Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)
| "Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)" | |
|---|---|
| Song by the Beach Boys | |
| from the album Pet Sounds | |
| Released | May 16, 1966 |
| Recorded | February 11 – April 3, 1966 |
| Studio | Western, Hollywood |
| Length | 2:58 |
| Label | Capitol |
| Songwriter(s) | Brian Wilson, Tony Asher |
| Producer(s) | Brian Wilson |
| Music video | |
| "Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)" on YouTube | |
"Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)" is a song by American rock band the Beach Boys from their 1966 album Pet Sounds. Written by Brian Wilson and Tony Asher, it is among the most harmonically complex songs that Wilson ever composed. It is one of three tracks on Pet Sounds where he is the only Beach Boy performing.
Background
"Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)" is about non-verbal communication between lovers. According to Asher, "It's strange to sit down and write a song about not talking ... but we managed to do it and it came off well."[1] The track features a string sextet and passing tones within diminished chords.[2] It is among the most harmonically complex songs that Wilson ever composed.[3] Music journalist Geoffrey Himes wrote:
"Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)" was a guitar-less ballad that featured Brian singing in a devotional high tenor about the romantic moment when words fail. A string quartet played the minor seventh chords at close intervals, while the tympani boomed and a fat-toned electric bass drifted from the expected root note to create harmonic tensions within the lush sound. When Brian sang in an intimate hush, "Don't talk; take my hand and listen to my heartbeat. Listen! Listen! Listen!" the music demanded that you listen just as closely to its throbbing pulse.[4]
On the line "Listen to my heartbeat", Wilson stated: "I felt very deeply about that line. One of the sweetest songs I ever sang. I have to say I'm proud of it. The innocence of youth in my voice, of being young and childlike. I think that's what people liked."[citation needed]
Recognition
Reviewing the song for AllMusic, Jim Esch praised "Don't Talk" as among "Brian Wilson's lushest romantic compositions" and "a hymn to love's tactile sensibility -- a gorgeous love song by any standard, and a triumph of Wilson's mature arranging powers."[5] Musician Elvis Costello commented, "I heard 'Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)' played on the cello. It sounded beautiful and sad, just as it does on Pet Sounds. So now you know, if all the record players in the world get broken tomorrow, these songs could be heard a hundred years from now."[6]
Personnel
Per band archivist Craig Slowinski.[7]
The Beach Boys
- Brian Wilson – lead vocal
Session musicians
- Arnold Belnick – violin
- Hal Blaine – ride cymbals
- Norman Botnick – viola
- Glen Campbell – 12-string electric rhythm guitar
- Frank Capp – vibraphone, timpani
- Al de Lory – Hammond B3 organ
- Steve Douglas – acoustic grand piano
- Carol Kaye – bass guitar
- Lyle Ritz – upright bass (arco in bridge)
- Joseph Saxon – cello
- Ralph Schaeffer – violin
- Sid Sharp – violin
- Billy Strange – 12-string electric guitar (with tremolo)
- Tibor Zelig – violin
Cover versions
- 1988 – Wink, Moonlight Serenade
- 1993 – Linda Ronstadt, Winter Light
- 1998 – Fennesz, Plays
- 2001 – Anne Sofie von Otter and Elvis Costello, For the Stars
References
Citations
- ^ Granata 2003, p. 94.
- ^ Granata 2003, p. 155.
- ^ Lambert 2008, p. 123.
- ^ Himes, Geoffrey. "Surf Music" (PDF). teachrock.org. Rock and Roll: An American History. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-11-25.
- ^ ""Don't Talk(Put Your Head on My Shoulder)"". AllMusic. Archived from the original on December 4, 2010. Retrieved April 28, 2011.
- ^ "Musicians on Brian: Elvis Costello". Brian Wilson.com. Archived from the original on 26 March 2009. Retrieved March 3, 2009.
- ^ Slowinski, Craig. "Pet Sounds LP". beachboysarchives.com. Endless Summer Quarterly. Retrieved September 24, 2018.
Bibliography
- Granata, Charles L. (2003). Wouldn't It Be Nice: Brian Wilson and the Making of the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds. ISBN 9781556525070.
- Lambert, Philip (March 2008). "Brian WIlson's Pet Sounds". Twentieth-Century Music. 5 (1). Cambridge University Press: 109–133. doi:10.1017/S1478572208000625.