Darlin' (The Beach Boys song)

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"Darlin'"
Beach Boys - Darlin'.jpg
Single by the Beach Boys
from the album Wild Honey
B-side"Here Today"
ReleasedDecember 18, 1967 (1967-12-18)
RecordedOctober 10–27, 1967
StudioWally Heider Recording, Hollywood
Genre
Length2:12
LabelCapitol
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys singles chronology
"Wild Honey"
(1967) 		"Darlin'"
(1967) 		"Friends"
(1968)
Music video
"Darlin'" on YouTube
Audio sample
  • file
  • help

"Darlin'" is a song by American rock band the Beach Boys from their 1967 album Wild Honey.[4] Written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love, it was inspired by singer Danny Hutton (the title word featured heavily in his vocabulary) and was originally intended to be recorded by an early version of Three Dog Night. Carl Wilson ultimately sang the lead vocal.

Released as the second single from Wild Honey, "Darlin'" peaked at number 19 in the U.S. and number 11 in the UK. Cover versions returned the song twice to the U.S. charts, reaching number 51 for singer Paul Davis in 1978, and number 68 for the band Yipes! in 1980.[5] In 1992, the title was adopted by Darlin', the band that later evolved into Daft Punk.

Background and recording[]

"Thinkin' 'Bout You Baby"
Single by Sharon Marie
ReleasedJune 1, 1964 (1964-06-01)
RecordedApril 1964 (1964-04)
Length2:35
Songwriter(s)
  • Brian Wilson
  • Mike Love
Producer(s)Brian Wilson
Sharon Marie singles chronology
"Runaround Lover"
(1963) 		"Thinkin' 'Bout You Baby"
(1964)

The song was initially written as "Thinkin' 'Bout You Baby" by Wilson and Love years earlier, and was first recorded in April 1964 and released as a single two months later by Sharon Marie[6]—a previously unrecorded teenager who had informally auditioned for Wilson and Love by singing opera standards after a Sacramento Beach Boys concert[failed verification]—with production by Wilson himself.[7] The track was included on the 2004 compilation Pet Projects: The Brian Wilson Productions.

In reference to "Darlin'", Wilson recalled, "I was writing more in a soul/r&b bag. The horns were conceived as a Phil Spector kind of a horn thing. ... That song took about a week to write."[8] Singer Danny Hutton laid claim to inspiring the title for "Darlin'", it being frequent in his vocabulary at the time.[9][4]

Wilson produced the instrumental track for "Darlin'" on October 11, 1967.[10] Initially, he had planned to give this song and "Time to Get Alone" to Hutton's group Redwood (later known as Three Dog Night). Redwood only got as far as recording a guide vocal before Carl Wilson and Mike Love insisted that Brian focus his attention on producing work for the Beach Boys, according to various accounts.[9][4][11] Wilson stated in a later interview, "Darlin' was for Three Dog Night. They recorded it and said, 'No, you can have it' so I gave it to Carl to sing."[8] Further recording on the track followed on October 27.[10]

Release[]

"Darlin'" was released as a single, backed with "Here Today", on December 18, 1967, the same date as the release of the Wild Honey album. The song peaked at number 19 in the United States and number 11 in the United Kingdom.[4] Cash Box said that the song represented "a shift in sound from the Beach Boys into a less elaborate but extra-commercial teen beat right between mid-and-up tempo."[12]

Legacy[]

Biographer Mark Dillon decreed that the song was "ahead of its time, anticipating the blue-eyed soul of such '70s acts as Todd Rundgren and Chicago."[13]

Personnel[]

The Beach Boys

  • Brian Wilson – piano[14]
  • Carl Wilson – lead vocals, guitar,[7] inaudible drums[15]
  • The Beach Boys – backing vocals, tambourine, other percussion[15]

Additional personnel

Cover versions[]

See also: List of cover versions of Beach Boys songs

In popular culture[]

References[]

Citations

  1. ^ Gaines 1986, p. 183.
  2. ^ Fine, Jason (2004). "The Beach Boys". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. pp. 46, 48. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
  3. ^ Hodgkins, Nig; et al. (1996). Buckley, Jonathan (ed.). Rock: The Rough Guide. Rough Guides. p. 69. ISBN 1858282012.
  4. ^ a b c d Badman 2004, p. 208.
  5. ^ Joel Whitburn, Top Pop Singles 1955-1999 (Menomonee Falls, WI: Record Research, 2000), 747.
  6. ^ Doe, Andrew G. "GIGS64". Endless Summer Quarterly. Retrieved December 9, 2014.
  7. ^ a b c Badman 2004, p. 203.
  8. ^ a b Sharp, Ken (January 2, 2009). "Brian Wilson: God's Messenger". American Songwriter.
  9. ^ a b Priore 2005, pp. 153–55.
  10. ^ a b Doe, Andrew G. "GIGS67". Endless Summer Quarterly. Retrieved December 9, 2014.
  11. ^ Matijas-Mecca 2017, p. 84.
  12. ^ "CashBox Record Reviews" (PDF). Cash Box. December 16, 1967. p. 28. Retrieved 2022-01-12.
  13. ^ Dillon 2012, p. 156.
  14. ^ Priore 2005, p. 153.
  15. ^ a b Slowinski, Craig (2017). Endless Summer Quarterly. Vol. 121. p. ?.
  16. ^ a b "Who played the backing tracks on songs meant for Redwood?". Smileysmile.net. Retrieved 2020-03-07.
  17. ^ "SA Charts 1965–March 1989". Retrieved 2 September 2018.
  18. ^ Robbins, Ira. "BMX Bandits". Trouser Press. Retrieved 3 August 2010.
  19. ^ "Archived copy". www.amoeba.com. Archived from the original on 15 December 2015. Retrieved 12 January 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

Bibliography

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