When we’re younger, we all want to grow up as fast as possible. The unknown future can make a person anxious as they traverse the terrain of their teenage years. Inevitably, the years pass as we still wonder what the future brings. Growing up is a neverending proposition. The realization of most is that it’s events and experiences, not age, that determine when a person is grown. Let’s look at the story behind “When I Grow Up (to Be a Man) by The Beach Boys.
Videos by American Songwriter
When I grow up to be a man
Will I dig the same things that turned me on as a kid?
Will I look back and say that I wish I hadn’t done what I did?
Will I joke around and still dig those sounds
When I grow up to be a man?
Origin
In the summer of 1964, 21-year-old Brian Wilson and 22-year-old Mike Love wrote the song from the perspective of a teen pondering his future. Wilson told the Birmingham (England) Post, “When I was younger, I used to worry about turning into an old square over the years. I don’t think I will now, and that is what inspired ‘When I Grow Up.’”
Will I look for the same things in a woman that I dig in a girl?
(Fourteen, fifteen)
Will I settle down fast, or will I first wanna travel the world?
(Sixteen, seventeen)
When I’m young and free, but how will it be?
When I grow up to be a man?
With a Little Perspective
As Wilson grew, he was anxious about his future. He appreciated where he landed. In 2011, he told Goldmine magazine, ”I was inspired about what it was gonna be like to grow up. Will I like the things then as I did now? I wrote that in my early twenties. As I look back on that, I am happy with my life now, and I didn’t think I would be.”
Will my kids be proud or think their old man is really a square?
(Eighteen, nineteen)
When they’re out having fun, yeah, will I still wanna have my share?
(Twenty, twenty-one)
Will I love my wife for the rest of my life?
When I grow up to be a man?
If You Were a Man
Co-writer Love attributed the inspiration for the song to Brian’s father, Murry, who had been the band’s manager before he was dismissed in early 1964. In his 2016 memoir, Good Vibrations: My Life As A Beach Boy, Love wrote, “Murry had bullied Brian for years, but he increasingly called into question his manhood. ‘If you were a man, you would tell Mike to stand closer to the microphone. If you were a man, you would tell [fellow Beach Boys] Carl and Dennis to brush up on their harmonies. If you were a man …’ Man came up all the time, which probably influenced Brian’s idea behind our 1964 song, ‘When I Grow Up (to Be a Man).'”
What will I be when I grow up to be a man?
The Recording
The Beach Boys and harmonica player Carroll Lewis entered Western Studio in Hollywood on August 5, 1964, and laid down 37 takes of the song. Brian Wilson played piano, Carl Wilson played guitar, Al Jardine played bass, and Dennis Wilson played the drums. Brian overdubbed the harpsichord, and Carl added a guitar solo. Lewis added a double-reeded harmonica. The boys returned to the studio on August 10 to add their vocals. This was the first Beach Boys song to employ a harpsichord as the lead keyboard instrument.
Won’t last forever
It’s kind of sad
Won’t last forever
It’s kind of sad
“The Building Was Going Up Overnight”
In his memoir, I Am Brian Wilson, Brian wrote, “I think about the crazy year of 1964, and I think about one of the most important songs from that crazy year, ‘When I Grow Up (to Be a Man).’ We did that song in early August, and it was out by the end of the month. That’s how fast everything went back then. The building was going up overnight. We did that song at Western, too, in room three, which was the best. We did almost 40 takes over six days. Can you believe that? 40 takes? You can hear me counting each one out. Sometimes, we got as far as a few bass notes from Al Jardine before it fell apart. Sometimes, we got through my first piano part. We didn’t even get to the vocals for a while, but when we did, those gave me fits, too. I wanted it to sound like an update of The Four Freshmen, but my voice sounded too thin. People tell me you can find those tapes sometimes circulating around, with names like ‘When I Grow Up (to Be a Man) (2nd vocal overdub take 14).’ It’s exhausting to look at and to think of how far we went in search of the perfect thing. We didn’t know we were making history. But that’s what we were making.”
Won’t last forever
It’s kind of sad
Won’t last forever
It’s kind of sad
Don’t Trust Anyone Over 30
“We were really trying hard to think about growing older,” Brian continued. “We were trying to imagine the things that would happen in the future and whether we would recognize the people we became. When you stand in front of a mirror, you’re changing. It’s like a movie. But how fast are you changing? During the song, we started a countdown, or really a count-up. Between lines, the backing vocalists would call out ages, two at a time, starting with 14. They went up to the last chorus and even past it. They got all the way to 31. I guess it was the oldest age we could think of then. Like I said, I was only 22. That was so far in the future. Back then, 30 was like some kind of magic number. You didn’t trust anyone over it. You couldn’t really imagine being it.”
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.
Photo by RB/Redferns
