Caroline, No

"Caroline, No"
Song
B-side	"Summer Means New Love"

"Caroline, No"
Song

"Caroline, No" is a song written by Brian Wilson and Tony Asher. It marked Wilson's solo debut when released as a single in March 1966, peaking at number 32 on the Billboard Hot 100. Two months later, Wilson's recording reappeared as the final track on the Beach Boys' studio album Pet Sounds.

Wilson compared the song to the music of Glenn Miller and the song "Hey Girl" (1963) as recorded by Freddie Scott, claiming that "Caroline, No" wasn't written about anyone in specific. On another occasion, he credited the song's inspiration to an unrequited love interest from high school who happened to be named Carol. Asher had also been acquainted with a different girl named Carol; they had recently broken up when the song was written. After Wilson produced his recording, he sped it up by one semi-tone to make his voice sound younger. When the song reappeared on Pet Sounds, he added recordings of his two dogs barking and a passing train, which close the LP.

It was ranked number 214 in Rolling Stone magazine's list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".

Composition

The song was written by Brian Wilson and Tony Asher. It was written in the key of C major before being transposed up one semitone into D-flat major. While it is commonly understood that Wilson composed the majority of the music on Pet Sounds, it has been claimed in Steven Gaines' book Heroes and Villains that "Caroline, No" was one of three songs in which Asher contributed musical ideas rather than acting solely as a co-lyricist; the other two being "That's Not Me" and "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times".

It was initially written as "Carol, I Know". When spoken, however, Brian Wilson heard this as "Caroline, No." After the confusion was resolved, the pair decided to keep the new title, feeling that it brought a poignant earnestness to the song's sad melody. Asher believes the song encapsulated "Brian's wish that he could go back to simpler days, his wish that the group could return to the days when the whole thing was a lot of fun and very little pressure." Asher says his contributions were inspired by his former girlfriend, who had moved to New York and cut her hair: "I had recently broken up with my high school sweetheart who was a dancer and had moved to New York to make the big time on Broadway. When I went east to visit her a scant year after the move, she had changed radically. Yes, she had cut her hair. But she was a far more worldly person, not all for the worse. Anyway, her name was Carol."

In 2005, Wilson stated: "That song to me is a real tear jerker, very like 'Hey Girl' by Freddie Scott. It wasn't written about anyone. I just used the name Caroline." However, in high school, Wilson also became obsessed with Carol Mountain, a classmate and unrequited love interest. He said, "If I saw her today, I'd probably think, God, she's lost something, because growing up does that to people.' But the song was most influenced by the changes Marilyn and I had gone through. We were young, Marilyn nearing 20 and me closing in on 24, yet I thought we'd lost the innocence of our youth in the heavy seriousness of our lives. [Tony] took a tape home, embellished on my concept, and completed the words."

Academic Philip Lambert suggested that the song's lyrics were a continuation on themes established by Wilson's previous compositions "You Still Believe in Me" and "The Little Girl I Once Knew".

Recording

Both instrumental and vocal tracks were recorded on January 31, 1966 at United Western Recorders in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. Wilson produced the session with Chuck Britz as the engineer. As with the rest of the Pet Sounds backing tracks, Wilson employed players from a select group of southern California session musicians, who were later nicknamed The Wrecking Crew. None of the other Beach Boys appeared on the record.

For "Caroline, No", harpsichord and bass flutes accompany more typical pop/rock instrumentation in a sound that, like other compositions from this period, reflects a jazz influence. The percussive exchange that opens the song features a tambourine and a large empty water bottle from the studio, played either by drummer Hal Blaine or percussionist Frankie Capp. Brian later stated, "'Caroline, No' was my favorite on the album, the prettiest ballad I've ever sung. Awfully pretty song. The melody and the chords were like Glenn Miller...a Glenn Miller-type bridge. The fade-out was like a 1944 kind of record...Listen for the flutes in the fadeout."

After Brian Wilson's double tracked vocals were overdubbed, the entire recording was sped up by a half step at the suggestion of Brian Wilson's father and erstwhile manager Murry. Brian explained that he preferred the "sweeter" sound of the sped-up version.

On the Pet Sounds LP, the sound of a passing train can be heard at the end of "Caroline, No", accompanied by barking from Brian's dogs, Banana and Louie. In the late 1990s, it was rediscovered that the train sound effect came from a sound effects LP titled Mister D's Machine, recorded in 1963 by Brad Miller. The album featured contemporary recordings of various trains around the Southern Pacific system. The sounds that were lifted for the end of the Pet Sounds album were of Train #58, "The Owl", speeding at 70 mph through Edison, California. The sound effects, minus Banana and Louie, are in true stereo on the original effects album.

Personnel

Sourced from liner notes included with the 1999 mono/stereo reissue of Pet Sounds, except where otherwise noted.

The Beach Boys

• Brian Wilson – lead vocals, dog whistles, sound effects (album version)

Additional musicians

• Hal Blaine – drums
• Frank Capp – vibraphone
• Carol Kaye – electric bass
• Glen Campbell – guitar
• Steve Douglas – tenor saxophone
• Barney Kessel – guitar
• Lyle Ritz – ukulele
• Al De Lory – harpsichord
• Bill Green – flute
• Jim Horn – flute
• Plas Johnson – flute
• Jay Migliori – flute
• "Banana" – barks (album version)
• "Louie" – barks (album version)

Release history

According to saxophonist Steve Douglas: "I was really instigating him [Brian] to put it out under his own name and he did. ... [that decision] caused problems, man, I just can't tell you."" "Caroline, No" would be Brian Wilson's first solo single, released on Capitol Records as Capitol 5610 on March 7, 1966. Although Brian Wilson was the driving force behind The Beach Boys at the time, the solo release of "Caroline, No" was perhaps his first official recognition as an individual outside the band. Released just two weeks before the Beach Boys' "Sloop John B", Brian's single went up against the big hit, the band's fastest-selling single to date. Still, it made top 10 in Houston, Fort Worth, Virginia Beach, Cleveland, Memphis, Sacramento and Tucson, and Rochester and Albany Tri-cities in Upstate New York; top 20 in Chicago, Boston and Hartford, Montreal, Vancouver, Seattle, Salt Lake City, Milwaukee, Columbus, Louisville, Nashville, San Antonio, Orlando -- and peaked at #20 at New York City's premier station, WABC; one spot lower at Los Angeles' KRLA. Two months later, it was placed on the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds album, where it is credited as a Beach Boys recording, even though Wilson is the only Beach Boy performing on the record.

Variations

It later appeared in many different stages and formats on The Pet Sounds Sessions box set. In addition to containing the song as it appears on Pet Sounds, what is included are: the full track (excluding train noise) mixed in stereo for the first time, instrumental session highlights, the song's instrumental backing track, the song's isolated vocal stems, two brief radio advertisements recorded for the single, and both monaural and stereo versions of the tracks slowed to their original speed.

A live version of the song appears on the band's 1973 live album The Beach Boys in Concert, with younger brother and bandmate Carl Wilson taking lead vocals.

In popular culture

• The Velvet Underground allude to the song on their 1969 track "The Murder Mystery" from their self-titled 1969 album.
• Neil Young mentions the song in the title track to the 1976 Stills-Young Band album Long May You Run.
• A track titled “Does Caroline Know?” appears on Talk Talk’s 1984 album It’s My Life.
• The name of the band The Caroline Know is a pun based on the title of the song.
• The name of the band Carolin No (with a singer named Carolin) is a pun based on the title of the song.
• Yumiko Ohno of the Japanese group Buffalo Daughter is known in Japan for singing on several electronic avant-garde albums with Yann Tomita under the pseudonym Caroline Novac. Doopee Time by Tomita is a 1995 concept album which closes with Tomita's own cover version of the song.
• In 2002, the British band Modesty Blaise released the sunshine-pop single "Carol Mountain," named for the girl who may have inspired "Caroline, No."
• A song entitled "Caroline, Yes" appears on the Kaiser Chiefs' 2005 album Employment in reference to Brian Wilson's song.
• A track titled "Caroline, Please Kill Me" appears on Coma Cinema's 2011 album Blue Suicide.

References

Bibliography

• Gaines, Steven (1986). Heroes and Villains: The True Story of The Beach Boys (1. Da Capo Press ed.). New York: Da Capo Press. ISBN 0306806479. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Granata, Charles L. (2003). Wouldn't It Be Nice: Brian Wilson and the making of the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds. ISBN 9781556525070. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Lambert, Philip (2007). Inside the Music of Brian Wilson: the Songs, Sounds, and Influences of the Beach Boys' Founding Genius. Continuum. ISBN 978-0-8264-1876-0. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Tunbridge, Laura (2010). The Song Cycle. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-89644-3. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

External links

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