Top Qs
Timeline
Chat
Perspective

With Me Tonight

1967 song by The Beach Boys From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Remove ads

"With Me Tonight" is a song written by Brian Wilson for the American rock band the Beach Boys. It was released on their 1967 album Smiley Smile. The piece has been characterized as "psychedelic doo wop"[1] and the similar descriptor "do it yourself acid casualty doo-wop".[2]

Quick Facts Song by the Beach Boys, from the album Smiley Smile ...
Quick Facts "You're With Me Tonight", Song by the Beach Boys ...

AllMusic called the track "one of the better (or, more accurately, refined) songs on the Smiley Smile album" and said that "the melody envelopes the listener in a graceful way, and, in this sense, makes it quite different from many of the other songs on the album."[3] In the liner notes of the Smiley Smile/Wild Honey set, the song is described as "probably the best of the non-official Smile tunes on the LP."[2]

Remove ads

Recording

"With Me Tonight" originated during the Smile sessions as "You're With Me Tonight". The intro was recorded as a vocal chant; later, it was expanded into a song for Smiley Smile and the "you're" in its title was omitted.[2]

One of Brian's vocal instructions to the group was to sing the song while smiling.[1]

At approximately 0:26, one can hear a voice say "good." This was thought to be an accident when Arnie Geller, a friend of Brian Wilson's, said it during the vocal take. The group liked it so much that they left it in the final take.[4]

Remove ads

Variations

Early versions of the song entitled "You're With Me Tonight" appear on the compilations Hawthorne, CA (2001) and The Smile Sessions (2011).

Personnel

Smiley Smile version

The Beach Boys

The Smile Sessions version

Per Craig Slowinski.[5]

The Beach Boys

Session musician

Cover version

References

Loading related searches...

Wikiwand - on

Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.

Remove ads
Remove ads