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Some great Hammond organ songs
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Louie Louie
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Procol Harum featured the Hammond in their music most of the time. Obviously Whiter Shade of Pale is best know. This particular instrumental has soaring B3 sounds as well as very powerful guitar work. Quite dramatic.
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Very nice Dave,
Notice Gary Brooker on piano
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Gary was a phenomenal musician and band leader. That piece was recorded in Union Chapel. Go figure, a B3 in a church….not surprising as that’s where most were bought for (churches) until Jazz and Rock discovered it. Loved the combination of piano and B3 in Procol Harum!!!
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Not sure if Hammond or not was used but the collaboration album of Cass Elliot with Dave Mason has that sound on a few songs …if I’ve already replied to this thread with this input, my apologies…I can’t keep track …lol…
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Jacki,
If you click on your name in the upper right corner of the page, then click on Comments, you can see what comments you’ve made.
I sometimes check on what I posted too.
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Thankyou…will do that, niw that I know to do so…. .always being educated on here with something new to learn ….🤘🏻😎😊
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In the song WHY?, I hear some great organ work, perfect spot now for Papa Rudi’s Hammond C3.
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“…Mingle with the good people we meet, yeah
Good friends we have had, oh good friends we’ve lost along the way, yeah
In this bright future you can’t forget your past
So dry your tears I say, yeah…” -
Niiice Chris. I like Bob Marley, his music just tickles and grabs me inside when I hear it. I discovered his music at a reggae festival in Toronto in the 80s, and always been drawn to his music.
“Light Up The Darkness” – Bob Marley
Definitely a Hammond! Pretty much all of Bob’s records with an organ feature the sound of the Hammond- most reggae records for that matter feature it.
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<div>Very nice guys.</div><div>
Is this a hammond organ? It doesnot appear to be.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rf8GjhXvOjU
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I’m not sure an organ is even used in this song. It looks like just a keyboard synthesizer. In the previous video you can see a Hammond. It looks like that catchy 3 Little Birds phrase is done on a Hammond.
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I think there are several, at least for the video. At the beginning (0:18) that looks like a Moog, but later at 3:35 there seems to be a Keyboard sitting on top of a Hammond, but it’s hard to see.
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Tomas, yeah that key board guy is doing a lot of stuff in the back. At 1:35 you can see him with his left hand playing the Hammond below while his right hand is playing the keyboard above.
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Tomás, as you say, at 20 seconds in, that’s definitely a Minimoog. You can see the Moog label in the lower right, and the layout is unmistakeable anyway.
The second board at 3:33 is a Clavinet. What’s underneath it I’m not sure, could be a Hammond but I only see one manual, B-3s have 2. Hard to tell, like you say, but really, what else could it be? It’s big, looks like draw bars, 400# keyboards do tend to get put on the bottom of the stack, and we know this band had a Hammond 2 years later because the video I posted shows it clearly.
And I suppose if there’s still any doubt, we could probably tell by seeing if anything sounds like a Hammond. 🙂
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Did you know Brian Wilson employed the Hammond organ and Leslie speakers in Good Vibrations. The description below of the studio work the Beach Boys did to create Good Vibrations, to me is like listening to Mona, Lisa talk about their work in the studio on WHY? with Papa Rudi.
The Beach Boys to the Beatles to Good Vibrations and beyond.
As a young boy, Wilson’s mother often talked to him about the “cosmic vibrations” in the world, and a dog barking is often in response to a person’s bad vibrations. With lyrics written by both Wilson and Beach Boys lead singer Mike Love, Brian Wilson wanted to create a magnum opus about good cosmic vibrations. Brian’s brother Carl sings lead, and the song begins with no introduction. The first thing we hear is the trademark falsetto Beach Boys sound. Time is kept by a Hammond organ fed through a spinning Leslie speaker and a repeating counter melody on the bass.
I, I love the colorful clothes she wears
And the way the sunlight plays upon her hair
I hear the sound of a gentle word
On the wind that left her perfume through the airA snare drum kicks in with the third line with accentuating sleigh bells, and we are brought into the chorus. But this just isn’t any chorus, this is the chorus to “Good Vibrations!” This is the chorus where the song finds its footing while breaking all the rules. This is the chorus that harkens back to the vocal groups of the 1950’s while somehow sounding like something from the future. This is the chorus that has cellos, full tonal steps with every line, and a kick-ass rock band in the background moving everything a long at a rapid clip. Mike Love sings the bass part to start things off, then we hear the comfortably familiar shimmering Beach Boys harmonies coming in behind him, sounding just like a doo-wop group standing under the corner street lamp.
I’m pickin’ up good vibrations
She’s giving me excitations (Oom bop bop)
I’m pickin’ up good vibrations (Good vibrations, oom bop bop)
She’s giving me excitations (Excitations, oom bop bop)
Good, good, good, good vibrations (Oom bop bop)
She’s giving me excitations (Excitations, oom bop bop)
Good, good, good, good vibrations (Oom bop bop)
She’s giving me excitations (Excitations)And floating above everything is the other-worldly sound of the Electro-Theremin, played by its inventor Paul Tanner. Harnessing electric currents to make sometimes unpredictable noises, the Theremin turned out to be the perfect counter-weight to the 16th notes being played by a cello underneath. Voices come in, layered on top of each other. Traditional rock band and vocal group stylings. Futuristic Theremin noises, beautiful orchestral sounds. In the wrong hands this could have been a sloppy mess, but everything here works. The sounds are logically layered on top of one another, woven together to create a complete sound, escalating to a crescendo until it stops with a sudden tape splice, and we hear Carl Wilson singing by himself for the next verse. The Hammond organ returns, and we hear the now familiar bass melody.
Close my eyes, she’s somehow closer now
Softly smile, I know she must be kind
When I look in her eyes
She goes with me to a blossom worldAgain we hear Carl Wilson’s plaintive voice starting out alone. Again we hear those shimmering melodies coming in at the third line. The lyrics are poetic. Words are bent and shaped to fit the melody, adding to the mystique and mystery of the song.
After another chorus, a chorus filled with futurist 50’s call and response, beautiful harmonies and a killer backing rock band, we come to the bridge, a bridge that leans hard into the ethereal landscape only hinted at in the first and second verses.
The first part of the bridge evokes the first and second verse, but somehow sounds completely different. An aural salad is spinning around in our heads, everything is background, only with the line “I don’t where, but she sends me there” in sharp focus, completely clear and distinct from all else that his happening. Wilson is pounding the piano into smithereens, the cymbals are crashing, the Theremin is wailing.
“(Ahh)
(Ah, my my, what elation)
I don’t know where but she sends me there
(Oh, my my, what a sensation)
(Oh, my my, what elation)
(Oh, my my, what)And then, again, everything stops. Only a quiet tambourine with the organ playing whole notes underneath. Very quiet, very subdued. One voice. Then a bass. Then more voices. Then then very high notes on the organ. The voices fade.
Gotta keep those lovin’ good vibrations a-happenin’ with her
Gotta keep those lovin’ good vibrations a-happenin’ with her
Gotta keep those lovin’ good vibrations a-happenin’“A chorus of harmonic voices comes in as the music comes to as the music stops, and then we are back to the full throated chorus which then dissipates into the rockingest cellos you’ve ever heard. The harmonies return as transition to the fade out ending of the song.
At 3:34 long, “Good Vibrations” is relatively short by today’s standards, but in 1966 it pushed teh envelopes of duration, structure, and instrumentation. Rock and roll music was forever re-defined as a platform for new ideas. For stretching preconceived notions. Embracing the past while mapping the future. There were new rules, and the World War of Rock and Roll was forever won by Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys. Listen to Who’s Next, but then move on. Blonde on Blonde is a truly monumental album. But everything begins with “Good Vibrations,” and people have been trying to catch up ever since.
They were not in a vacuum. Music was changing everywhere. Culture was evolving. The mid to late 1960’s brought a veritable explosion of psychedelia, folk-rock, experimental electronic music, and even the beginnings of heavy metal. The idea of rock and roll was expanding, and the great musical groups of the day found themselves in a creative arms race of talent and ideas. Who would fire the next shot? Who would win the war?
The Beatles. The Rolling Stones. The Beach Boys. The Who. Bob Dylan. Everyone was listening to each other. Everyone was finding inspiration. Everyone was exploring, experimenting, stretching to showcase their creativity, to inspire whoever and whatever would follow.
Listen for the Hammond. You can’t miss it, right from the get go.
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Many good observations Jung!
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Thanks Tom. I never realized until now the Hammond organ in Good Vibrations. It has one of the nicest bass line in any song, just like in WHY. The organ, bass and chorus in Good Vibrations and WHY? are stellar. The string arrangement in WHY takes it another, it is killer.
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This is a fantastic article, Jung! Can you tell us where it was published?
Over thirty years ago, after I had completed my initial reconnaissance of classic rock-and-roll and learned what songs came out when, I decided that for my tastes the peak year was 1966, with the number of songs I really liked gradually decreasing in both directions from that peak. And going through songs from 1966, I concluded that Good Vibrations sat at the very top of that peak. I even narrowed down the instant that the genre reached its zenith to the “aaaaah” at 3:27.
This article helps me see why I came to that conclusion. Good Vibrations masterfully interweaves the best musical structures from earlier times with new styles that became commonplace shortly thereafter, so it’s truly a fusion of everything I love about music.
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Long ago I had heard of a Theremin, and then I learned more about it when it was discussed here in the Club not long ago.
But I hadn’t yet realized that that singular sound in Good Vibrations was a Theremin. Interesting that it was played by its creator. But then if I remember correctly, it’s kind of a challenge to learn how to play.
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Hi Chris. I didn’t know the inventor of the Theramin played on Good Vibrations. That is quite the unique science lab instrument. I remember in last years MLT Christmas Advent Calendars reaction videos, they discussed the Theramin. I agree, not an easy instrument for anyone to pick up, though I think Mona or Lisa have the musical dexterity to do so if they wanted. LOL!
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Jung,
I’ve thought for some time that Mona and Lisa can accomplish anything they set their minds to, and I certainly agree Theremin falls in the category of “anything”.
With regard to Good Vibrations, I see now that it was not a traditional theremin. The co-inventor of the Electro-Theremin, Paul Tanner, who played on the song, had been a trombonist in the Glen Miller Orchestra. The passage below was excerpted from a piece published just after Tanner passed away in 2013:
“The signature theremin sound in ‘Good Vibrations’ was produced not by a traditional theremin but by an invention created in the late 1950s by big band trombonist Paul Tanner and actor Bob Whitsell. They called it the Electro-Theremin. It created a sound similar to the theremin, but was easier to play. Instead of passing your hands over two antennae (which required a lot of practice to get right), you would mechanically control an audio oscillator. A simpler process, but far less beguiling to watch than the traditional method of playing the theremin…In addition to ‘Good Vibrations,’ Tanner played his Electro-Theremin on The Beach Boys’ ‘I Just Wasn’t Made for These Times’ and ‘Wild Honey,’ as well as on the soundtracks of movies and TV shows ‘My Favorite Martian’. He also recorded two albums of Electro-Theremin music: ‘Music from Heavenly Bodies’ and ‘Music from Outer Space’.
Tanner’s proto-type was the only authentic Electro-Theremin ever made. He didn’t see much of a future for his instrument. He correctly read the writing on the wall: synthesizers. Therevox created a variation on Tanner’s invention that worked using the same basic principals.”
They also mention that the Moog ribbon controller was developed for the Beach Boys for the sole purpose of simulating the sound of Tanner’s invention.
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Hi Chris
Great article on the Electro Theramin, giving some insight on this invention that is a variation on the Theramin. In the video for Good Vibrations, you can see Mike Love using it in post studio production performance, and I imagine the Beach Boys bought the unit to use in their concerts, until the electronic synthesizer was able to displace it.
With Good Vibrations, while it became the Beach Boys biggest hit song, I think Capital records though did the song dis-service by linking it back to the fun in the sun beach song image in the various ways Capital promoted the song, even though the lyrics has nothing to do with the beach. In a way this image the label tried to link to the song undermined the real artistry, and all the innovation Good Vibrations encompassed. I’ve seen so many videos of people playing beach volley ball, girls laying on the beach in bikinis, and guys waxing down their surfboard to Good Vibration. I think a lot of people dismissed Good Vibrations, despite it’s commercial success and critical acclaim from music critics, to another fun in the sun beach song, and did not give it it’s due credit as one of the great amazing cutting edge influential songs that made a big impact on the future of music for generations.
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Hi David
Yes, here is the link to the article: The Beach Boys to the Beatles to Good Vibrations and beyond.
I did a search in Google, “did Brian Wilson use the Hammond organ in Good Vibrations” and got this gem of an article. I really love the description it goes into about the creative rivalry between the Beatles and Beach Boys that created amazing music, sounds, and studio technique/expertise by musicians. In that 2017 MLT video when Mona and Lisa said they were going to take a break from performing and go into the studio to create new music (that led to the creation of Orange and WHY? masterpieces), I immediately envisioned parallels to the Beatles taking a break from touring and focusing in on the studio creating Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sargent Peppers….as well as Brian Wilson stepping back from the band and going into the studio to create Pet Sounds, Smile, and Good Vibrations. In some places Good Vibrations is touted as the precursor to A Day In The Life, and Bohemian Rhapsody.
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