#65: In My Room by the Beach Boys

City: Hamilton, ON
Radio Station: CKOC
Peak Month: December 1963
Peak Position in Hamilton ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #11
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #23
YouTube: “In My Room”
Lyrics: “In My Room”

Brian Wilson was born in Inglewood, California, in 1942. In biographer Peter Ames Carlin’s book, Catch a Wave: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson, he relates that when Brian Wilson first heard George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” it had a huge emotional impact on him. As a youngster, Wilson learned to play a toy accordion and sang in children’s choirs. In his teens he started a group with his cousin, Mike Love and his brother, Carl. Mike was born in Los Angeles in 1941 and Carl was born in 1946 in Hawthorne, California. Brian Wilson named the group Carl and the Passions in order to convince his brother to join. They had a performance in the fall of 1960 at Hawthorne High School, where they attended. Their set included some songs by Dion and the Belmonts. Among the people in the audience was Al Jardine, another classmate. Jardine was born in Hawthorne in 1942. He was so impressed with the performance that he let the group know. Jardine would later be enlisted, along with Dennis Wilson to form the Pendletones in 1961. Dennis was born in Inglewood in 1944.

The first song Brian Wilson wrote would become “Surfer Girl.” A demo of the tune was made in February 1962 and would go on to be a Top Ten hit when it was released a year later in 1963. However, their first recording was a doo-wop-surf tune called “Surfin’” in October 1961. It was released in November ’61 on the Candix Enterprises Inc. label. The surprise for the group was that the record label had changed the group’s name from the Pendletones to the Beach Boys. Consequently, as each time the record was played by a DJ in America, radio listeners were being introduced to the Beach Boys. The name Pendletones was now history.

In 1962, neighbor David Marks joined the group for their first wave of hits with Capitol Records, leaving in late 1963. In 1965, Bruce Johnston joined the band when Brian Wilson retired from touring to focus on writing and producing for the group. The Beach Boys signed with Capitol Records in July 1962 and released their first album, Surfin’ Safari, later that year. The album spent 37 weeks on the Billboard album chart, launching the young group known for its shimmering vocal harmonies and relaxed California style into international stardom. The Wilson/Love collaboration resulted in many huge international chart hits. Under Brian Wilson’s musical leadership, the band’s initial surf-rock focus was soon broadened to include many other themes, helping make The Beach Boys one of America’s most successful bands of the 1960’s.

The Beach Boys charted 13 Top Ten hits into the Billboard Hot 100 in the ’60’s. This began with “Surfin’ USA” in 1963. The only American pop group in the 1960’s who had more songs chart into the Top Ten on the Billboard Hot 100 was The Supremes, who had 18 singles reach that threshold.

Late in 1963, the Beach Boys released “In My Room”. It was the B-side to “Be True To Your School”.

“In My Room” was cowritten by Gary Usher and Brian Wilson. Gary Usher was born in Massachusetts in 1938 and grew up in the community of Grafton. After graduating from high school in 1957, Usher headed to California and was a musician in a few local rock ‘n roll bands. As it happened, Gary Usher’s uncle was a neighbor of Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys over in Hawthorne, a suburb of Los Angeles. Usher and Wilson ended up co-writing a number of songs for The Beach Boys including “409” and “In My Room”. The latter was a Top 30 hit in America in December 1963. Gary Usher also produced records in the mid-60’s for The Byrds, The Peanut Butter Conspiracy, The Hondells and others. After considerable success as a producer, he eventually became a staff producer for Columbia Records. It was at this position that, during 1967, he produced Chad & Jeremy.

In 1968, Gary Usher brought in Los Angeles session musicians, as well as drafting friends such as Beach Boys touring alumnus Glen Campbell (who did the lead vocal on the track) and Beach Boys singer, Bruce Johnston, and singer-turned-producer Terry Melcher for vocals. He finished the recording by adding a musique concrète bridge. He presented it to Columbia executives under the group name Sagittarius, named after his astrological sun sign. The single, “Hotel Indiscreet”, reached #70 in the Billboard Hot 100. When there was pressure from Columbia for the group to tour, it was revealed that a group did not exist.

“In My Room” is a song written from the perspective of a teenager who feels safe and comfortable in his bedroom. Brian Wilson suffered from severe agoraphobia, and refused to leave his bedroom for a significant amount of time. He wrote this song to give people and idea of how he felt.

“In My Room” peaked at #1 in Hamilton, San Bernardino (CA), San Diego, San Jose (CA), Seattle, #2 in San Francisco, Boston, Erie (PA), #3 in Fresno (CA), Bakersfield (CA), Dayton (OH), Indianapolis (IN), Cincinnati (OH), Springfield (MA), Milwaukee (WI), Newport News (VA), Salt Lake City, and Providence (RI), #4 in Philadelphia, and Denver, #5 in Montreal, Butte (ID), Miami, and Davenport (IA), #6 in Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Hartford (CT), #7 in Columbus (OH), and Chicago, #8 in Minneapolis/St. Paul, #9 in Houston, and #11 in Vancouver (BC).

While the A-side, “Be True To Your School” climbed to #6 on the Billboard Hot 100, “In My Room” stalled at #23 on the USA chart, #21 in Ottawa and Kingston, and elsewhere in Canada failed to chart in Toronto, and Windsor. While for “Be True To Your School” shot to #3 in London (ON) and Winnipeg, #4 in Toronto, #5 in Moose Jaw (SK), and #6 in Ottawa.

In 1964 the Beach Boys hits included “She Knows Me Too Well”, “Wendy”, “Fun, Fun, Fun”, “Dance, Dance, Dance”,  “Little Honda“, “Don’t Worry Baby” and “I Get Around” – a double-sided #3 hit in Vancouver (BC). In 1965 the Beach Boys had hits with “Help Me Rhonda”, “The Warmth Of The Sun“, “California Girls” and “The Little Girl I Once Knew“.

Other hits by the Beach Boys in 1966 were “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” (#1), “Good Vibrations” (#1) . The B-side to “Wouldn’t It Be Nice”, “God Only Knows,” peaked at #5 on CFUN. The Beach Boys were at the top of their popularity into the mid-60’s. They released their hit album, Pet Sounds, in May 1966, with  the hits “God Only Knows,” “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” and “Sloop John B” all doing well on the pop charts, especially in Vancouver. It was their ninth of ten successive albums that made the Top Ten in the Billboard 200 Album charts. 1966 was also the year The Beach Boys had their #1 hit, “Good Vibrations,” which was their third #1 hit in three years. Among their few Top 20 hits in the late 1960s was a single titled “Do It Again”.

Among their notable hits in the 1970s were “Rock And Roll Music” and in 1979 “Good Timin’“. Another single, “Sail On Sailor”, climbed to #12 on CKLG in May 1975. After “Good Timin'”, the Beach Boys had several more Top 20 hits. The first was titled “The Beach Boys Medley” which was a #12 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in the fall of 1981. The medley included a mix of the Beach Boys hit singles “Good Vibrations”, “Help Me Rhonda”, “I Get Around”, “Shut Down”, “Surfin’ Safari”, “Barbara Ann”, “Surfin’ U.S.A” and “Fun, Fun, Fun”. In January 1982 the Beach Boys had their cover of the 1957 Del-Vikings hit “Come Go With Me” climb to #18 on the Hot 100.

Tragedy struck when Dennis Wilson, plagued with alcohol and drug addiction, drowned after he came out of rehab in December 1983. He was 39 years old. In 1986 the Beach Boys covered the Mamas & the Papas 1966 hit “California Dreamin’“, taking it to #9 in Vancouver (BC). On September 12, 1986, the Beach Boys gave a concert at the World Expo in Vancouver. Bookending this concert, the Beach Boys appeared in concert on August 21, 1985, and again on August 23, 1987, at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver. In 1988, “Kokomo”, a song penned by John Philips (formerly of The Mamas & the Papas), Scott McKenzie (who had a #1 hit in Vancouver (BC) in June 1967 titled “San Francisco”), and the Beach Boys Mike Love, climbed to number one on the Billboard Hot 100. The Beach Boys achievement ended a 22-year drought in the number one spot for the group.

The Beach Boys have had four singles – “Good Vibrations”, “California Girls”, “In My Room” and “I Get Around” – and one album, Pet Sounds, inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame between 1994 and 2017. On August 2, 1993, the Beach Boys appeared in concert in the Vancouver suburb of Burnaby at Deer Lake Park. In 1997, Carl Wilson was diagnosed with lung and brain cancer. While on tour, and receiving chemotherapy, he sat on a stool while performing the Beach Boys hits. Carl Wilson died at the age of 51 in February 1998.

In 2016 Mike Love published Good Vibrations: My Life As A Beach Boy, while Brian Wilson published his memoir, I Am Brian Wilson. 

Gary Usher died of cancer at his home in Los Angeles, California at the age of 51.

May 27, 2024
Ray McGinnis

References:
The Beach Boys – About, The Beach Boys.com
Jeff Slate, How Brian Wilson Found Inspiration in the Artists Working Beside Him, Esquire, New York, October 11, 2016
Tony Asher Interview, Surfer Moon.com April 4, 1996
Wilson, Brian with Greenman, Ben. I Am Brian Wilson: A Memoir. DeCapo Press. Boson, MA, 2016
Lambert, Philip. Inside the Music of Brian Wilson: The Songs, Sounds, and Influences of the Beach Boys’ Founding Genius. Continuum International Publishing, New York, 2007.
The Beach Boys Concert Dates, The Beach Boys.com.
Cathy Nelson Price, “Second-generation Beach Boy Christian Love Shares the Stage with Dad Mike,” Midland Daily News, Midland, Michigan, July 30, 2010.
“Roger Christian: Disc Jockey, Songwriter,” Los Angeles Times, July 18, 1991.
“Beach Boys concerts Canada,” Setlist.fm.
“Gary Usher; Co-Writer of Beach Boys Hits,” Los Angeles Times, June 2, 1990.

CKOC 1150-AM Hamilton (ON) Top Ten| December 14, 1963