Please Let Me Wonder

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"Please Let Me Wonder"
Please Let Me Wonder - The Beach Boys.jpg
Single by The Beach Boys
from the album The Beach Boys Today!
A-side"Do You Wanna Dance?"
ReleasedFebruary 15, 1965
RecordedJanuary 7–9, 1965
StudioWestern, Hollywood
Length2:45
LabelCapitol
Songwriter(s)Brian Wilson, Mike Love
Producer(s)Brian Wilson
The Beach Boys singles chronology
"The Man with All the Toys"
(1964) 		"Please Let Me Wonder"
(1965) 		"Help Me, Rhonda"
(1965)
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"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.[1] Wilson said that he produced the song "as a tribute to Phil Spector",[2] 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.[3]

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.[4]

The instrumentation includes drums, timpani, tambourine, bass, two guitars, acoustic guitar, piano, tack piano, organ, horns, and vibraphone.[5] 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."[6] 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."[7]

Lyricism[]

The song is about a man who is afraid that a girl will reveal that she does not love him,[8] and so he instead prefers to fantasize that she does.[9] 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.'"[4] 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."[3]

A rushed utterance of the words "I love you", spoken by Carl, is heard near the end of the song. According to musicologist Phillip Lambert, "It has been a point of interest that it’s not the voice of the lead singer [Brian]" as it inspires a number of imagined scenarios for the listener, for example, that the voice represents the narrator's subconscious, that the music should be understood as the score of a movie scene, or that the lyrics portray "a gay or alternately gendered scenario".[10]

Recording[]

The backing track was recorded on January 7, 1965 at Western Studio.[11] In a 2011 interview, Wilson 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."[2] The session logs indicate that the instrumental track was actually recorded between 7:00 p.m. and 10:30 p.m.[11] Vocals were overdubbed on January 9.[11]

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!.[12] On February 28, the band (with Brian) appeared on Shindig! for a performance that included a truncated version of "Please Let Me Wonder".[13]

Billboard described the song as an "interesting and well done change of pace ballad."[14]

Personnel[]

Per Craig Slowinski.[15]

The Beach Boys
Additional musicians and production staff

Cover versions[]

See also: List of cover versions of Beach Boys songs

References[]

Citations

  1. ^ Wilson & Greenman 2016, p. 191.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b Prince, Patrick (March 2, 2011). "Brian Wilson gives a brief summary of his hit songs". Goldmine Mag.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b Interrante, Scott (May 19, 2014). "When I Grow Up: The Beach Boys - "Please Let Me Wonder"". PopMatters.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b "Matthew Greenwald review".
  5. ^ O'Regan 2014, p. 189.
  6. ^ Howard 2004, p. 58.
  7. ^ O'Regan 2014, p. 184.
  8. ^ Carlin 2006, p. 73.
  9. ^ Bolin, Alice (July 8, 2012). "The Beach Boys Are Still Looking at an Impossible Future". PopMatters.
  10. ^ Lambert 2016, p. 36.
  11. ^ Jump up to: a b c Badman 2004, p. 82.
  12. ^ Badman 2004, p. 84.
  13. ^ Badman 2004, p. 90.
  14. ^ "Singles Reviews" (PDF). Billboard. February 20, 1965. p. 24. Retrieved 2021-04-02.
  15. ^ Slowinski, Craig (2007). "The Beach Boys - The Beach Boys Today!" (PDF). Retrieved October 27, 2012.

Bibliography

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