The Fascinating Songwriting Stories Behind 3 of Brian Wilson’s Biggest Hits

He’s one of the founding members of The Beach Boys, and his solo career has been one of the most lucrative and creative in rock music. Diehard fans may already know the stories behind some of his best songs, but casual listeners may not know the lore behind major hits you probably still listen to today. Let’s look at five of Brian Wilson’s best songs and the stories behind them!

1. “California Girls”

Out of all of Brian Wilson’s stories behind his biggest songs with The Beach Boys, this one provides some great insight into his songwriting ability. If you’re an inspiring musician, the story behind “California Girls” might be of interest to you.

“I came up with the introduction first,” said Wilson. “I’m still really proud of that introduction. It has a classical feel. I wrote the song ‘California Girls’ in the same key as the introduction. It took me some time. I wanted to write a song that had a traditional country and Western left-hand piano riff, like an old country song from the early ‘50s.”

It’s also worth noting that Wilson wrote the song during his first trip on acid. We’re not going to encourage drug use here.

2. “Good Vibrations”

When one thinks of The Beach Boys, one might think of “Good Vibrations” first. It’s one of their biggest hits, and also one of their most complex and well-produced piece of work. According to Brian Wilson, the story behind this 1966 hit came from Wilson facing a number of ideas and fragments of music that he wanted to put together into one song. Wilson provided some insight into this song, as well as his unique approach to songwriting as a whole.

“I had a lot of unfinished ideas, fragments of music I called ‘feels,’” said Wilson. “Each feel represented a mood or an emotion I’d felt, and I planned to fit them together like a mosaic.”

3. “Please Let Me Wonder”

This 1965 track from The Beach Boys Today! was originally released as a B-side, but we think it deserved a more forward, proper release. The story behind this song isn’t particularly complex; in fact, it’s kind of funny. It was the very first song Wilson wrote after smoking marijuana for the first time.

“I wrote that at my apartment in West Hollywood. As soon as I finished I felt I had to record it so I called up my engineer, Chuck Britz, and woke him up,” Wilson said of the song. “I drove to the studio in the middle of the night and recorded it.”

Photo by Vince Bucci

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.