Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)

"Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)" is a song by American rock band the Beach Boys from their 1966 album Pet Sounds. Written by Brian Wilson and Tony Asher, it is among the most harmonically complex songs that Wilson ever composed. It is one of three tracks on Pet Sounds where he is the only Beach Boy performing.

"Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)"
Song by the Beach Boys
from the album Pet Sounds
ReleasedMay 16, 1966
RecordedFebruary 11 – April 3, 1966
StudioWestern, Hollywood
Length2:58
LabelCapitol
Songwriter(s)Brian Wilson, Tony Asher
Producer(s)Brian Wilson
Music video
"Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)" on YouTube

Background

"Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)" is about non-verbal communication between lovers. According to Asher, "It's strange to sit down and write a song about not talking ... but we managed to do it and it came off well."[1] The track features a string sextet and passing tones within diminished chords.[2] It is among the most harmonically complex songs that Wilson ever composed.[3] Music journalist Geoffrey Himes wrote:

"Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)" was a guitar-less ballad that featured Brian singing in a devotional high tenor about the romantic moment when words fail. A string quartet played the minor seventh chords at close intervals, while the tympani boomed and a fat-toned electric bass drifted from the expected root note to create harmonic tensions within the lush sound. When Brian sang in an intimate hush, "Don't talk; take my hand and listen to my heartbeat. Listen! Listen! Listen!" the music demanded that you listen just as closely to its throbbing pulse.[4]

On the line "Listen to my heartbeat", Wilson stated: "I felt very deeply about that line. One of the sweetest songs I ever sang. I have to say I'm proud of it. The innocence of youth in my voice, of being young and childlike. I think that's what people liked."

Recognition

Reviewing the song for AllMusic, Jim Esch praised "Don't Talk" as among "Brian Wilson's lushest romantic compositions" and "a hymn to love's tactile sensibility -- a gorgeous love song by any standard, and a triumph of Wilson's mature arranging powers."[5] Musician Elvis Costello commented, "I heard 'Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)' played on the cello. It sounded beautiful and sad, just as it does on Pet Sounds. So now you know, if all the record players in the world get broken tomorrow, these songs could be heard a hundred years from now."[6]

Personnel

Per band archivist Craig Slowinski.[7]

The Beach Boys

Session musicians

Cover versions
See also: List of cover versions of Beach Boys songs

References

Citations

  1. Granata 2003, p. 94.
  2. Granata 2003, p. 155.
  3. Lambert 2008, p. 123.
  4. Himes, Geoffrey. "Surf Music" (PDF). teachrock.org. Rock and Roll: An American History. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-11-25.
  5. ""Don't Talk(Put Your Head on My Shoulder)"". AllMusic. Archived from the original on December 4, 2010. Retrieved April 28, 2011.
  6. "Musicians on Brian: Elvis Costello". Brian Wilson.com. Archived from the original on 26 March 2009. Retrieved March 3, 2009.
  7. Slowinski, Craig. "Pet Sounds LP". beachboysarchives.com. Endless Summer Quarterly. Retrieved September 24, 2018.

Bibliography

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