On This Day in 1966, the Beach Boys’ “Good Vibrations” Hit the Charts While Brian Wilson Made an Odd and Sad Request While Traveling

Even great commercial success isn’t always enough to convince someone they’re worthy as an artist, as proven by the strange, sad request Brian Wilson had while traveling on the same day that one of his seminal tracks, “Good Vibrations”, first hit the charts. The classic Beach Boys track first entered the Cash Box singles chart at No. 62, after which it quickly ascended the top of multiple charts worldwide. Capitol Records, after months of fretting over Wilson’s eccentric and lengthy production style and the decidedly un-mainstream sound of Pet Sounds, was seemingly finally satisfied.

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And for a minute, it seemed like Wilson might have been, too. “After the poor sales of Pet Sounds, I felt that I had made my point,” he later said, per Keith Badman’s The Beach Boys: The Definitive Diary of America’s Greatest Band. “I have a feeling that this is a very spiritual song. And I want it to give off good vibrations. I’m proud of ‘Good Vibrations’. It exemplifies a whole era.”

While that might have been true, that didn’t stop Wilson’s mental health from continuing to worsen. On October 22, 1966, the day “Good Vibrations” first entered the charts, Wilson had an odd request (delivered by his wife, Marilyn Wilson) while traveling from Michigan back to Los Angeles. Indeed, not even a fast-selling single would be able to fix this deeply rooted insecurity.

Brian Wilson Was Traveling the Day “Good Vibrations” Hit the Charts

The Beach Boys first released “Good Vibrations” as a single with “Let’s Go Away for Awhile” as a B-side on October 10, 1966. By December of that year, “Good Vibrations” was one of the hottest songs in the world, topping global charts and cementing the song’s place as a signature track in the band’s catalogue. The “pocket symphony” was not only a massive success for the band. It was also a monumental milestone in the world of musical production. Songwriter Brian Wilson effectively turned the studio itself into its own instrument, painstakingly recording “Good Vibrations” over 90 hours and with over 30 session musicians.

Despite all this hard work and its rewards, Wilson’s mental health was deteriorating. He was intensely insecure, which is what led to his wife, Marilyn Wilson, calling his friends to request they meet him at the Los Angeles airport upon his arrival from Michigan. Marilyn told them it was crucial for them to be there because “Brian wants reassurance that he is loved.” Approximately 30 people obliged the strange—and honestly, incredibly sad—request. Danny Hutton, The Turtles’ Mark Volman, Jan & Dean’s Dean Torrence, and Diane Rovell are just a few of the airport attendees. Wilson asked a photographer to take photos of the meeting, which he then printed and hung on his walls.

Wilson eventually lost most of the friends who appeared in those stiff airport photographs, surrounding himself instead with family, much like he did in the earliest days of his career. Although “Good Vibrations” was a massive success, the California pop group wasn’t able to recreate the sales of their earlier works. Subsequent albums performed increasingly worse, making 1966 one of the band’s last years at the top.

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