Smile Sessions
Marilyn Wilson said, "We went shopping one day and we brought home some wind chimes. We hung them outside the house and then one day, while Brian was sitting around he sort of watched them out the window and then he wrote the song. I think that’s how it happened. Simple. He does a lot of things that way."
Most reference sources on the Smile project concur that the song is argued as being the "Air" section of a planned four-part 'mini-suite' called "The Elements", which was to have been incorporated into the larger structure of Smile; the other sections of the suite were "I Love To Say Dada" (Water), and "Mrs O'Leary's Cow" (Fire). (The "Earth" section to this day remains a mystery.) There are disagreements, however, since "Wind Chimes" is listed as a separate track from "The Elements" according to the back cover of Smile. (This could also be argued since the handwritten note submitted to Capitol Records containing the track listings were not yet definite, and in fact were written in haste.)
Read more about this topic: Wind Chimes (song)