B-side "Here Today" Genre Soul, R&B | Format Vinyl Length 2:12 | |
Released December 18, 1967 (1967-12-18) Recorded October 11 (11-10)–October 27, 1967 (1967-10-27), Wally Heider Studios, San Francisco | ||
"Darlin'" is a song written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love, recorded by American rock band the Beach Boys with Carl Wilson on lead vocal. It opens the second side of their 1967 album Wild Honey and was also released as a single, backed with "Here Today" from their 1966 album Pet Sounds. The single peaked at No. 19 in the United States and No. 11 in the United Kingdom. The song is also known by different lyrics and structure as "Thinkin' 'Bout You Baby", also written by Wilson and Love, and first recorded by singer Sharon Marie in 1964.
Contents
- Recording
- Personnel
- Release history
- Variations
- Sharon Marie version
- Other cover versions
- In popular culture
- References
It has twice returned to the US Billboard Hot 100, reaching No. 51 for Paul Davis in 1978, and two years later No. 68 for the Milwaukee-based band Yipes!.
Recording
The instrumental and vocal track was recorded under the production of Brian Wilson on October 27, 1967. Initially Wilson had planned to give this song and "Time to Get Alone" to Three Dog Night, then called "Redwood", as Danny Hutton was a friend of Wilson. Hutton laid claim to inspiring the title for "Darlin'", it being frequent in his vocabulary at the time. Redwood only got as far as recording a guide vocal before Mike Love insisted that Brian focus his attention on producing work for the Beach Boys. Accompanied by piano, bass, tambourine, strings, and horns, Carl Wilson sings lead vocals.
Personnel
Release history
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, but it placed at number 10 on the Cash Box sales chart. Radio station playlists indicated high popularity in Santa Barbara (#1), Los Angeles (#2), Baltimore and Norfolk (#4); Washington, Boston, Honolulu (all #5); San Diego, Fresno, Portland, Milwaukee, Louisville (all #6); Vancouver (#7), Toronto (#9), and New York (#14).
In the United Kingdom the single was issued in January 1968 with the B-side "Country Air". The single peaked at the number 11 position. In New Zealand the single peaked at the number 10 position. In Sweden it placed number 15, and in the Dutch single charts the song peaked at number 21.
Variations
The instrumental track of the song was later released on the 1968 album Stack-O-Tracks. In 2012, "Darlin'" received its first stereo mix in the compilation Fifty Big Ones. Live versions were released on three of their albums: Live In London (1970), The Beach Boys In Concert (1973) and Good Timin': Live At Knebworth England 1980 (2002). As a solo artist, the song appeared on Brian Wilson's live album Live at the Roxy Theatre (2002).
Sharon Marie version
The song was initially written as "Thinkin' 'Bout You Baby" by Wilson and Love years earlier, and was first recorded in April 1964 and released as a single two months later by Sharon Marie—a previously unrecorded teenager who had informally auditioned for Wilson and Love by singing opera standards after a Sacramento Beach Boys concert—with production by Wilson himself. The song later appeared on the 2004 compilation Pet Projects: The Brian Wilson Productions.