The Beach Boys

Released: August 30, 1971

Songwriter: Bruce Johnston

Producer: The Beach Boys

[Verse 1]
Clearing skies and drying eyes
Now I see your smile
Darkness goes and softness shows
A changing style
Just in time words that rhyme
Well bless your soul
Now I'll fill your hands
With kisses and a Tootsie Roll

[Chorus]
Oh reality, it's not for me
And it makes me laugh
Oh, fantasy world and Disney girls
I'm coming back

[Verse 2]
Patti Page and summer days
On old Cape Cod
Happy times making wine
In my garage
Country shade and lemonade
Guess I'm slowing down
It's a turned back world
With a local girl
In a smaller town

[Chorus]
Open cars and clearer stars
That's what I've lacked, oh
But fantasy world and Disney girls
I'm coming back

[Bridge]
(Love) Hi Rick and Dave
Hi Pop, good morning, mom
(Love) Get up guess what
I'm in love with a girl I found
She's really swell
'Cause she likes
Church, bingo chances
And old-time dances

[Verse 3]
All my life I spent the night
With dreams of you
And the warmth I missed
And for the things I wished
They're all coming true
I've got my love to give
And a place to live
Guess I'm going to stay
It'd be a peaceful life
With a forever wife
And a kid someday

[Chorus]
Well, it's earlier nights
And pillow fights
And your soft laugh, oh
Fantasy world and Disney girls
I'm coming back

The Beach Boys are one of the world’s best-selling bands of all time and the first American pop band to reach the 50-year milestone. Their vocal harmonies are among the most unmistakable and enduring of the rock and roll era.

Formed in 1961 in Hawthorne, California, by Brian Wilson, his two brothers Carl and Dennis, their cousin Mike Love, and classmate Al Jardine, the group’s first single “Surfin'” got them signed to Capitol Records and they quickly became one of the most popular and successful artists of the surf music craze of the 1960s. From 1962 to 1966, The Beach Boys scored over twenty top 40 hits in the US including the chart-toppers “I Get Around”, “Help Me Rhonda” & “Good Vibrations” along with the top 5’s “Surfin USA”, “Fun, Fun, Fun”, “California Girls”, “Barbara Ann” & “Sloop John B”. Several of the band’s singles also found top 40 success in Canada, Australia, Sweden and the UK. In 1965, de facto leader Brian Wilson suffered a mental breakdown due to the stress of writing, producing & touring combined with substance abuse issues, causing him to step down and stop traveling with the band on tour.

Inspired by producer Phil Spector and The Beatles' Rubber Soul, Brian focused on studio work, determined to keep the group relevant as the surf music scene was fading with their 1966 album Pet Sounds. Despite tension between members in the studio about this new direction, lack of faith from the record label, mixed reviews, and comparatively lukewarm reception initially in the US, the album still found massive success in the UK and earned accolades from fellow artists including The Beatles, who acknowledged that the album was their inspiration to further push the boundaries of pop music with their landmark album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Eventually Pet Sounds would be acknowledged as one of the greatest albums ever recorded by several media outlets like The Times, Mojo Magazine, The Guardian, VH1, BBC and Rolling Stone.

more tracks from the album

Surf’s Up

From the albums

Surf’s Up (1971)
Good Vibrations: Thirty Years of the Beach Boys (1993)
The Beach Boys with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (2018)
Feel Flows: The Sunflower & Surf’s Up Sessions 1969–1971 (2021)

The Beach Boys popular songs

Disney Girls (1957)The Beach Boys

The Beach Boys

Surf’s Up