The Definitive 1000 Songs Of All Time 1955 to 2005: Number 714

Number 714

Beach Boys

"Wouldn't It Be Nice"

(1966)

Genre:Pop

Besides the Beatles only the Beach Boys were so good at harmonising in their songs when i was growing up, in fact i would even go as far to say The Beach Boys were better. I spent countless hours singing to their songs just so i could nail the harmonising part. Did it help me later on in life? Nah. Trust me its very rare when someone says "Hey.. your a good singer" Oooops there goes gravity, back to reality as Eminem said.

The best Beach Boys album, and one of the best of the 1960s. The group here reached a whole new level in terms of both composition and production, layering tracks upon tracks of vocals and instruments to create a richly symphonic sound. Conventional keyboards and guitars were combined with exotic touches of orchestrated strings, bicycle bells, buzzing organs, harpsichords, flutes, theremin, Hawaiian-sounding string instruments, Coca-Cola cans, barking dogs, and more. It wouldn't have been a classic without great songs, and this has some of the group's most stunning melodies, as well as lyrical themes which evoke both the intensity of newly born love affairs and the disappointment of failed romance (add in some general statements about loss of innocence and modern-day confusion as well).

The spiritual quality of the material is enhanced by some of the most gorgeous upper-register male vocals (especially by Brian and Carl Wilson) ever heard on a rock record. "Wouldn't It Be Nice," "God Only Knows," "Caroline No," and "Sloop John B" (the last of which wasn't originally intended to go on the album) are the well-known hits, but equally worthy are such cuts as "You Still Believe in Me," "Don't Talk," "I Know There's an Answer," and "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times." It's often said that this is more of a Brian Wilson album than a Beach Boys recording (session musicians played most of the parts), but it should be noted that the harmonies are pure Beach Boys (and some of their best). Massively influential upon its release (although it was a relatively low seller compared to their previous LPs), it immediately vaunted the band into the top level of rock innovators among the intelligentsia, especially in Britain, where it was a much bigger hit. ~ [Richie Unterberger]

For the Beatles see Number 489, #587, #894 & #947

For Chuck Berry see Number 783

There is a TV ad in New Zealand made by Cadbury Chocolate that uses this song by the Beach Boys, because of "them" they haVe completley ruined this song for me and now i loathe "Wouldnt It Be Nice" Thanks Cadbury .... you ^%@#%@%!

What does Rolling Stone think about Beach Boys

Recorded and released in 1966, not long after the sunny, textural experiments of "California Girls", "Pet Sounds", aside from its importance as Brian Wilson's evolutionary compositional master piece, was the first rock record that can be considered a "concept album"; from first cut to last we were treated to an intense, linear personal vision of the vagaries of a love affair and the painful, introverted anxieties that are the wrenching precipitates of the unstable chemistry of any love relationship. This trenchant cycle of love songs has the emotional impact of a shatteringly evocative novel, and by God if this little record didn't change only the course of popular music, but the course of a few lives in the bargain. It sure as hell changed its creator, Brian, who by 1966 had been cruising along at the forefront of American popular music for four years, doling out a constant river of hit songs and producing that tough yet mellifluouis sound that was the only intelligent innovation in pop music between Chuck Berry and the Beatles. [Source: Rolling Stone]

Rolling Stone Top 500 Songs ranked this song at Number (Not since Cadbury ruined it) and the Album ranked at Number 2 !

This song has a crowbarred rating of 67.7 out of 108 pts

Beach Boys - Wouldn't It Be Nice (1966)
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