Billboard #1 Hits: #176: “Good Vibrations”- The Beach Boys. December 10, 1966. #1 for 1 week.

• Single: ” Good Vibrations”- The Beach Boys
• Record Company- Capitol
• Genre: Pop
• Written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love
• Time: 3:35
• B-side: “Let’s Go Away For Awhile”
• Grade: A+
• Peaked at #1 1 week in Billboard Hot 100. #1 in UK Singles Chart.

Yesterday when I posted my list ranking the #1 hits from 1966- I had “Good Vibrations” at #2 behind “Reach Out, I’ll Be There” by The Four Tops. I thought hard on that one. Next week if I made the list ‘Good Vibrations” could be at #1. I should have had a tie for #1. This is a great record. At the time it was released it was the most expensive song ever. This was Brian Wilson’s baby and he worked throughout 1966 on it- from September to September. He was constantly tinkering with new sounds to add to the mix. Brian said that his mother inspired the song- “She used to tell me about vibrations. I didn’t really understand too much of what it meant when I was just a boy. It scared me, the word ‘vibrations.’ She told me about dogs that would bark at people and then not bark at others, that a dog would pick up vibrations from these people that you can’t see, but you can feel.” The bands publicity Derek Taylor famously called “Good Vibrations” a ‘pocket symphony.”

Mojo magazine named it #1 on their list of Top 100 Records of All-Time. Rolling Stone had it at #6 in their 500 Greatest Songs Of All Time. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame named it one of the 500 Songs Which Shaped Rock and Roll.