The Beach Boys Today!
This is the record where the Beach Boys - really Brian Wilson - started experimenting with instrumental arrangements to compliment their ever more complex harmony arrangements. From the opening track, the cover of "Do You Wanna Dance?", there is a different tenor to the arrangements. The song itself is basic and (lyrically) stupid, but their arrangement is dense and, in the chorus, basically orchestral. This isn't always true of every song, some of the songs are less arranged than others, or the arrangements are more subtle or traditional, but there are still way more instruments added to these songs in ways in which rock and roll bands wouldn't have conceived of not very long before.
The Beach Boys
- Al Jardine – lead, harmony and backing vocals; electric rhythm guitar; bass guitar; handclaps
- Mike Love – lead, harmony and backing vocals; handclaps
- Brian Wilson – lead, harmony and backing vocals; four and six-string bass guitar; grand, upright and tack piano; Baldwin harpsichord; Hammond organ; handclaps
- Carl Wilson – harmony and backing vocals; lead, rhythm and twelve-string guitar; six-string bass guitar; handclaps
- Dennis Wilson – lead, harmony and backing vocals; drums, tambourine, handclaps
Additional musicians and production Template:Div col
- Hal Blaine – drums, wood blocks, sleigh bells, triangle, tambourine, castanets, temple block
- Chuck Britz – engineer
- Glen Campbell – guitar
- Peter Christ – English horn
- Steve Douglas – tenor saxophone
- David Duke – French horn
- John Gray – grand piano
- Carl Fortina – accordion
- Plas Johnson – tenor saxophone
- Carol Kaye – bass guitar
- Barney Kessel – classical nylon rhythm guitar, twelve-string guitar
- Larry Knechtel – bass guitar
- Larry Levine – engineer
- Carrol Lewis – double-reed harmonica
- "Louie" (last name unknown) – castanets
- Jack Nimitz – saxophone
- Jay Migliori – baritone saxophone
- Earl Palmer – drums, timbales
- Don Randi – tack upright piano, organ
- Bill Pitman – electric guitar, acoustic guitar
- Ray Pohlman – bass guitar
- Billy Lee Riley – harmonica
- Leon Russell – piano, organ
- Billy Strange – electric guitar, electric mandolin
- Ron Swallow – tambourine
- Tommy Tedesco – autoharp, electric guitar, mandolin
- Russ Titelman – percussion (microphone boom hit with screwdriver)
- Julius Wechter – vibraphone, bell tree, timpani, tambourine, congas
- Jerry Williams – vibraphone, timpani
- Marilyn Wilson – backing vocals
- unknown – oboe, cellos, violins, violas, English horn
