We are just one week away from the 50th Anniversary of "Good Vibrations" by The Beach Boys. Brian Wilson completed the recording on September 21, 1966. The final element was an overdub of an Electro-Theremin played by its inventor, Paul Tanner. Author Fred Bronson claims it was the most expensive single ever produced at the time. Brian Wilson is quoted by Bronson as saying it cost $16,000.
In the last hour, Mike Love spoke live to Cousin Brucie about his new book that came out yesterday, titled to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the song: "Good Vibrations: My Life as a Beach Boy".
What are your memories of the song?
Mine came nearly a year later, listening to the follow-up single inside the studios of KTIL in Tillamook, Oregon. It was not the first time I had heard it, as I already knew that DJs elsewhere were predicting, on air, that it would be bigger than "Good Vibrations". Today, you are lucky if you even hear it played on the air as an Oldie. That single was "Heroes and Villians", written by Brian Wilson with Van Dyke Parks as the centre piece of "Smile", an album that was abandoned before it was finished, after a year's work.