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"The Little Girl I Once Knew" is a song by the American rock band the Beach Boys that was released as a standalone single in November 1965. It was written by Brian Wilson and recorded during the making of the band's 1966 album Pet Sounds.[2]

"The Little Girl I Once Knew"
Single by the Beach Boys
B-side	"There's No Other (Like My Baby)"
Released	November 22, 1965 (1965-11-22)
Recorded	October 13–24, 1965
Studio	Western, Hollywood
Genre	Avant-pop[1]
Length	2:35
Label	Capitol
Songwriter(s)	Brian Wilson
Producer(s)	Brian Wilson
The Beach Boys singles chronology
"California Girls" (1965) "The Little Girl I Once Knew" (1965) "Barbara Ann" (1965)
Licensed audio
"The Little Girl I Once Knew" on YouTube
Audio sample
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The single reached number 20 on the U.S. Billboard charts and marked the band's lowest entry there for an A-sided single since 1963. Wilson chose to leave the track off Pet Sounds, possibly due to the single's relatively underwhelming sales response.[3]

Background and lyrics

Lyrically, "The Little Girl I Once Knew" follows familiar territory as the Beach Boys' 1964 outtake "All Dressed Up for School", telling the story of a guy who reacquaints with a girl from his past who has now grown up and catches his eye.[4] According to Mark Dillon, some speculate that the song was written about Brian's then-wife Marilyn Wilson.[4] Mike Love reportedly had a hand in the lyrics, although his 1992 lawsuit for officially recognized writing contributions failed to include "The Little Girl I Once Knew".[4]

Recording and composition

"The Little Girl I Once Knew" was recorded shortly after Brian Wilson completed Beach Boys' Party! in between sessions for the Pet Sounds tracks "Sloop John B" and "You Still Believe in Me".[5] It was initially labelled "Carol K" on its session tape box, a reference to the song's bassist, Carol Kaye.[6] The track has drawn comparisons with the work of contemporary Burt Bacharach, whom Wilson admired.[7]

The song is unusual in that it uses stop–start melody sections and a few dramatic periods of silence lasting several seconds each.[8] Dillon writes that the verses are "low-key" and hard-shift into a "blaring chorus" that "foreshadows the Smile track 'Cabin Essence'".[9] In a 2007 interview, Wilson stated,

That is my very favorite introduction in a song in my whole life. It kills me every time. It might have been the first time the music stopped and started again on a record. I wrote the intro at the studio before we cut the thing. And, [session musician] Larry Knechtel, it was his idea to keep the music rolling. We tried one, and then I put a second guitar overdub on top of the other guitar. And the rest of it was history. We were doing stereo but I could only hear the mono and I always put the vocals up front in the mix. Mixing in mono is good for my left ear. My right ear is broke, done and over with.[10]

Wilson was dissatisfied with his vocal performance, calling it "too effeminate".[10] In 1995, Wilson expressed, "It was a fine song, except the intro is the only good part of it, and the rest didn't sound so good. I thought the song in itself sucked. I didn't like the harmonies, I thought they were sour and off-key."[11] In 2014, he said that the song "should've" gotten more attention than it did.[12] However, Wilson has also stated that the song is "as good" or "almost as good" as "California Girls". He stated his vocals in particular were "really spectacularly great" and said, "There's no way the Beach Boys could sound any better than on "The Little Girl I Once Knew".[13]

Release and reception

It was released in November 1965 as a single 45 rpm, backed by "There's No Other (Like My Baby)", and reached #15 on the Cash Box chart and #20 on Billboard.[16][17] Since radio stations preferred to avoid dead air time, the song was poorly received by disc jockeys.[8][7]

Cash Box described the song as a "rhythmic ode about a fellow who reminisces about how his gal has grown up and become a woman."[18]

Retrospectively, AllMusic reviewer Matthew Greenwald called the song "a virtual link between the slightly progressive work on songs such as 'California Girls' and the then-quantum leap taken by Wilson on Pet Sounds and 'Good Vibrations'".[8]

Personnel

According to Keith Badman and Mark Dillon,[19] except where noted:

The Beach Boys

• Mike Love – lead vocal, harmony vocal
• Brian Wilson – lead vocal, harmony vocal
• Carl Wilson – lead vocal, harmony vocal
• Al Jardine – harmony vocal
• Bruce Johnston – harmony vocal
• Dennis Wilson – harmony vocal

Session musicians

• Frank Capp – percussion
• Carol Kaye – bass
• Don Randi – organ
• Unidentified musicians – twelve-string guitar, trumpet and saxophones[note 1]

Charts

Weekly chart performance

Chart (1965–66)	Peak position
scope="row"	Canada Top Singles (RPM)[21]	10
Canada (CHUM)[22]	19
scope="row"	US Billboard Hot 100[23]	20
US Cash Box Top 100[24]	15
US Record World Top 100[25]	15

Notes

References

Bibliography

• Badman, Keith (2004). The Beach Boys: The Definitive Diary of America's Greatest Band, on Stage and in the Studio. Backbeat Books. ISBN 978-0-87930-818-6.
• Dillon, Mark (2012). Fifty Sides of the Beach Boys: The Songs that Tell Their Story. Toronto: ECW Press. ISBN 978-1-77041-071-8.
• Umphred, Neal (1997). "Let's Go Away for Awhile: The Continuing Saga of Brian Wilson's Pet Sounds". In Abbott, Kingsley (ed.). Back to the Beach: A Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys Reader. Helter Skelter. ISBN 978-1-90092-402-3.

На других языках

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- [en] The Little Girl I Once Knew

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[es] The Little Girl I Once Knew

«The Little Girl I Once Knew» es una canción escrita por Brian Wilson para el grupo estadounidense The Beach Boys. Fue editado en sencillo de 45 RPM con "There's No Other (Like My Baby)" en el lado B, en noviembre de 1965.

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