"Girls on the Beach" 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 band that formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Distinguished by the ...

from their 1964 album '' All Summer Long''. Written by Brian 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 bas ...

, the song is in the vein of the band's previous surf ballads and features

Four Freshmen 4 (four) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is considered unlucky in many East Asian cultures. In mathematics Four is the smallest c ...

-inspired harmonies. The song also served as the title track to the movie ''

The Girls on the Beach ''The Girls on the Beach'' is a 1965 American beach party comedy film directed by William N. Witney and written by Sam Locke. The film stars Noreen Corcoran, Martin West, Linda Marshall, Steven Rogers, Ahna Capri and Aron Kincaid. The film wa ...

''.

Background and style

"Girls on the Beach" was written by Brian Wilson, whose 2016 memoir, ''

I Am Brian Wilson ''I Am Brian Wilson: A Memoir'' is the second autobiographical memoir of American musician Brian Wilson, written by journalist Ben Greenman through several months of interviews with Wilson. It was intended to supplant '' Wouldn't It Be Nice: My O ...

'', described it as "our last real surf-type song." It is a ballad in a similar vein to Wilson's 1963 song " Surfer Girl", but more musically complex and sexualized. Musicologist

Philip Lambert ''Inside the Music of Brian Wilson'' (subtitled ''The Songs, Sounds, and Influences of the Beach Boys' Founding Genius'') is a 2007 book that analyzes the music of Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, authored by American musicologist Philip Lambert ...

notes the influence of

the Four Freshmen The Four Freshmen is an American male vocal quartet that blends open-harmonic jazz arrangements with the big band vocal group sounds of The Modernaires, The Pied Pipers, and The Mel-Tones, founded in the barbershop tradition. The singers accom ...

on the song's vocal arrangement. 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 ...

writes of an "erotic" quality in the song, reflected "both in the lyrics and in the voices themselves, which fall, climb, and tangle languidly through a series of augmented chords with a loving intimacy that communicates all the passion simmering beneath the words." Lambert says, Girls on the Beach' is less romantic and more lecherous, sung the girls but the other guys."

Recording

"Girls on the Beach" was recorded on April 10 and May 19, 1964 at

United Western Recorders United Western Recorders was a two-building recording studio complex in Hollywood that was one of the most successful independent recording studios of the 1960s. The complex merged neighboring studios United Recording Corp. on 6050 Sunset Boule ...

Release

In addition to appearing on the band's 1964 album, '' All Summer Long'', the song featured as the title track to the surf movie ''

'', filmed in April 1964 and featuring performances by the band. In the film, the band performed "The Girls on the Beach", "

Little Honda "Little Honda" is a song by the American rock band the Beach Boys from their 1964 album '' All Summer Long''. Written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love, it pays tribute to the small Honda motorcycle and its ease of operation, specifically the Honda 5 ...

", and "Lonely Sea".

Critical reception

Writing retrospectively for

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

, critic

Richie Unterberger Richie Unterberger (born January 19, 1962) is an American author and journalist whose focus is popular music and travel writing. Life and writing Unterberger attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he wrote for the university newspaper '' ...

described the song as a "sumptuous ballad" and a "relatively little-known treasure," also noting that the song features "some of their best early harmonizing."

Dennis Wilson Dennis Carl Wilson (December 4, 1944 – December 28, 1983) was an American musician, singer, and songwriter who co-founded the Beach Boys. He is best remembered as their drummer and as the middle brother of bandmates Brian and Carl Wilson. ...

sang lead on the song's

middle eight The 32- bar form, also known as the AABA song form, American popular song form and the ballad form, is a song structure commonly found in Tin Pan Alley songs and other American popular music, especially in the first half of the 20th century. ...

; brother Brian later commented, "Dennis does a nice job on the bridge". Biographer

Jon Stebbins Jon Stebbins is a Los Osos, California-based musician, songwriter, documentary producer and author of four books about The Beach Boys, as well as two other books. Music career Stebbins was a member of a music band called 'The Point' which was ac ...

praised Dennis's line "the sun in her hair / the warmth of the air" as " e of the most perfect uses of issexy voice", and the closing block harmonies as "one of the group's finest moments". In addition, he notes that the song "shows off Brian's incredible vocal-arranging skill, with complex group blends and multiple key changes".

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * {{All Summer Long 1964 songs The Beach Boys songs Songs written by Brian Wilson Song recordings produced by Brian Wilson