Single Release
The "Do It Again" single backed with "Wake the World" was released in the United States on July 8, 1968. The single version was slightly different from the album version in that it didn't have the hammering sounds at the fade out of the song. The single hit the charts on July 27 and peaked at the number 20 position on September 14. It would be the band's last single to peak in the top twenty on the charts until "Rock and Roll Music" in 1976 (which is a total of 14 singles without charting inside the top 20), which peaked at the number 5 position.
Released on July 19, 1968 in the United Kingdom the single, forty days after its release, peaked at #1 on the chart on August 28, 1968, and thus becoming the band's second number one hit in the United Kingdom after "Good Vibrations" two years earlier. The single had knocked "Mony Mony" by Tommy James and the Shondells off the top position. However, the single only remained at the top position for one week after it was knocked off by the song "I've Gotta Get a Message to You" by The Bee Gees. Due to the single's success many years earlier, Capitol Records decided to re-issue the single in Britain in June 1991. The single, which featured both "Do It Again" and "Good Vibrations" (the band's only two number one hits in Britain) on the A-side and an extended version of "The Beach Boys Medley" on the B-side, peaked at number 61 on the charts.
In Australia the song became the band's first number one hit single. In Germany the single peaked at the number 4 position on the charts. On the Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Irish and Rhodesian (now known as Zimbabwe) charts the single peaked at number 5. It was number 4 in Malaysia, number 6 in Israel and number 7 in Denmark and Switzerland. It was the Beach Boys' last big national hit (of the Sixties) in Canada, placing at number 10 on the RPM Top 100. And on the New Zealand chart the single peaked at the number 14 position.
The impact of the single belied its relatively low position in Billboard, rising to number 7 and number 8 in the charts collated and published by rival trade papers Record World and Cash Box, respectively. It brought something of a media comeback for the Beach Boys, invited to appear on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and several other New York talk shows. It placed at #8 on the major playlists of New York City, and did better than that in Chicago (#1), Calgary (#2), Los Angeles (#3), San Diego and Louisville (#4), Toronto (#5), Boston and Buffalo (#6), Washington DC (#7), Detroit and Cincinnati (#8).
As a solo artist, Brian Wilson also released a cover version off his 1995 album I Just Wasn't Made for These Times as a single in Britain. The single also featured his cover of "'Til I Die", which was also from I Just Wasn't Made for These Times, and a rare B-side "This Song Wants to Sleep with You Tonight". The single however failed to make any impact on the charts.
Read more about this topic: Do It Again (The Beach Boys Song)
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