When Brian Wilson decided to stop touring with The Beach Boys, he dedicated more time to recording. Using the studio as an instrument became Wilson’s primary goal. Glen Campbell had replaced Wilson on the road, but Los Angeles studio musicians were laying down the musical background in Western Studio to a new song with the working title, “We Don’t Know.” The song would eventually peak at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1965. It trailed “Help” by The Beatles and “Like a Rolling Stone” by Bob Dylan. Let’s take a look at the story behind “California Girls” by The Beach Boys.
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Well, East Coast girls are hip
I really dig those styles they wear
And the Southern girls, with the way they talk
They knock me out when I’m down there
It Started with a Bassline
In his 2016 memoir, I Am Brian Wilson, he wrote, “The idea for ‘California Girls’ is that there’s this guy who thinks about girls all the time, so much that he starts to imagine all kinds. But there’s only one kind he really wants, and that’s right there at home. The music started off like those old cowboy movies, when the hero’s riding slowly into town, bum-ba-dee-dah. I was playing that at a piano after an acid trip. I played it until I almost couldn’t hear what I was playing, and then I saw the melody hovering over the piano part.”
The Midwest farmer’s daughters really make you feel alright
And the Northern girls, with the way they kiss
They keep their boyfriends warm at night
The Introduction
In 2011, Wilson told Goldmine magazine, “I came up with the introduction first. I’m still really proud of that introduction. It has a classical feel. I wrote the song in the same key as the introduction. It took me some time. I wanted to write a song that had the traditional country and western left-hand piano riff, like an old country song from the early ’50s. I wanted to get something that had a kind of jumpy feeling to it in the verses. “
I wish they all could be California (girls)
I wish they all could be California
I wish they all could be California girls
Wilson’s Favorite Session
In a 1993 Capitol Records interview, Wilson also talked about the introduction. “Everybody was up. The whole gang was there. It became my favorite session,” he said. “The intro to this song is the greatest piece of music I’ve ever written. I was looking for an introduction which would be totally different to the rest of the song but would lead into it. The song was a big record for us, but I never really liked anything other than the intro.”
The West Coast has the sunshine
And the girls all get so tanned
I dig a French bikini on Hawaiian island
Dolls by a palm tree in the sand
A Hymn to Youth
In 1966, Wilson spoke about the joy and exultation in “California Girls.” “It all starts with religion. I believe in God—in one God, some higher being who is better than we are,” he said. “But I’m not formally religious. I simply believe in the power of the spirit and in the manifestation of this in the goodness of people. I seek out the best elements in people. People are the part of my music. A lot of the songs are the results of emotional experiences, sadness, and pain. Or joy, exultation, and so on. Like ‘California Girls’—a hymn to youth. I find it impossible to spill melodies, beautiful melodies, in moments of great despair. This is one of the wonderful things about this art form—it can draw out so much emotion, and it can channel it into notes of music in cadence. Good emotional music is never embarrassing. Music is genuine and healthy, and the stimulation I get from molding it and from adding dynamics is like nothing on earth.”
I been all around this great big world
And I seen all kinds of girls
Yeah, but I couldn’t wait to get back in the States
Back to the cutest girls in the world
The 12-String Guitar
Wilson’s brother Carl played guitar on the introduction. “Chuck Britz was our engineer. … He liked the way I worked, to have ideas coming in and then add more ideas, and put everything in place right away,” Brian Wilson said. “He wasn’t the kind of person to linger in the studio and wait for inspiration. … When we got in the studio with Chuck, he said that he wanted Carl’s 12-string guitar in the intro to sound more direct. I didn’t know what that meant. ‘Can he play it in the booth?’ Chuck said. I had never thought about that before, but it seemed like a good idea. Carl was standing next to me in the booth, and all the other musicians were out in the studio. I conducted it like an orchestra. It’s not often that you get a perfect song, but that was one of them.”
I wish they all could be California (girls)
I wish they all could be California
I wish they all could be California girls
David Lee Roth
“It was so perfect that when David Lee Roth did it 20 years later and reached the same spot on the charts, No. 3,” Wilson continued. “He used Carl to sing backup on it to keep the vibe. I love that version. My favorite part is where he ad-libs, I dig the girls.”
I wish they all could be California girls
(Girls, girls, girls, yeah, I dig the)
I wish they all could be California girls
(Girls, girls, girls, yeah, I dig the)
I wish they all could be California girls
(Girls, girls, girls, yeah, I dig the)
I wish they all could be California girls
(Girls, girls, girls, yeah, I dig the)
I wish they all could be California girls
(Girls, girls, girls, yeah, I dig the)
I wish they all could be California girls
(Girls, girls, girls, yeah, I dig the)
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