"All I Wanna Do" is a song by the American rock band the Beach Boys from their 1970 album ''

Sunflower The common sunflower (''Helianthus annuus'') is a large annual forb of the genus ''Helianthus'' grown as a crop for its edible oily seeds. Apart from cooking oil production, it is also used as livestock forage (as a meal or a silage plant), as ...

''. Written by

Brian Wilson Brian Douglas Wilson (born June 20, 1942) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer who co-founded the Beach Boys. Often called a genius for his novel approaches to pop composition, extraordinary musical aptitude, and m ...

and Mike Love, the recording's use of layering, reverb and

delay Delay (from Latin: dilatio) may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Delay 1968'', a 1981 album by German experimental rock band Can * ''The Delay'', a 2012 Uruguayan film People * B. H. DeLay (1891–1923), American aviator and acto ...

effects led it to be retrospectively cited as the earliest example of dream pop and chillwave, as well as a precursor to

shoegaze Shoegaze (originally called shoegazing and sometimes conflated with "dream pop") is a subgenre of indie and alternative rock characterized by its ethereal mixture of obscured vocals, guitar distortion and effects, feedback, and overwhelming volu ...

. It was also influential for many lo-fi acts. The song was initially attempted for the albums ''

Friends ''Friends'' is an American television sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994, to May 6, 2004, lasting ten seasons. With an ensemble cast starring Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa ...

'' (1968) and ''

20/20 Visual acuity (VA) commonly refers to the clarity of vision, but technically rates an examinee's ability to recognize small details with precision. Visual acuity is dependent on optical and neural factors, i.e. (1) the sharpness of the retinal ...

'' (1969).

Carl Wilson Carl Dean Wilson (December 21, 1946 – February 6, 1998) was an American musician, singer, and songwriter who co-founded the Beach Boys. He was their lead guitarist, the youngest sibling of bandmates Brian and Dennis, and the group's ''de ...

produced the version that appeared on ''Sunflower'', likely with assistance from Brian, and with lead vocals by Love. The arrangement features multiple vocal parts sung in

counterpoint In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more musical lines (or voices) which are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. It has been most commonly identified in the European classical tradi ...

, 12-string guitar,

Rocksichord Rocky Mount Instruments (RMI) was a subsidiary of the Allen Organ Company, based in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, active from 1966 to 1982. The company was formed to produce portable musical instruments, and manufactured several electronic pianos ...

, electric sitar, and a

Moog synthesizer The Moog synthesizer is a modular synthesizer developed by the American engineer Robert Moog. Moog debuted it in 1964, and Moog's company R. A. Moog Co. (later known as Moog Music) produced numerous models from 1965 to 1981, and again from 20 ...

played by engineer

Stephen Desper Stephen W. Desper is an American audio engineer who is best known for his work with the Beach Boys during the early 1970s and for inventing the Spatializer. The Spatializer is an effects unit which employs psychoacoustic techniques that emulate th ...

. Brian later said that he felt it was "a boring song" that "wasn't done right". The band never performed it in concert, although Love's touring edition of the group did, in 2015. In 2018, an earlier version of the track was released on the compilation '' I Can Hear Music: The 20/20 Sessions''. In 2021, isolated vocals and backing track versions were released on ''

Feel Flows "Feel Flows" is a song recorded by American rock band the Beach Boys from their 1971 album '' Surf's Up''. It was written by guitarist Carl Wilson and band manager Jack Rieley, and was one of Wilson's first songs. Background and recording The ...

''.

Composition

"All I Wanna Do" was written by the band's

and Mike Love. The instrumentation consists of 12-string guitar,

, electric sitar, drums, double bass, electric bass, piano, shaker, and

. According to academic Philip Lambert, Talking about the song in 1995, Brian expressed: "That was one of those songs that had a nice chord pattern, but I think it was a boring song, and I thought it wasn't done right. I thought it should have been softer, with boxed guitars." In 2000, he called the song "a real nice one". In 2015, Love commented that "All I Wanna Do" was "totally poetic and quite heartfelt".

Recording

"All I Wanna Do" was produced by

, likely with assistance from Brian, at various professional studios, including the band's own private studio. On February 24, 1968, an early version of the song was recorded during the ''

'' sessions. Another version was recorded on May 24 and June 8. One of these versions, which makes use of a sitar-like instrument, appears on the 2018 compilation: '' I Can Hear Music: The 20/20 Sessions''. Another session for the song took place on March 19, 1969, at

Gold Star Studios Gold Star Studios was an independent recording studio located in Los Angeles, California, United States. For more than thirty years, from 1950 to 1984, Gold Star was one of the most successful commercial recording studios in the world. Founded ...

. The final arrangement opted for a guitar line which Mathew Greenwald of AllMusic describes as " Byrds-like". Heavy reverb was applied to the mix. Carl played 12-string guitar, Rocksichord, and electric sitar, while engineer

played Moog synthesizer. The remaining instrumentalist roles were filled in by various session musicians. The vocals were recorded at the band's studio, as overdubs onto the Gold Star track, and feature all six members, with Love handling the lead.

Recognition and legacy

In 1970, Jim Miller of '' Rolling Stone'' noted production elements made the listening experience "mind-wrenching". Greenwald called the song a lost classic, writing: "Possibly one of the most beautiful and unusual songs and recordings on the ''Sunflower'' album... Mike Love deserves high marks for his vocal and lyric contributions, which may be his most tasteful in the scope of the entire Beach Boys canon. Brian Wilson's haunting, minor-key melody and ghostly arrangement is truly bittersweet evidence that he had certainly not lost his artistic grasp." Greenwald afforded accolades to the song's arrangement, citing the effectiveness of the piccolo snare drum and the well-executed harmonies. In later years, the song was cited as the origin of the

and chillwave genres. In his retrospective review of ''Sunflower'', '' Pitchfork''s Hefner Macauley acknowledged the song as a work of "proto-shoegaze" and as a standout track on the album. Katie Cameron of ''Paste'' concurred that the song was an "undeniably cool shoegazing precursor". Writing in ''Record Collector'', Jamie Atkins said that the song "ranks among their most subtly influential – makers of ambrosial lo-fi, from Galaxie 500 to Ariel Pink to

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, owe plenty to its reverb-heavy sound." The band never performed the song in concert. In 2015, Mike Love's touring version of the Beach Boys briefly began playing the song live for the first time. A 2016 reader's poll conducted by '' Rolling Stone'' ranked it the fourth-best Beach Boys song that was not a hit record. In 2021, the song was ranked number eight on '' Ultimate Classic Rock''s listlcle of the finest"post-'' Pet Sounds'' Beach Boys songs". Contributor Nick Deriso noted that the song resembled "a prehistoric dream-pop song" and had been admired by many "bedroom-recording chillwave kids". In 2022, '' The Guardian''s

Alexis Petridis Alexis Petridis ( el, Αλέξης Πετρίδης; born 13 September 1971) is a British journalist, head rock and pop critic for the UK newspaper ''The Guardian'', as well as a regular contributor to the magazine '' GQ''. In addition to his mus ...

ranked it number 17 on a list of the greatest Beach Boys songs.

Personnel

Credits sourced from Beach Boys archivist Craig Slowinski. The Beach Boys * Al Jardine – harmony and backing vocals * Bruce Johnston – harmony and backing vocals * Mike Love – lead vocals, harmony and backing vocals *

– harmony and backing vocals *

– harmony and backing vocals, 12-string lead guitar,

, electric sitar, production * Dennis Wilson – harmony and backing vocals ;Additional musicians and production staff * Hal Blaine – drums * Jimmy Bond – double bass, electric bass * Al Casey – rhythm guitar * Gene Estes – shaker * Mike Melvoin – piano *

– engineer, Moog synthesizer * Doc Siegel – engineer

References

External links

* * * * {{authority control 1970 songs The Beach Boys songs Songs written by Mike Love Songs written by Brian Wilson Song recordings produced by the Beach Boys Chillwave Dream pop songs