"I'm Waiting for the Day" is a song by the American
rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
band
the Beach Boys
The Beach Boys are an American Rock music, rock band that formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian Wilson, Brian, Dennis Wilson, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and frie ...
from their 1966 album ''
Pet Sounds
''Pet Sounds'' is the 11th studio album by American rock band the Beach Boys, released on May 16, 1966, by Capitol Records. It was initially met with a lukewarm critical and commercial response in the United States, peaking at number 10 on th ...
''. Written primarily 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 ...
, the lyrics describe a man who is "waiting for the day" when the woman he loves will be ready to commit to a relationship with him. Wilson, alongside co-author
Mike Love
Michael Edward Love (born March 15, 1941) is an American singer and songwriter who co-founded the Beach Boys with his cousins Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson and their friend Al Jardine. Characterized by his nasal tenor and occasional bass-bari ...
, are the only Beach Boys who appear on the recording.
Musically, the arrangement is characterized for its dynamic use of textures and
word painting
Word painting, also known as tone painting or text painting, is the musical technique of composing music that reflects the literal meaning of a song's lyrics or story elements in programmatic music.
Historical development
Tone painting of words ...
. Wilson produced the track in March 1966 with the aid of 17 studio musicians who variously played
timpani
Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a membrane called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionall ...
,
bongos, drums,
flute
The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...
s,
English horn
The cor anglais (, or original ; plural: ''cors anglais''), or English horn in North America, is a double-reed woodwind instrument in the oboe family. It is approximately one and a half times the length of an oboe, making it essentially an alto ...
, electric guitar, two basses, strings, and an altered
tack piano
A tack piano (also known as a harpsipiano, jangle piano, and junk piano) is an altered version of an ordinary piano, in which objects such as thumbtacks or nails are placed on the felt-padded hammers of the instrument at the point where the ham ...
.
Background and lyrics
"I'm Waiting for the Day" was copyrighted by Wilson as a solo composition in February 1964. When the song was published on ''
Pet Sounds
''Pet Sounds'' is the 11th studio album by American rock band the Beach Boys, released on May 16, 1966, by Capitol Records. It was initially met with a lukewarm critical and commercial response in the United States, peaking at number 10 on th ...
'', it was credited to Wilson and
Mike Love
Michael Edward Love (born March 15, 1941) is an American singer and songwriter who co-founded the Beach Boys with his cousins Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson and their friend Al Jardine. Characterized by his nasal tenor and occasional bass-bari ...
, who revised eight words in Wilson's original lyric. Asked in 2014 about the song, Wilson said that "there really was no specific inspiration".
The song is a simple
love poem
Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings in a ...
whose narrator wishes to offer his comfort and support to a girl who was abandoned by her former lover. The narrator feels that she is "the only one" for him, and that he holds the power to "set
erbroken heart free". However, the broken-hearted girl is reluctant to commit herself to another relationship, leading the narrator to pledge, "I'm waiting for the day when you can love again". Biographer
Peter Ames Carlin
Peter Ames Carlin (born March 13, 1963) is an American journalist, critic and biographer who has written for publications such as ''People'' magazine, ''The New York Times Magazine'', '' The Los Angeles Times Magazine'', and ''The Oregonian''. Seve ...
summarizes the song as a "relatively hard-rocking" tune about "love's restorative power". Musicologist James Perone notes,
It is one of the five (of 13) tracks on the LP that Wilson did not write in conjunction with lyricist
Tony Asher
Anthony D. Asher (born May 2, 1939) is an English-American songwriter and advertising copywriter who is best known for his collaborations with Brian Wilson (of the Beach Boys) and Roger Nichols in the 1960s. Asher co-wrote eight songs on the Bea ...
. In his 2003 book about ''Pet Sounds'', Charles Granata refers to "I'm Waiting for the Day" as a "a sensational reminder of the smart songs" Love had co-authored with Wilson on the 1965 album ''
The Beach Boys Today!
''The Beach Boys Today!'' is the eighth studio album by the American rock band the Beach Boys, released March 8, 1965 on Capitol Records. It signaled a departure from their previous records with its orchestral sound, intimate subject matter, and ...
''.
Composition
"I'm Waiting for the Day" has a verse-refrain structure and
AAAB form. It is in the key of
E major
E major (or the key of E) is a major scale based on E, consisting of the pitches E, F, G, A, B, C, and D. Its key signature has four sharps. Its relative minor is C-sharp minor and its parallel minor is E minor. Its enharmonic equivalent, ...
, and is one of only five tracks on ''Pet Sounds'' that does not modulate or waver into other keys. Although slower in the choruses, the verses contain the fastest tempos heard on the album (approximately 168 beats per minute). According to Granata, the song serves as another example of Wilson's use of "
metaphoric instrumentation", this time to bolster the themes of "commitment and strength" elaborated in the lyrics.
The song opens and ends with the heavy sounds of a timpani being struck, which reduces in intensity during other sections. Lambert says that the timpani is evocative of "a throbbing, aching heart" and is "soon joined by other instruments and a brief statement of an inverted arch figure in the flute" which recurs later in the piece. In the verses, the lead vocal melody is doubled by an
English horn
The cor anglais (, or original ; plural: ''cors anglais''), or English horn in North America, is a double-reed woodwind instrument in the oboe family. It is approximately one and a half times the length of an oboe, making it essentially an alto ...
. In Granata's belief, this English horn amplifies the song's restless feeling by suggesting "a sense of longing when voiced behind Brian's lead vocal ('I came along when he broke your heart'), and resignation in the final chorus ('I'm waiting for the day when you can love again')."
Chord-wise, the changes in the verses are essentially a
doo-wop progression that gives way to the same progression Wilson had previously used in "
The Man with All the Toys" (1964).
The second verse introduces backing vocals singing the same melody that the flutes play in the intro.
Bruce Johnston
Bruce Arthur Johnston (born Benjamin Baldwin; June 27, 1942) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer who is a member of the Beach Boys. Johnston also collaborated on many records with Terry Melcher (his bandmate in Bru ...
alluded to the nonsense-syllable bass vocals, a part of the backing harmonies, as an example of the "tremendous amount of
doo-wop
Doo-wop (also spelled doowop and doo wop) is a genre of rhythm and blues music that originated in African-American communities during the 1940s, mainly in the large cities of the United States, including New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chica ...
and
R&B influence sprinkled throughout ''Pet Sounds''." Of this song, he said that there are "beautiful, dumb background parts. The yin-yang works great there. The 'doops' and the 'aahs.' It's kind of like having all the scruffy characters that are in
he musical
He or HE may refer to:
Language
* He (pronoun), an English pronoun
* He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ
* He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets
* He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...
''
Oliver'' show up at the
Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London. One of the UK's most treasured and distinctive buildings, it is held in trust for the nation and managed by a registered charity which receives no govern ...
. They don't belong but it fits."
Preceding the final chorus is a sudden short interlude featuring just a string section as accompaniment. Granata compares the section to the previous track, "
Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)
"Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)" is a song by American rock band the Beach Boys from their 1966 album ''Pet Sounds''. Written by Brian Wilson and Tony Asher, it is a ballad about nonverbal communication between lovers. Musically, the ...
", which similarly emphasizes the stringed instruments' lower register. He writes, "In this seven-second passage we glimpse Brian's refined musical sense, and his predilection for taking us by surprise. Here, the theme is arbitrary—it isn't voiced anywhere else in the song. In this short section, the string ensemble sweeps through an interesting sequence of 10 chords, none of which repeat." Lambert characterizes those chords as "intensely
chromatic
Diatonic and chromatic are terms in music theory that are most often used to characterize scales, and are also applied to musical instruments, intervals, chords, notes, musical styles, and kinds of harmony. They are very often used as a pair, ...
" with "internal moving lines of extraordinary intricacy".
Carol Kaye
Carol Kaye (née Smith, born March 24, 1935) is an American musician. She is one of the most prolific recorded bass guitarists in rock and pop music, playing on an estimated 10,000 recordings in a career spanning over 50 years.
Kaye began play ...
, who played 12-string electric guitar on the track,
commented of the bass line, "
hat
A hat is a head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorporate mecha ...
part with the 4th (sus 11th) on the bottom. Very rare! Brian really stretched his orchestrating there, but it's fine. This was a little boring to play without a lead...sort of like
Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...
, the bass wound up playing scale-like figures to a march time, ending a jazz-like chordal spread of violin and cellos."
Recording
Wilson produced the basic track, including string overdubs, on March 6, 1966 at
Western Recorders Studio 3. The song was then logged as "Untitled Ballad". Vocal overdubs finished the track on March 10 (or possibly March 10–12) at
Columbia Studio A.
Wilson and Love, who both sang vocals, are the only Beach Boys who perform on the recording.
A discarded alternate mix, created on March 12, featured only Love on lead vocals.
Critical reception
On May 16, 1966, "I'm Waiting for the Day" was released as the fifth track on ''Pet Sounds''. In his self-described "unbiased" review of the album for ''
Record Mirror
''Record Mirror'' was a British weekly music newspaper between 1954 and 1991 for pop fans and record collectors. Launched two years after the ''NME'', it never attained the circulation of its rival. The first UK album chart was published in ''Re ...
'', Norman Jopling described the song as an exhibition for "shotgun drums ... strings and organ, but used completely different
rom 'Don't Talk'... it suddenly develops into a thumpy heartbeating noise, which is the introduction for Brian Wilson to throw in everything including the proverbial kitchen sink, and presumably the washing up water..."
Wilson felt that his singing on "I'm Waiting for the Day" was inadequate, explaining, "Vocally, I thought I sounded a little bit weird in my head. That's the one cut off the album I didn't really like that much. But, you know, it's okay, it's not a case of liking or not liking it; it was an appropriate song, a very, very positive song. I just didn't like my voice on that particular song."
His brother
Carl Carl may refer to:
*Carl, Georgia, city in USA
*Carl, West Virginia, an unincorporated community
* Carl (name), includes info about the name, variations of the name, and a list of people with the name
*Carl², a TV series
* "Carl", an episode of te ...
praised the dynamics, saying, "The intro is very big, then it gets quite small with the vocal in the verse with a little instrumentation and then, in the chorus, it gets very big again, with the background harmonies against the lead. It is perhaps one of the most dynamic moments in the album."
Live performances
In 1974 and 1975, the Beach Boys incorporated "I'm Waiting for the Day" in their concert set lists.
Personnel
Per band archivist Craig Slowinski.
The Beach Boys
*
Mike Love
Michael Edward Love (born March 15, 1941) is an American singer and songwriter who co-founded the Beach Boys with his cousins Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson and their friend Al Jardine. Characterized by his nasal tenor and occasional bass-bari ...
– bass and backing vocals
*
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 ...
– lead and bass vocals
Session musicians (also known as "
the Wrecking Crew")
* Gary Coleman – timpani, bongos
*
Jim Gordon – drums
* Bill Green – flute
* Leonard Hartman –
English horn
The cor anglais (, or original ; plural: ''cors anglais''), or English horn in North America, is a double-reed woodwind instrument in the oboe family. It is approximately one and a half times the length of an oboe, making it essentially an alto ...
* Jim Horn – flute
*
Carol Kaye
Carol Kaye (née Smith, born March 24, 1935) is an American musician. She is one of the most prolific recorded bass guitarists in rock and pop music, playing on an estimated 10,000 recordings in a career spanning over 50 years.
Kaye began play ...
– 12-string electric guitar
*
Larry Knechtel
Lawrence William Knechtel (August 4, 1940 – August 20, 2009) was an American keyboard player and bassist who was a member of the Wrecking Crew, a collection of Los Angeles-based session musicians who worked with such renowned artists as Simon ...
–
Hammond B3 organ
The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding #Drawbars, drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs ...
*
Al de Lory
Alfred V. De Lory (January 31, 1930 – February 5, 2012) was an American record producer, arranger, conductor and session musician. He was the producer and arranger of a series of worldwide hits by Glen Campbell in the 1960s, including John H ...
– upright
tack piano
A tack piano (also known as a harpsipiano, jangle piano, and junk piano) is an altered version of an ordinary piano, in which objects such as thumbtacks or nails are placed on the felt-padded hammers of the instrument at the point where the ham ...
with
taped strings
*
Jay Migliori
Jay Migliori (November 14, 1930 – September 2, 2001) was an American saxophonist, best known as a founding member of Supersax, a tribute band to Charlie Parker.
Biography
Migliori started playing the saxophone after he received one as a birthday ...
– flute
*
Ray Pohlman
Merlyn Ray Pohlman (July 22, 1930 – November 1, 1990) was an American session musician and arranger who played both upright bass and bass guitar, and also did sessions as a guitarist. He is credited with being the first electric bass player ...
– electric bass guitar
*
Lyle Ritz
Lyle Joseph Ritz (January 10, 1930 – March 3, 2017) was an American musician, known for his work on ukulele and bass (both double bass and bass guitar). His early career in jazz as a ukulele player made him a key part of the Hawaii music scene ...
– upright bass, overdubbed ''
arco
ARCO ( ) is a brand of gasoline stations currently owned by Marathon Petroleum after BP sold its rights. BP commercializes the brand in Northern California, Oregon and Washington, while Marathon has rights for the rest of the United States an ...
''
upright bass
The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...
The Sid Sharp Strings
* Justin DiTullio – cello
* Harry Hyams – viola
* William Kurasch – violin
* Leonard Malarsky – violin
* Ralph Schaeffer – violin
* Sid Sharp – violin
Cover versions
*1966 – Peanut, 7" single (arranged/produced by
Mark Wirtz
Mark Philipp Wirtz (3 September 19437 August 2020) was a German-French pop music record producer, composer, singer, musician, author, and comedian. Wirtz is best known for the never-completed '' A Teenage Opera'' concept album, a project he devi ...
)
*1998 – Short Hair Front, ''
Smiling Pets''
*2001 –
Reigning Sound
Reigning Sound was an American rock and roll band originally based in Memphis, Tennessee, United States
As of 2019, along with fronting Reigning Sound, Cartwright also reformed his past band Greg Oblivian and the Tip Tops. In 2020, he also refor ...
, ''
Break Up, Break Down''
*2002 –
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 ...
, ''
Pet Sounds Live
''Brian Wilson Presents Pet Sounds Live'' is the second live album by American musician Brian Wilson. It features a performance of the Beach Boys' 1966 album ''Pet Sounds'', recorded by Wilson and his band at the Royal Festival Hall in London in ...
''
Notes
References
Bibliography
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:I'm Waiting For The Day
1966 songs
The Beach Boys songs
Pop ballads
Songs written by Brian Wilson
Songs written by Mike Love
Song recordings produced by Brian Wilson
Song recordings with Wall of Sound arrangements