Darlin' (Beach Boys song)

"Darlin'" is a song written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love for the American pop band The Beach Boys. It was released on their 1967 album Wild Honey. It was also released as a single, with the B-side of the single being "Here Today". The single peaked at #19 in the United States and #11 in the United Kingdom. The song was credited as being produced by The Beach Boys and it featured Carl Wilson on lead vocals.

1 Composition
2 Recording
3 Single release
4 Live versions
5 Trivia
6 References
7 See also

[edit] Composition

The song "Darlin'" is a re-write of a song that Brian and Mike had written years earlier called "Thinkin' 'Bout You Baby" which was first recorded and released as a single in April 1964 by Sharon Marie - who was purportedly Mike Love's girlfriend at the time - with production by Brian himself. The song can be heard on the 2004 compilation Pet Projects: The Brian Wilson Productions. In 1972, Brian's wife at the time, Marilyn, as well as her sister Diane were known as the duo American Spring. On their one and only self-titled album they covered the song "Thinkin' 'Bout You Baby". After the song had been re-written as "Darlin'", Brian was planning to give the song to a band called Redwood (later to be known as Three Dog Night) as Danny Hutton was a friend of Brian's around that time, but the other Beach Boys members insisted that they should record the song.

[edit] Recording

The instrumental and vocal track was recorded under the production of Brian Wilson on October 27, 1967. The instrumental track of the song was released on the 1968 album Stack-O-Tracks.

[edit] Single release

The "Darlin'" single backed with "Here Today" was issued by Capitol Records in the United States in December, 1967. The single peaked at the number 19 position on the Billboard charts.

In the United Kingdom the single was issued in January, 1968 with the B-side being "Country Air". The single peaked at the number 11 position. In New Zealand the single peaked at the number 10 position. In the Dutch single charts the song peaked at number 21.

[edit] Live versions

After the song was released it became a regular song in The Beach Boys live set. The song has subsequently been released on three of the bands live albums. Firstly it was released on the bands original 1970 release Live In London in which it was the opening track on the album. It was then released in 1973 on the bands The Beach Boys In Concert live album. And then most recently it was released on the bands 2002 live album Good Timin': Live At Knebworth England 1980.

[edit] Trivia

The song later inspired a shortly lived indie-rock group of the same name which consisted of Thomas Bangalter, Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, and Laurent Brancowitz.