Solar System (song)

"Solar System" is a song by the American rock band the Beach Boys from their 1977 album The Beach Boys Love You. It was written and sung by Brian Wilson.[1][2] The lyrics discuss the Solar System in a similar vein as the band's 1965 hit "California Girls".[3] In "Solar System", the narrator asks, "What do the planets mean? / And have you ever seen / sunrise in the mornin'? / It shined when you were born".[3]

"Solar System"
Single by the Beach Boys
from the album The Beach Boys Love You
A-side"Honkin' Down the Highway"
ReleasedMay 30, 1977
RecordedOctober 1976 – January 1977
Length2:47
LabelBrother
Songwriter(s)Brian Wilson
Producer(s)Brian Wilson
The Beach Boys singles chronology
"Everyone's in Love with You"
(1976)		 "Solar System"
(1977)		 "Peggy Sue"
(1978)

Background

Wilson stated in a 1977 interview that he conceived some of the lyrics while driving to a parents' meeting at his daughters' school. He explained that he had looked up at the sky and started thinking about the Solar System. "It's just something that came into my mind. Later on, I developed it into the song; I didn't come up with the title that night but I wrote the words in the car."[4] In 1995, he gave a similar account and added that, when he got home, he finished the song on his piano, exclaiming, "This is a gr-eat song! These lyrics are great. This melody is great. (whistles) I've got a beauty here!" He then named it one of his favorites on The Beach Boys Love You, adding, "When I'm 90, I'm gonna be as proud of that song as I am now."[5]

In 2007, Wilson offered a different recollection of the song's genesis, saying that the song was written in his head while he was attending a weekly astrology class at UCLA.[6]

Trish Campo, former chief administrator of Brother Studios recalled Brian at the studio sitting at a Hammond B3 organ, absently gazing at the giant circular stained glass window over him depicting planets and stars. Later that afternoon, Campo heard "Solar System" coming out of the studio.[3]

Reception

Music critic Robert Christgau praised "Solar System" as "impossible to shake", and characterized by a "silliness that registered as charming".[7]

References
  1. "Love You". Allmusic. Retrieved 2009-05-29.
  2. Lambert, P. (2007). Inside the Music of Brian Wilson: The Songs, Sounds and Influences of the Beach Boys' Founding Genius. Continuum. p. 312. ISBN 978-0-8264-1877-7.
  3. Carlin, Peter Ames (2006). Catch a Wave: The Rise, Fall, & Redemption of the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson. Rodale Books (New York). p. 212, 214. ISBN 978-1-59486-320-2.
  4. Wilson, Brian (May 1977). "I'm a Pooper, Not a Buzzer". Crawdaddy!. p. 63.
  5. Benci, Jacopo (January 1995). "Brian Wilson interview". Record Collector. UK (185).
  6. Beard, David (Spring 2007). "Ding Dang". Endless Summer Quarterly.
  7. "CG: beach boys". Robert Christgau. Retrieved 2016-10-12.
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