The Beach Boys have no small shortage of classic hits to remember, but if you were going to focus on one in particular, Brian Wilson has a song in mind. He often credits this iconic track as being the quintessential Beach Boys sound. And indeed, with its tumultuous legal history, the song also reflects the fractured nature of the West Coast group itself.
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With influences ranging from Johann Sebastian Bach to old cowboy flicks, it’s no surprise that Wilson places this particular song on a pedestal above the rest.
Brian Wilson Believes This Song Defined The Beach Boys
From “Good Vibrations” to “Surfin’ U.S.A.,” the Beach Boys managed to capture the sunny sounds of the West Coast in catchy pop hits that were popular all across the country, not just West of the Rocky Mountains. But out of their extensive musical catalogue, songwriter Brian Wilson says “California Girls” stands apart from the rest. “It was special,” Wilson told the Los Angeles Times. “I knew that would become the theme song of the Beach Boys. It’s an anthem. That song went No. 3 in the country. I think if anything, that song speaks louder than ever. Everyone knows about California girls, and that song is the reason.”
The Beach Boys released “California Girls” in the middle of the summer of 1965 as the B-side opener to Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!). With its flirtatious, regional descriptions of girls across the country to the song’s airtight harmonies and grooving backing band, it’s no wonder that the song became one of the band’s most commercially successful. The track was also one of the more contentious songs from their catalogue, as Mike Love and Brian Wilson would later get into a tense legal battle over songwriting credits. When the song first came out, Wilson was the only songwriter, despite Love claiming he contributed most of the lyrics.
Nevertheless, not even this courtroom drama soured Love’s opinion of “California Girls.” “What an amazing track, beautiful arrangement, great harmonies,” Love said in an interview with Rock Cellar. “Some people misunderstood the meaning of the song that we were saying California girls were the best. What we were really saying, if you listen or read the lyrics, we were appreciating the fact that even though we went all around the world, we’d like to bring them all back to California with us.”
How Bach, Cowboys, And a Little LSD Helped Move Things Along
Inspiration can come from the strangest of places, and that was certainly true for the Beach Boys’ 1965 track, “California Girls.” Brian Wilson first came up with the idea for the song’s intro while on his first LSD trip. After struggling with a brief bout of psychedelic-induced paranoia and fear, Wilson made his way to the piano in his apartment. “I was thinking about the music from cowboy movies,” Wilson told the Los Angeles Times. “I sat down and started playing it. Bum-buhdeeda, bum-buhdeeda. I did that for about an hour. I got those chords going. Then, I got this melody. It came pretty fast after that. The rest was history, right?”
Wilson has also credited Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach for the intro’s shuffling, bouncy beat. During a 2010 interview, Wilson compared the “California Girls” intro to Bach’s church cantata, Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, BWV 147, from 1732. “Bach, believe it or not, has gotten himself into “California Girls,”” Wilson said. “I don’t plan on writing any classical songs. But I got [that shuffle] from Bach. How about that? Isn’t that something?”
As one of the most enduring songs in the Beach Boys’ catalogue and of the 1960s as a whole, we’d say that yes, that certainly is something.
Photo by Andre Csillag/Shutterstock
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