Wouldn't It Be Nice
Encyclopedia
"Wouldn't It Be Nice" is the opening track on the 1966 album Pet Sounds
and one of the most widely recognized songs by the American rock
band The Beach Boys
. It was composed and produced by Brian Wilson
, with lyrics by Tony Asher
and Brian Wilson
, and the lead vocal was sung by Brian Wilson with Mike Love
singing lead vocals on the bridge and the end tag, 'Good night my baby, Sleep tight my baby'.
In the Endless Harmony documentary, Brian Wilson described the song as "what children everywhere go through… wouldn't it be nice if we were older, or could run away and get married".
Wilson was quoted as saying:
In a 1996 interview, Wilson stated, "'Wouldn't It Be Nice' was not a real long song, but it's a very 'up' song. It expresses the frustrations of youth, what you can't have, what you really want and you have to wait for it." Wilson used the title of the song for the title of his autobiography.
Pitchfork Media
placed it at number 7 on its list of "The 200 Greatest Songs of the 1960s".
, who also served as manager and music publisher for the group, sold the copyrights to the band's songs to Irving Almo for approximately $700,000. In April 1992, just after Brian Wilson had won a lawsuit in which he received $25M for damages but failed to recover his claims to ownership of the copyrights, Mike Love filed a lawsuit against Brian Wilson for $13M claiming that he had not been given credit, and therefore hadn't received royalties, on over thirty of the band's songs, many of them hit singles and was therefore entitled to some of the reward. One of these songs was "Wouldn't It Be Nice". The original credit read "Wilson/Asher" but Mike Love claimed that he had a hand in writing the lyrics, specifically the tag lines "Good night my baby, sleep tight my baby". Mike Love won the lawsuit and the song-writing credit was amended, therefore ensuring future royalties on all of the songs that he had claimed he had a hand in writing.
Tony Asher has questioned Love's involvement in the song claiming that his involvement was "none, whatsoever" as the song "was one of the few songs [he] wrote the entire lyric to by [himself] at home".
at Gold Star Studios
on January 22, 1966. The session was engineered by Larry Levine
and produced by Brian Wilson. It took 21 takes of recording the instrumental track before Brian Wilson decided that it was good enough to be the master take. Highlights of these sessions can be heard on the 1997 box set The Pet Sounds Sessions
as well as the master take. The full recording of the instrumental track, all 21 takes, can be heard on the Sea Of Tunes Unsurpassed Masters series Vol. 13 box set.
The musicians present on the day of the instrumental recording were Hal Blaine
on drums
; Frank Capp
on percussion
; Roy Caton on trumpet
; Jerry Cole on guitar
; Al de Lory on piano
; Steve Douglas
on saxophone
; Carl Fortina on accordion
; Plas Johnson
on saxophone; Carol Kaye
on bass guitar
; Barney Kessel
on a specially built 12-string mandolin; Larry Knechtel
on Hammond organ
; Frank Marocco on accordion; Jay Migliori
on saxophone; Bill Pitman on guitar; Ray Pohlman on mandolin and Lyle Ritz on upright bass. Accounts differ as to which specific instrument was employed on the song's distinctive, harp-like intro, with candidates including one or more 12-string electric guitars, an electric mandolin, or similar short-scale instrument, such as a Vox Mandoguitar.
The vocals were recorded over two sessions at Columbia engineered by Ralph Balantin. The first vocal session took place on March 10, which also saw vocal work on "I'm Waiting for the Day
", "God Only Knows
" and "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times
". This session was almost certainly for recording the backing vocals of "Wouldn't It Be Nice" as there is a recording of the instrumental track with the backing vocals that was released on The Pet Sounds Sessions box set. The next session around a month later on April 11 was most likely the session at which the lead vocal for the song was recorded. Vocals for "God Only Knows" were also worked on at that particular session.
On The Pet Sounds Sessions box set, two alternate mixes of the song can be heard. On one of the mixes, the song begins with the line "wouldn't it be nice to live together, in the kind of world where we belong", instead of the finished version of the song which opens with the line "wouldn't it be nice if we were older, then we wouldn't have to wait so long" and follows with the aforementioned lyric.
In April 1971, a live version of the song from the Live In London
album was released in the United States as the A-side of a single which featured a different artist on the B-side. However, the single failed to make any impact on the charts just as many of the other Beach Boys singles from that period had failed to chart.
In July 1976, the song was released in the United Kingdom as the B-side of the re-issued "Good Vibrations" single. The single peaked at number 18.
In June 1990, a different recording of the song from 1966 that had appeared on the 1989 Still Cruisin'
album was released in the United Kingdom as a single with the B-side featuring a Beach Boys Medley as well as the original recording of "I Get Around
", which had also been released on the Still Cruisin album.
sound on The Beach Boys album Pet Sounds which was released on May 16, 1966 in the United States and in June 1966 in the United Kingdom. The song was later released in November 1966 in the United Kingdom on the God Only Knows EP. Live versions also appear on two of the band's live albums. The 1970 release Live In London
and the 1973 release The Beach Boys in Concert
. On the 1986 Made in U.S.A.
compilation, an alternate version with different vocals was used. That same version was also released on the 1989 Beach Boys album Still Cruisin'
.
Another notable difference is that Brian sings the bridge on the original stereo versions, while Mike sings that part in the mono version. The 2001 stereo remix of the song restores Mike Love's original bridge vocal, utilizing a mono mix, which causes slight phasing and sound quality issues. Brian's version has still been maintained in the "Pet Sounds Sessions" box set.
The song appears on several occasions from different stages of the recording process and in different formats on The Pet Sounds Sessions
box set, including the song in its original monophonic mix; the first ever original stereo mix of the song, which was remastered by Mark Linett
; over seven minutes of highlights from the tracking date, which documents the progress of the recording of the instrumental track; the finished instrumental track; the stereo track with the background vocals; an a cappella
mix of the song; and two alternate mixes of the song one of which has a slight difference lyrically.
During Brian Wilson's absences from the group, the song was frequently performed with Al Jardine on lead vocal.
At the 2001 special An All-Star Tribute to Brian Wilson, Wilson sang a duet with Elton John
to the song.
. It was also featured during the end credits of Michael Moore's 1989 documentary Roger & Me
and the 1994 Seinfeld
episode "The Hamptons
". It was also featured in the 1989 The Wonder Years
episode "Summer Song", the 1997 King of the Hill
episode "Plastic White Female," and in the 2003 Angel
episode "The Magic Bullet". It was also featured in the 2001 Blair Hayes film Bubble Boy
. It was also featured at the end of the 1997 Will Ferrell
film Men Seeking Women. It was featured throughout the film 50 First Dates
as the song that the character Lucy (Drew Barrymore
) constantly sang and that Henry Roth (Adam Sandler
) sang sadly and tearfully to himself but humorously to the audience. The song was featured in the romantic comedy of 2009, It's Complicated
.
In 1990, the song was portrayed in the comic strip
Doonesbury
upon the death of Andy Lippincott
from AIDS.
It has also been featured in two advertisements in Australia and New Zealand, the first also shown in Canada - a Cadbury chocolate advertisement ("Wouldn't it be nice if the world were Cadbury") and a lottery advertisement ("Wouldn't it be nice to win a million?").
In 2011 it appeared in Volkswagen
's "Think Blue" advertisement promoting their Blue Motion technologies by drawing on their "Think Small" slogan used in the 1960s.
The end of the "Weird Al" Yankovic
song "Pancreas
" (a style parody of Brian Wilson) sounds similar to the main chorus of "Wouldn't It Be Nice".
Pet Sounds
Pet Sounds is the eleventh studio album by the American rock band The Beach Boys, released May 16, 1966, on Capitol Records. It has since been recognized as one of the most influential records in the history of popular music and one of the best albums of the 1960s, including songs such as "Wouldn't...
and one of the most widely recognized songs by the American rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
band The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys are an American rock band, formed in 1961 in Hawthorne, California. The group was initially composed of brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Managed by the Wilsons' father Murry, The Beach Boys signed to Capitol Records in 1962...
. It was composed and produced by Brian Wilson
Brian Wilson
Brian Douglas Wilson is an American musician, best known as the leader and chief songwriter of the group The Beach Boys. Within the band, Wilson played bass and keyboards, also providing part-time lead vocals and, more often, backing vocals, harmonizing in falsetto with the group...
, with lyrics by Tony Asher
Tony Asher
Tony Asher is an American lyricist who co-wrote much of The Beach Boys 1966 album Pet Sounds in conjunction with front man Brian Wilson, including such classic songs as "God Only Knows" and "Wouldn't It Be Nice"...
and Brian Wilson
Brian Wilson
Brian Douglas Wilson is an American musician, best known as the leader and chief songwriter of the group The Beach Boys. Within the band, Wilson played bass and keyboards, also providing part-time lead vocals and, more often, backing vocals, harmonizing in falsetto with the group...
, and the lead vocal was sung by Brian Wilson with Mike Love
Mike Love
Michael Edward "Mike" Love is an American singer/songwriter and musician with The Beach Boys. He was a founding member of the band along with his cousins Brian, Carl, and Dennis Wilson, and their friend Al Jardine, and continues to perform with the band to the present day...
singing lead vocals on the bridge and the end tag, 'Good night my baby, Sleep tight my baby'.
In the Endless Harmony documentary, Brian Wilson described the song as "what children everywhere go through… wouldn't it be nice if we were older, or could run away and get married".
Wilson was quoted as saying:
"Listen for the rockin' accordions and the ethereal guitars in the introduction. Tony and I had visualized a scene. We had a feeling in our hearts, like a vibration. We put it into music, and it found its way onto tape. We really felt good about that record."
In a 1996 interview, Wilson stated, "'Wouldn't It Be Nice' was not a real long song, but it's a very 'up' song. It expresses the frustrations of youth, what you can't have, what you really want and you have to wait for it." Wilson used the title of the song for the title of his autobiography.
Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...
placed it at number 7 on its list of "The 200 Greatest Songs of the 1960s".
Composition
In November 1969, the Wilsons' father, Murry WilsonMurry Wilson
Murry Gage Wilson was an American musician and record producer, best remembered as the father of The Beach Boys members Brian Wilson, Dennis Wilson, and Carl Wilson, uncle of bandmate Mike Love, and the husband of Audree Wilson...
, who also served as manager and music publisher for the group, sold the copyrights to the band's songs to Irving Almo for approximately $700,000. In April 1992, just after Brian Wilson had won a lawsuit in which he received $25M for damages but failed to recover his claims to ownership of the copyrights, Mike Love filed a lawsuit against Brian Wilson for $13M claiming that he had not been given credit, and therefore hadn't received royalties, on over thirty of the band's songs, many of them hit singles and was therefore entitled to some of the reward. One of these songs was "Wouldn't It Be Nice". The original credit read "Wilson/Asher" but Mike Love claimed that he had a hand in writing the lyrics, specifically the tag lines "Good night my baby, sleep tight my baby". Mike Love won the lawsuit and the song-writing credit was amended, therefore ensuring future royalties on all of the songs that he had claimed he had a hand in writing.
Tony Asher has questioned Love's involvement in the song claiming that his involvement was "none, whatsoever" as the song "was one of the few songs [he] wrote the entire lyric to by [himself] at home".
Recording
The instrumental track was recorded in Los Angeles, CaliforniaLos Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
at Gold Star Studios
Gold Star Studios
Gold Star Studios was a major independent recording studio located in Los Angeles, California, United States. For more than thirty years, from 1950 to 1984, Gold Star was one of the most influential and successful commercial recording studios in the world....
on January 22, 1966. The session was engineered by Larry Levine
Larry Levine
Larry Levine was an American audio engineer, known for his cooperation with Phil Spector on the Wall of Sound recording technique....
and produced by Brian Wilson. It took 21 takes of recording the instrumental track before Brian Wilson decided that it was good enough to be the master take. Highlights of these sessions can be heard on the 1997 box set The Pet Sounds Sessions
The Pet Sounds Sessions
The Pet Sounds Sessions is a 4-CD boxed set released in 1997 which compiles tracks from The Beach Boys' 1966 album Pet Sounds, and its recording sessions. The album is included in its entirety in its original mono mix, as well as a stereo mix...
as well as the master take. The full recording of the instrumental track, all 21 takes, can be heard on the Sea Of Tunes Unsurpassed Masters series Vol. 13 box set.
The musicians present on the day of the instrumental recording were Hal Blaine
Hal Blaine
Hal Blaine is an American drummer and session musician. He is most known for his work with the Wrecking Crew in California. Blaine played on numerous hits by popular groups, including Elvis Presley, John Denver, the Ronettes, Simon & Garfunkel, the Carpenters, the Beach Boys, Nancy Sinatra, and...
on drums
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
; Frank Capp
Frank Capp
Frank Capp is an American jazz drummer.Capp was born August 20, 1931 in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA. He began playing with Stan Kenton starting in 1951 and remained with Kenton for some time. Later he joined Neal Hefti's group. He often accompanied Peggy Lee on some of her road dates and...
on percussion
Percussion instrument
A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
; Roy Caton on trumpet
Trumpet
The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
; Jerry Cole on guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
; Al de Lory on piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
; Steve Douglas
Steve Douglas
Steve Douglas may refer to:*Steve Douglas , American saxophonist, flautist and clarinetist*Steve Douglas , late-night radio personality from Denver, Colorado...
on saxophone
Saxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
; Carl Fortina on accordion
Accordion
The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
; Plas Johnson
Plas Johnson
Plas John Johnson Jr. is an American soul-jazz and hard bop tenor saxophonist, probably most familiar as the lead on Henry Mancini’s "The Pink Panther Theme"....
on saxophone; Carol Kaye
Carol Kaye
Carol Kaye is an American musician, best known as one of the most prolific and widely heard bass guitarists in history, playing on an estimated 10,000 recording sessions in a 55 year career....
on bass guitar
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
; Barney Kessel
Barney Kessel
Barney Kessel was an American jazz guitarist born in Muskogee, Oklahoma, USA. Generally considered to be one of the greatest jazz guitarists of the 20th century, he was noted in particular for his vast knowledge of chords and inversions and chord-based melodies...
on a specially built 12-string mandolin; Larry Knechtel
Larry Knechtel
Lawrence William "Larry" Knechtel was an American keyboard player and bassist, best known for his work as a session musician with such artists as Simon & Garfunkel, Duane Eddy, The Beach Boys, The Mamas & the Papas, The Partridge Family, The Doors, and Elvis Presley, and as a member of the 1970s...
on Hammond organ
Hammond organ
The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond in 1934 and manufactured by the Hammond Organ Company. While the Hammond organ was originally sold to churches as a lower-cost alternative to the wind-driven pipe organ, in the 1960s and 1970s it became a standard keyboard...
; Frank Marocco on accordion; Jay Migliori
Jay Migliori
Jay Migliori was an American saxophonist, best known as a founding member of Supersax, a tribute band to Charlie Parker....
on saxophone; Bill Pitman on guitar; Ray Pohlman on mandolin and Lyle Ritz on upright bass. Accounts differ as to which specific instrument was employed on the song's distinctive, harp-like intro, with candidates including one or more 12-string electric guitars, an electric mandolin, or similar short-scale instrument, such as a Vox Mandoguitar.
The vocals were recorded over two sessions at Columbia engineered by Ralph Balantin. The first vocal session took place on March 10, which also saw vocal work on "I'm Waiting for the Day
I'm Waiting for the Day
"I'm Waiting for the Day" is a song by the American rock band The Beach Boys, taken from their 1966 album Pet Sounds. It is the fifth track on the album.-Information:...
", "God Only Knows
God Only Knows
"God Only Knows" is a song by American rock band The Beach Boys. It is the eighth track on the group's 11th studio album, Pet Sounds , and one of their most widely recognized songs. "God Only Knows" was composed and produced by Brian Wilson with lyrics by Tony Asher and lead vocal by Carl...
" and "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times
I Just Wasn't Made for these Times (song)
"I Just Wasn't Made for These Times" is a song by The Beach Boys from their album Pet Sounds. It is the eleventh song on the album.- Information :...
". This session was almost certainly for recording the backing vocals of "Wouldn't It Be Nice" as there is a recording of the instrumental track with the backing vocals that was released on The Pet Sounds Sessions box set. The next session around a month later on April 11 was most likely the session at which the lead vocal for the song was recorded. Vocals for "God Only Knows" were also worked on at that particular session.
On The Pet Sounds Sessions box set, two alternate mixes of the song can be heard. On one of the mixes, the song begins with the line "wouldn't it be nice to live together, in the kind of world where we belong", instead of the finished version of the song which opens with the line "wouldn't it be nice if we were older, then we wouldn't have to wait so long" and follows with the aforementioned lyric.
Single release
On July 18, 1966, "Wouldn't It Be Nice" was released backed with "God Only Knows" in the United States, which was the third single from the Pet Sounds album. It entered the Billboard chart on July 30 and remained there for 11 weeks, peaking at number 8 in September 1966. The single also peaked at number 7 on the Cashbox chart and #5 in Record World. It also peaked at number 4 on Canada's RPM national chart. In Australia, the song was released in August 1966 as the A-side with "God Only Knows" as the B-side of the single. It entered the charts on August 24 at number 39 and spent 17 weeks on the charts, peaking at number 2. The song was also released as the A-side in New Zealand where it peaked at number 12. In July 1966 in the United Kingdom the song was released as the B-side of the "God Only Knows" single, which reached number 2.In April 1971, a live version of the song from the Live In London
Live in London (The Beach Boys)
Live in London is a live album by The Beach Boys, initially released by EMI in the UK in May 1970, and in the US via Capitol Records on November 15, 1976.-Background:...
album was released in the United States as the A-side of a single which featured a different artist on the B-side. However, the single failed to make any impact on the charts just as many of the other Beach Boys singles from that period had failed to chart.
In July 1976, the song was released in the United Kingdom as the B-side of the re-issued "Good Vibrations" single. The single peaked at number 18.
In June 1990, a different recording of the song from 1966 that had appeared on the 1989 Still Cruisin'
Still Cruisin'
-Singles:* "Kokomo" b/w "Tutti Frutti" , July 18, 1988 US #1; UK #25* "Still Cruisin' " b/w "Kokomo" , August 7, 1989 US #93* "Somewhere Near Japan" b/w "Kokomo" , January 1990...
album was released in the United Kingdom as a single with the B-side featuring a Beach Boys Medley as well as the original recording of "I Get Around
I Get Around
"I Get Around" is a song written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love for The Beach Boys. The song features Love on lead vocal for the verse, and Wilson for the chorus. It is noteworthy for its back-to-front structure - it starts with a chorus and has two short verses...
", which had also been released on the Still Cruisin album.
Alternate releases
The song first appeared in monophonicMonaural
Monaural or monophonic sound reproduction is single-channel. Typically there is only one microphone, one loudspeaker, or channels are fed from a common signal path...
sound on The Beach Boys album Pet Sounds which was released on May 16, 1966 in the United States and in June 1966 in the United Kingdom. The song was later released in November 1966 in the United Kingdom on the God Only Knows EP. Live versions also appear on two of the band's live albums. The 1970 release Live In London
Live in London (The Beach Boys)
Live in London is a live album by The Beach Boys, initially released by EMI in the UK in May 1970, and in the US via Capitol Records on November 15, 1976.-Background:...
and the 1973 release The Beach Boys in Concert
The Beach Boys in Concert
The Beach Boys in Concert is the second live album officially released in the U.S. by The Beach Boys, nine years after Beach Boys Concert . Released in late 1973, the set proved to be a healthy seller in the U...
. On the 1986 Made in U.S.A.
Made in U.S.A. (album)
Made in U.S.A. is a 1986 double vinyl album compilation of some of The Beach Boys' biggest successes. Released by their original label, Capitol Records, it marked a brief return to the label, with whom The Beach Boys released one further album, 1989's Still Cruisin.Featuring a number of their...
compilation, an alternate version with different vocals was used. That same version was also released on the 1989 Beach Boys album Still Cruisin'
Still Cruisin'
-Singles:* "Kokomo" b/w "Tutti Frutti" , July 18, 1988 US #1; UK #25* "Still Cruisin' " b/w "Kokomo" , August 7, 1989 US #93* "Somewhere Near Japan" b/w "Kokomo" , January 1990...
.
Another notable difference is that Brian sings the bridge on the original stereo versions, while Mike sings that part in the mono version. The 2001 stereo remix of the song restores Mike Love's original bridge vocal, utilizing a mono mix, which causes slight phasing and sound quality issues. Brian's version has still been maintained in the "Pet Sounds Sessions" box set.
The song appears on several occasions from different stages of the recording process and in different formats on The Pet Sounds Sessions
The Pet Sounds Sessions
The Pet Sounds Sessions is a 4-CD boxed set released in 1997 which compiles tracks from The Beach Boys' 1966 album Pet Sounds, and its recording sessions. The album is included in its entirety in its original mono mix, as well as a stereo mix...
box set, including the song in its original monophonic mix; the first ever original stereo mix of the song, which was remastered by Mark Linett
Mark Linett
Mark Linett is a record producer and audio engineer. He has done significant work with The Beach Boys, including re-mastering their recordings that appear on the "two-for-one" album re-releases. He also produced and engineered the Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound version of Pet Sounds...
; over seven minutes of highlights from the tracking date, which documents the progress of the recording of the instrumental track; the finished instrumental track; the stereo track with the background vocals; an a cappella
A cappella
A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...
mix of the song; and two alternate mixes of the song one of which has a slight difference lyrically.
During Brian Wilson's absences from the group, the song was frequently performed with Al Jardine on lead vocal.
Cover versions
- Anni-Frid LyngstadAnni-Frid LyngstadAnni-Frid Prinzessin Reuss von Plauen , is a Norwegian-born Swedish pop singer...
in 1975 recorded a Swedish-language version called "Skulle de' va' skönt" (with Swedish lyrics by Marie Bergman) on her solo album "Frida ensamFrida ensamFrida ensam is a solo album by ABBA singer Anni-Frid Lyngstad. The album was produced by her fiancé, ABBA member Benny Andersson and was first released by Polar Music in 1975. It has since been re-released several times, most significantly in remastered form in 2005 with bonus tracks...
". - Mike PostMike PostMike Post is an American multi-Grammy and Emmy Award winning composer best known for scoring some of the most popular TV theme songs in the United States, for primetime series such as Law & Order, NYPD Blue, The Rockford Files, LA Law, Quantum Leap, Magnum, P.I., Hill Street Blues, among numerous...
in 1975 - Papa Doo Run RunPapa Doo Run RunPapa Doo Run Run is a band from Cupertino, California, United States, that specializes in covers of songs from the heyday of surf music in the 1960s.-History:...
on their 1985 album California Project - Jeffrey OsborneJeffrey OsborneJeffrey Linton Osborne is an American funk and R&B musician, songwriter, lyricist, and former lead singer of the band, L.T.D.-Early life and career:...
on the 1997 tribute album Wouldn't It Be Nice: A Jazz Portrait Of Brian Wilson
At the 2001 special An All-Star Tribute to Brian Wilson, Wilson sang a duet with Elton John
Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE, Hon DMus is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor...
to the song.
Cultural references
Wouldn't It Be Nice was played over the opening scene and end credits of Hal Ashby's 1975 ShampooShampoo (film)
Shampoo is a 1975 satirical film written by Robert Towne and directed by Hal Ashby. It stars Warren Beatty, Julie Christie and Goldie Hawn, with Lee Grant, Jack Warden, Tony Bill and in an early film appearance, Carrie Fisher....
. It was also featured during the end credits of Michael Moore's 1989 documentary Roger & Me
Roger & Me
Roger & Me is a 1989 American documentary film directed by Michael Moore. Moore portrays the regional negative economic impact of General Motors CEO Roger Smith's summary action of closing several auto plants in Flint, Michigan, costing 30,000 people their jobs at the time and economically...
and the 1994 Seinfeld
Seinfeld
Seinfeld is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, lasting nine seasons, and is now in syndication. It was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, the latter starring as a fictionalized version of himself...
episode "The Hamptons
The Hamptons (Seinfeld episode)
"The Hamptons" is the eighty-fifth episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld. This was the 21st episode for the 5th season. It aired on May 12, 1994. This was the final produced episode of the fifth season, although it aired as the penultimate episode of the season.-Plot:The four principal characters...
". It was also featured in the 1989 The Wonder Years
The Wonder Years
The Wonder Years is an American television comedy-drama created by Carol Black and Neal Marlens. It ran for six seasons on ABC from 1988 through 1993. The pilot aired on January 31, 1988 after ABC's coverage of Super Bowl XXII....
episode "Summer Song", the 1997 King of the Hill
King of the Hill
King of the Hill is an American animated dramedy series created by Mike Judge and Greg Daniels, that ran from January 12, 1997, to May 6, 2010, on Fox network. It centers on the Hills, a working-class Methodist family in the fictional small town of Arlen, Texas...
episode "Plastic White Female," and in the 2003 Angel
Angel (TV series)
Angel is an American television series, a spin-off of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The series was created by Buffys creator, Joss Whedon, in collaboration with David Greenwalt, and first aired on October 5, 1999...
episode "The Magic Bullet". It was also featured in the 2001 Blair Hayes film Bubble Boy
Bubble Boy
Bubble Boy is a 2001 comedy film directed by Blair Hayes and stars Jake Gyllenhaal in the title role.-Plot:Jimmy Livingston was born without an immune system and is forced to live in a sterilized dome in his bedroom, earning him the title "Bubble Boy" by his neighbors...
. It was also featured at the end of the 1997 Will Ferrell
Will Ferrell
John William "Will" Ferrell is an American comedian, impressionist, actor, and writer. Ferrell first established himself in the late 1990s as a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live, and has subsequently starred in the comedy films Old School, Elf, Anchorman, Talladega...
film Men Seeking Women. It was featured throughout the film 50 First Dates
50 First Dates
50 First Dates is a 2004 American romantic comedy film directed by Peter Segal and written by George Wing. The film stars Adam Sandler as a woman-chasing veterinarian and Drew Barrymore as an amnesiac, along with Rob Schneider, Sean Astin, Lusia Strus, Blake Clark, and Dan Aykroyd.Most of the film...
as the song that the character Lucy (Drew Barrymore
Drew Barrymore
Drew Blyth Barrymore is an American actress, film director, screenwriter, producer and model. She is a member of the Barrymore family of American actors and granddaughter of John Barrymore. She first appeared in an advertisement when she was 11 months old. Barrymore made her film debut in Altered...
) constantly sang and that Henry Roth (Adam Sandler
Adam Sandler
Adam Richard Sandler is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, musician, and film producer.After becoming a Saturday Night Live cast member, Sandler went on to star in several Hollywood feature films that grossed over $100 million at the box office...
) sang sadly and tearfully to himself but humorously to the audience. The song was featured in the romantic comedy of 2009, It's Complicated
It's Complicated (film)
It's Complicated is a 2009 American romantic comedy film written and directed by Nancy Meyers, starring Meryl Streep, Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin.-Plot:...
.
In 1990, the song was portrayed in the comic strip
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
Doonesbury
Doonesbury
Doonesbury is a comic strip by American cartoonist Garry Trudeau, that chronicles the adventures and lives of an array of characters of various ages, professions, and backgrounds, from the President of the United States to the title character, Michael Doonesbury, who has progressed from a college...
upon the death of Andy Lippincott
Andy Lippincott
-Publication history:The character first appears in January 1976, in a law library. Joanie Caucus becomes attracted to him while working before Lippincott confesses he is gay. Joanie is heartbroken, and takes some time to recover. Lippincott contributes position papers to Virginia Slade's failed...
from AIDS.
It has also been featured in two advertisements in Australia and New Zealand, the first also shown in Canada - a Cadbury chocolate advertisement ("Wouldn't it be nice if the world were Cadbury") and a lottery advertisement ("Wouldn't it be nice to win a million?").
In 2011 it appeared in Volkswagen
Volkswagen
Volkswagen is a German automobile manufacturer and is the original and biggest-selling marque of the Volkswagen Group, which now also owns the Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, SEAT, and Škoda marques and the truck manufacturer Scania.Volkswagen means "people's car" in German, where it is...
's "Think Blue" advertisement promoting their Blue Motion technologies by drawing on their "Think Small" slogan used in the 1960s.
The end of the "Weird Al" Yankovic
"Weird Al" Yankovic
Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic is an American singer-songwriter, music producer, accordionist, actor, comedian, writer, satirist, and parodist. Yankovic is known for his humorous songs that make light of popular culture and that often parody specific songs by contemporary musical acts...
song "Pancreas
Straight Outta Lynwood
Straight Outta Lynwood is the 12th studio album by "Weird Al" Yankovic. It was released on September 26, 2006 in the U.S. by Volcano, on September 30, 2006 in Australia, on October 3 in Canada, on October 6, 2006 in New Zealand, November 13, 2006 in the United Kingdom, and November 24, 2006 in...
" (a style parody of Brian Wilson) sounds similar to the main chorus of "Wouldn't It Be Nice".
Charts
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