All I Wanna Do (The Beach Boys song)
"All I Wanna Do" is a song by the American rock band the Beach Boys from their 1970 album Sunflower. Written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love, the dreamlike production quality was created through liberal use of overdubbing, reverb and delay effects. It was influential to the development of lo-fi music and pioneered sounds that became associated with the shoegaze, dream pop, and chillwave music genres.
Not to be confused with All I Want to Do (The Beach Boys song)."All I Wanna Do"
The song was initially attempted for the albums Friends (1968) and 20/20 (1969). Carl Wilson produced the version that appeared on Sunflower, likely with assistance from Brian, and with lead vocals by Love. The arrangement features multiple vocal parts sung in counterpoint, 12-string guitar, Rocksichord, electric sitar, and a Moog synthesizer played by band engineer Stephen Desper.
Brian later said that he felt it was "a boring song" that "wasn't done right". The band never performed it in concert, although Love's touring edition of the group did, in 2015. In 2018, an earlier version of the track was released on the compilation I Can Hear Music: The 20/20 Sessions. In 2021, isolated vocals and backing track versions were released on Feel Flows.
Critical reception[edit]
In 1970, Jim Miller of Rolling Stone noted production elements made the listening experience "mind-wrenching".[21] Greenwald called the song a lost classic, writing: "Possibly one of the most beautiful and unusual songs and recordings on the Sunflower album... Mike Love deserves high marks for his vocal and lyric contributions, which may be his most tasteful in the scope of the entire Beach Boys canon. Brian Wilson's haunting, minor-key melody and ghostly arrangement is truly bittersweet evidence that he had certainly not lost his artistic grasp."[19] Greenwald afforded accolades to the song's arrangement, citing the effectiveness of the piccolo snare drum and the well-executed harmonies.[19]
A 2016 reader's poll conducted by Rolling Stone ranked it the fourth-best Beach Boys song that was not a hit record.[22] In 2021, the song was ranked number eight on Ultimate Classic Rock's listicle of the finest "post-Pet Sounds Beach Boys songs". Contributor Nick Deriso noted that the song resembled "a prehistoric dream-pop song" and had been admired by many "bedroom-recording chillwave kids".[23] In 2022, The Guardian's Alexis Petridis ranked it number 17 on a list of the greatest Beach Boys songs.[24]
Live performances[edit]
The Beach Boys never performed the song in concert. In 2015, Mike Love's touring version of the Beach Boys briefly began playing the song live for the first time.[22]
Credits sourced from Beach Boys archivist Craig Slowinski.[9]
The Beach Boys