Wouldn't It Be Nice

"Wouldn't It Be Nice"
Single by The Beach Boys
from the album Pet Sounds
B-side	"God Only Knows"
Released	July 18, 1966
Format	Vinyl
Recorded	Gold Star Studios January 22, 1966 Columbia Studios March 10, 1966 April 11, 1966
Genre	Baroque pop
Length	2:25
Label	Capitol 5706
Writer(s)	Wilson/Asher/Love
Producer	Brian Wilson
The Beach Boys singles chronology
"Sloop John B"/"You're So Good to Me" (1966) ---- "Cool, Cool Water"/"Forever" (1971) "Wouldn't It Be Nice"/"God Only Knows" (1966) ---- "Wouldn't It Be Nice" (live at the Big Sur Folk Festival) (1971) "Good Vibrations"/"Let's Go Away For Awhile" (1966) ---- "Long Promised Road"/"Deirdre" (1971)"
Pet Sounds track listing "Wouldn't It Be Nice" "You Still Believe in Me" "That's Not Me" "Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)" "I'm Waiting for the Day" "Let's Go Away for Awhile" "Sloop John B" "God Only Knows" "I Know There's an Answer" "Here Today" "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times" "Pet Sounds" "Caroline, No" Music sample "Wouldn't It Be Nice"

"Wouldn't It Be Nice" is the opening track on the 1966 album Pet Sounds and one of the most widely recognized songs by the American rock band The Beach Boys. It was composed and produced by Brian Wilson, with lyrics by Tony Asher and Brian Wilson, and the lead vocal was sung by Brian Wilson with Mike Love singing lead vocals on the bridge and the end tag, 'Good night my baby, Sleep tight my baby'.

In the Endless Harmony documentary, Brian Wilson described the song as "what children everywhere go through… wouldn't it be nice if we were older, or could run away and get married".

Wilson was quoted as saying:

"Listen for the rockin' accordions and the ethereal guitars in the introduction. Tony and I had visualized a scene. We had a feeling in our hearts, like a vibration. We put it into music, and it found its way onto tape. We really felt good about that record."

In a 1996 interview, Wilson stated, "'Wouldn't It Be Nice' was not a real long song, but it's a very 'up' song. It expresses the frustrations of youth, what you can't have, what you really want and you have to wait for it." Wilson used the title of the song for the title of his autobiography.

Pitchfork Media placed it at number 7 on its list of "The 200 Greatest Songs of the 1960s".

Composition

In November 1969, the Wilsons' father, Murry Wilson, who also served as manager and music publisher for the group, sold the copyrights to the band's songs to Irving Almo for approximately $700,000. In April 1992, just after Brian Wilson had won a lawsuit in which he received $25M for damages but failed to recover his claims to ownership of the copyrights, Mike Love filed a lawsuit against Brian Wilson for $13M claiming that he had not been given credit, and therefore hadn't received royalties, on over thirty of the band's songs, many of them hit singles and was therefore entitled to some of the reward. One of these songs was "Wouldn't It Be Nice". The original credit read "Wilson/Asher" but Mike Love claimed that he had a hand in writing the lyrics, specifically the tag lines "Good night my baby, sleep tight my baby". Mike Love won the lawsuit and the song-writing credit was amended, therefore ensuring future royalties on all of the songs that he had claimed he had a hand in writing.

Tony Asher has questioned Love's involvement in the song claiming that his involvement was "none, whatsoever" as the song "was one of the few songs [he] wrote the entire lyric to by [himself] at home".

Recording

The instrumental track was recorded in Los Angeles, California at Gold Star Studios on January 22, 1966. The session was engineered by Larry Levine and produced by Brian Wilson. It took 21 takes of recording the instrumental track before Brian Wilson decided that it was good enough to be the master take. Highlights of these sessions can be heard on the 1997 box set The Pet Sounds Sessions as well as the master take. The full recording of the instrumental track, all 21 takes, can be heard on the Sea Of Tunes Unsurpassed Masters series Vol. 13 box set.

The musicians present on the day of the instrumental recording were Hal Blaine on drums; Frank Capp on percussion; Roy Caton on trumpet; Jerry Cole on guitar; Al de Lory on piano; Steve Douglas on saxophone; Carl Fortina on accordion; Plas Johnson on saxophone; Carol Kaye on bass guitar; Barney Kessel on a specially built 12-string mandolin; Larry Knechtel on Hammond organ; Frank Marocco on accordion; Jay Migliori on saxophone; Bill Pitman on guitar; Ray Pohlman on mandolin and Lyle Ritz on upright bass. Accounts differ as to which specific instrument was employed on the song's distinctive, harp-like intro, with candidates including one or more 12-string electric guitars, an electric mandolin, or similar short-scale instrument, such as a Vox Mandoguitar.

The vocals were recorded over two sessions at Columbia engineered by Ralph Balantin.^{[citation needed]} The first vocal session took place on March 10, which also saw vocal work on "I'm Waiting for the Day", "God Only Knows" and "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times". This session was almost certainly for recording the backing vocals of "Wouldn't It Be Nice" as there is a recording of the instrumental track with the backing vocals that was released on The Pet Sounds Sessions box set. The next session around a month later on April 11 was most likely the session at which the lead vocal for the song was recorded. Vocals for "God Only Knows" were also worked on at that particular session.

On The Pet Sounds Sessions box set, two alternate mixes of the song can be heard. On one of the mixes, the song begins with the line "wouldn't it be nice to live together, in the kind of world where we belong", instead of the finished version of the song which opens with the line "wouldn't it be nice if we were older, then we wouldn't have to wait so long" and follows with the aforementioned lyric.

Single release

On July 18, 1966, "Wouldn't It Be Nice" was released backed with "God Only Knows" in the United States, which was the third single from the Pet Sounds album. It entered the Billboard chart on July 30 and remained there for 11 weeks, peaking at number 8 in September 1966. The single also peaked at number 7 on the Cashbox chart and #5 in Record World. It also peaked at number 4 on Canada's RPM national chart. In Australia, the song was released in August 1966 as the A-side with "God Only Knows" as the B-side of the single. It entered the charts on August 24 at number 39 and spent 17 weeks on the charts, peaking at number 2. The song was also released as the A-side in New Zealand where it peaked at number 12. In July 1966 in the United Kingdom the song was released as the B-side of the "God Only Knows" single, which reached number 2.

In April 1971, a live version of the song from the Live In London album was released in the United States as the A-side of a single which featured a different artist on the B-side. However, the single failed to make any impact on the charts just as many of the other Beach Boys singles from that period had failed to chart.

In July 1976, the song was released in the United Kingdom as the B-side of the re-issued "Good Vibrations" single. The single peaked at number 18.

In June 1990, a different recording of the song from 1966 that had appeared on the 1989 Still Cruisin' album was released in the United Kingdom as a single with the B-side featuring a Beach Boys Medley as well as the original recording of "I Get Around", which had also been released on the Still Cruisin' album.

Alternate releases

The song first appeared in monophonic sound on The Beach Boys album Pet Sounds which was released on May 16, 1966 in the United States and in June 1966 in the United Kingdom. The song was later released in November 1966 in the United Kingdom on the God Only Knows EP. Live versions also appear on two of the band's live albums. The 1970 release Live In London and the 1973 release The Beach Boys in Concert. On the 1986 Made in U.S.A. compilation, an alternate version with different vocals was used. That same version was also released on the 1989 Beach Boys album Still Cruisin'.

Another notable difference is that Brian sings the bridge on the original stereo versions, while Mike sings that part in the mono version. The 2001 stereo remix of the song restores Mike Love's original bridge vocal, utilizing a mono mix, which causes slight phasing and sound quality issues. Brian's version has still been maintained in the "Pet Sounds Sessions" box set.

The song appears on several occasions from different stages of the recording process and in different formats on The Pet Sounds Sessions box set, including the song in its original monophonic mix; the first ever original stereo mix of the song, which was remastered by Mark Linett; over seven minutes of highlights from the tracking date, which documents the progress of the recording of the instrumental track; the finished instrumental track; the stereo track with the background vocals; an a cappella mix of the song; and two alternate mixes of the song one of which has a slight difference lyrically.

During Brian Wilson's absences from the group, the song was frequently performed with Al Jardine on lead vocal.

Cover versions

• Anni-Frid Lyngstad in 1975 recorded a Swedish-language version called "Skulle de' va' skönt" (with Swedish lyrics by Marie Bergman) on her solo album "Frida ensam".
• Mike Post in 1975
• Papa Doo Run Run on their 1985 album California Project
• Jeffrey Osborne on the 1997 tribute album Wouldn't It Be Nice: A Jazz Portrait Of Brian Wilson

At the 2001 special An All-Star Tribute to Brian Wilson, Wilson sang a duet with Elton John to the song.

Cultural references

Wouldn't It Be Nice was played over the opening scene and end credits of Hal Ashby's 1975 Shampoo. It was also featured during the end credits of Michael Moore's 1989 documentary Roger & Me and the 1994 Seinfeld episode "The Hamptons". It was also featured in the 1989 The Wonder Years episode "Summer Song", the 1997 King of the Hill episode "Plastic White Female," and in the 2003 Angel episode "The Magic Bullet". It was also featured in the 2001 Blair Hayes film Bubble Boy. It was also featured at the end of the 1997 Will Ferrell film Men Seeking Women. It was featured throughout the film 50 First Dates as the song that the character Lucy (Drew Barrymore) constantly sang and that Henry Roth (Adam Sandler) sang sadly and tearfully to himself but humorously to the audience. The song was featured in the romantic comedy of 2009, It's Complicated.

In 1990, the song was portrayed in the comic strip Doonesbury upon the death of Andy Lippincott from AIDS.

It has also been featured in two advertisements in Australia and New Zealand, the first also shown in Canada - a Cadbury chocolate advertisement ("Wouldn't it be nice if the world were Cadbury") and a lottery advertisement ("Wouldn't it be nice to win a million?").

In 2011 it appeared in Volkswagen's "Think Blue" advertisement promoting their Blue Motion technologies by drawing on their "Think Small" slogan used in the 1960s.

The end of the "Weird Al" Yankovic song "Pancreas" (a style parody of Brian Wilson) sounds similar to the main chorus of "Wouldn't It Be Nice".

Charts

Chart Peak position Australian Singles Chart 2 New Zealand Singles Chart 12 UK Singles Chart 2 U.S. Billboard Hot 100 8

See also

• List of songs by The Beach Boys

External links

• Making of the studio recording