• Source: Please Let Me Wonder

      • "Please Let Me Wonder" is a song by the American rock band the Beach Boys from their 1965 album The Beach Boys Today!. Written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love, it was the first song Wilson wrote under the influence of marijuana. The lyrics are about a man who does not know if a girl loves him and is afraid of learning the answer, and so he prefers to fantasize that she does. On February 15, the song was issued as the B-side to their "Do You Wanna Dance?" single before the album's release.


      Background and arrangement


      "Please Let Me Wonder" was the first song Wilson wrote under the influence of marijuana. Wilson said that he produced the song "as a tribute to Phil Spector", although the arrangement, which highlights different, individual instruments throughout the song, was in direct contrast to the methods employed by Spector for his Wall of Sound.
      AllMusic reviewer Matthew Greenwald wrote of the song:

      Built around a lilting, gracious melody that vaguely recalls some of Wilson's doo wop influences, it's also somewhat akin to some of the contemporary (and mostly upcoming) ballad statements that folk-rock would embrace. ...Through the years, it has become known as one of the most treasured of Brian Wilson's more obscure album cuts. A quantum leap for this gifted composer.
      The instrumentation includes drums, timpani, tambourine, bass, two guitars, acoustic guitar, piano, tack piano, organ, horns, and vibraphone. In journalist David Howard's description, the song "specifically demonstrates" Wilson's "newfound insight" of "deconstruct[ing] songs into tiny increments and deal with each instrument individually, stacking sounds one at a time." Contributing to this effect, academic Jody O'Regan writes that the arrangement has "Some little accents, like the use of vibraphone, [that] only happen three times, and not always in a repetitive fashion. Similarly, a second electric guitar pops in and out during chorus sections to thicken the texture of the song, while horn parts surface in verse two, to delineate the sound of each song section."


      Lyrics


      The song is about a man who is afraid that a girl will reveal that she does not love him, and so he instead prefers to fantasize that she does. Greenwald said that the lyrics are filled with a sense of longing and uncertainty, sort of a flip side to Wilson's 'When I Grow Up to Be a Man.'" Journalist Scott Interrante's reading of the lyrics is that Wilson uses "a virginity metaphor to discuss his fears of commitment and intimacy in his own marriage."


      Recording


      The backing track was recorded on January 7, 1965, at Western Studio. Wilson later remembered of the song, "I wrote that at my apartment in West Hollywood. As soon as I finished I felt I had to record it so I called up my engineer, Chuck Britz, and woke him up. 'Please Let Me Wonder' was recorded at 3:30 in the morning. I drove to the studio in the middle of the night and recorded it." The session logs indicate that the instrumental track was actually recorded between 7:00 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. Vocals were overdubbed on January 9.
      The song ends with Brian Wilson saying in a spoken-word delivery, "I love you". According to him, this was an improvised line during recording.


      Release


      On February 15, 1965, "Please Let Me Wonder" was issued as the B-side of "Do You Wanna Dance?", the third single from The Beach Boys Today!. On February 28, the band (with Brian) appeared on Shindig! for a performance that included a truncated version of "Please Let Me Wonder".
      Billboard described the song as an "interesting and well done change of pace ballad." Cash Box described it as "an easy-going, slowrockin’ ode about the ambiguities of a love relationship." Record World said "The harmony is pure and the tune is slow. Will lull many a teen into a romantic mood."


      Personnel


      Per Craig Slowinski.

      The Beach Boys
      Al Jardine – harmony and backing vocals
      Brian Wilson – lead, harmony and backing vocals, upright piano, Farfisa organ
      Carl Wilson – harmony and backing vocals, 12-string lead guitar
      Dennis Wilson – harmony and backing vocals, percussion, tambourine, tom-tom
      Mike Love – harmony and backing vocals
      Additional musicians and production staff


      Cover versions



      1984 – Tatsuro Yamashita, Big Wave
      1992 - Mi-Ke (Japanese language version), Taiyou no Shimo no Surfing JAPAN (太陽の下のサーフィン JAPAN)
      1997 – The King's Singers, Spirit Voices
      2021 - John Greene, Hawaiiana


      References


      Citations

      Bibliography

      Badman, Keith (2004). The Beach Boys: The Definitive Diary of America's Greatest Band, on Stage and in the Studio. Backbeat Books. ISBN 978-0-87930-818-6.
      Carlin, Peter Ames (2006). Catch a Wave: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson. Rodale. ISBN 978-1-59486-320-2.
      Howard, David N. (2004). Sonic Alchemy: Visionary Music Producers and Their Maverick Recordings (1st ed.). Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Hal Leonard. ISBN 9780634055607.
      Lambert, Phillip, ed. (2016). Good Vibrations: Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys in Critical Perspective. University of Michigan Press. doi:10.3998/mpub.9275965. ISBN 978-0-472-11995-0.
      O'Regan, Jody (2014). When I Grow Up: The Development of the Beach Boys' Sound (1962-1966) (PDF) (Thesis). Queensland Conservatorium. doi:10.25904/1912/2556.
      Wilson, Brian; Greenman, Ben (2016). I Am Brian Wilson: A Memoir. Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0-306-82307-7.

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