Good Vibrations

Hands down, the best vibrations you can give your day.

A cult classic by the Beach Boys — co-created by the troubled Californian musical genius Brian Wilson — Good Vibrations released as a single in October 1966, shortly after their iconic album Pet Sounds.

Pet Sounds, as any Beatlemanic knows, was something that the young boy band across the Atlantic had listened to attentively and perhaps even envied.

If you listen to Good Vibrations, you’d argue it’s no less than an album. For, more than the voices, the organ and the banjo and the guitar, it’s the soundscape of happiness.

It begins simply enough:

I... I love the colourful clothes she wears

And the way the sunlight plays upon her hair

I hear the sound of a gentle word

On the wind that lifts her perfume through the air

I’m pickin’ up good vibrations...

It’s that tingly vibe when someone catches your eye. The world gets all bright and breezy and it’s legit to daydream.

But there’s more. The song switches tempo, quickens and softens, hums and glides. And its genius creeps under your skin.

Softly smile, I know she must be kind

When I look in her eyes

She goes with me to a blossom world...

You discover layers. Sappy happy, upbeat happy, those are easy to make out. But that utter sweet contentment when the song’s tempo slows catches you off guard. It’s joy to the brim, one drop more would splash into melancholy.

It’s ironic that Brian, who composed the number — brother Carl was the lead vocalist and cousin Mike Love wrote the lyrics — had an abusive childhood, did drugs and struggled with self-esteem all his life. Ironic that on Brian’s death on June 11, fellow band member Al Jardine would call him the man “who taught the world to smile”.

Good Vibrations proves music is more than its maker.