with their early 60s "party songs" ("Surfin' Safari," "Surfin' USA," "Surf City"). But then sitting in the middle of the mix was also the 1966 single "Good Vibrations."
Now, it's not as if it was the first time I'd heard "Good Vibrations"; it was a staple on oldies radio. But there was something about hearing it in context of those other songs. It was richer, deeper. Important. It seemed so out of place, I even wondered if Bill had let the tape run and recorded it by accident.
In fact, the more I listened to the track (and I listened to it/analyzed it dozens of times that Spring Break), the more it reminded me of a slightly-psychedelic reimagining of my favorite piece of classical music as a kid: George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue." Both songs seemed to be built from carefully constructed segments, which, taken on their own, were stunning in their level of detail. But when the pieces were assembled, end-to-end, the result was even more astounding.
It didn't surprise me at all when the mastermind behind "Good Vibrations," Brian Wilson, recorded a solo tribute album to Gershwin in 2010 and had this to say about "Rhapsody in Blue" to NPR's Audie Cornish: "(When I was 4) my grandmother put on 'Rhapsody in Blue' for me, and had me lay down by the record player. I just remember I loved it so much…The arranging, the impetus, the excitement, the beauty. It was just an absolute work of art."
After hearing that conversation on All Things Considered, I started looking for more articles and interviews about Wilson's process. And I discovered that my observations at age 10 weren't that far off.
Wilson worked on "Good Vibrations" in modules, breaking the song down into small bits, which he'd pore over with his group of choice studio musicians ("The Wrecking Crew"), sometimes recording a section a dozen times at one of four different recording studios around Los Angeles before they achieved the sound he heard in his head. Then, when all of the individual pieces were recorded to his liking, he connected them all into what he called his "pocket symphony."
In all, it took seven months of work and $50K—the most ever spent recording a "pop" single at that point—before "Good Vibrations" saw the light of day in October 1966. But, in the end, who really cares about facts and figures when you're talking about something this timeless and priceless?
All I can say is, the world will always be a little better off because of the genius of Brian Wilson.
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