Wonderful (The Beach Boys Song) - Initial Composition

Initial Composition

Brian Wilson claims that he and Van Dyke Parks wrote the song along with "Heroes and Villains" "Cabin Essence" and "Surf's Up" in a giant sandbox with a piano in it that Wilson had built in his living room. The original version was based around a harpsichord rhythm recorded on November 1966 (with numerous bootlegs documenting Wilson's attempts at recording the basic harpsichord track on his own). The harpsichord track was then mixed with some horn overdubs together with a bass, both entering in the second verse. A recording session featuring only Brian and Al Jardine was held in January 1967 in which they recorded the backing vocals. Afterwards, Brian recorded the lead vocal on his own.

An outtake from sometime around this session, "He Gives Speeches" (a composition from the male perspective), is argued as a short break that was supposed to be inserted between the second and third verse of "Wonderful", keeping in tune with Wilson's concept of using "modular" techniques done throughout the entire album (as evidenced in the band's earlier breakthrough, "Good Vibrations"), as well as tying up with the similar theme of sexual awakening. Due to it being branded as an outtake, it is obvious that Wilson was not able to splice "He Gives Speeches" to the main song.

Another recording took place a few months after, with Carl Wilson on lead vocals and Brian on backup. This version is radically different from the first version, as it features a jazzed-up arrangement accompanied by scat singing. This recording is known as the "Rock with Me, Henry" version due to the scatting of the phrase "Pretty baby/Won't you rock with me, Henry?" repeated all over again until it takes over majority of the song. Wilson also recorded an unusual group vocal collage in order to splice it between the verses, similar to his earlier attempt with the "He Gives Speeches" segment, but (just like the first version) never got around to linking the two compositions together.