Help Me, Ronda

Infobox Song
Name = Help Me, Ronda


Border =
Caption =
Type =
Artist = The Beach Boys
alt Artist =
Album = The Beach Boys Today!
Published =
Released = March 8, 1965
track_no = 5
Recorded = track: January 8, 1965
vocals: January 19, 1965
Genre =
Length = 3:04
Writer =
Composer = Brian Wilson/Mike Love
Label = Capitol
Producer = Brian Wilson
Tracks =
prev = "When I Grow Up (To Be a Man)"
prev_no = 4
next = "Dance, Dance, Dance"
next_no = 6
Misc =
Audio sample? =

"Help Me, Ronda" is a song written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love for the American pop band The Beach Boys. It was released on their 1965 album "The Beach Boys Today!". The song is notable for being the first major Beach Boys song in which Alan Jardine sings lead (he had a lead vocal on their earlier Christmas album). The song features production by Brian Wilson. There are two versions of the song, this version and the later version, entitled "Help Me, Rhonda". This version (3:04) is over fifteen seconds longer than the latter version.

Recording the song

The original version of the song was recorded over two dates at Western Recording Studios in Hollywood on the 8th January and the 19th January 1965, with Chuck Britz as the engineer and production by Brian Wilson. The instrumental track has Carl Wilson, Bill Pitman, and Glen Campbell on guitars, Billy Strange on ukulele, Ray Pohlman on bass guitar, Leon Russell on piano, Hal Blaine on drums and timbales, Julius Wechter on claves, Billy Lee Riley on harmonica, Steve Douglas and Plas Johnson on tenor saxophone, and Jay Migliori on baritone saxophone. Alan Jardine sang the lead vocal with backing vocals were by Carl, Dennis and Brian Wilson and Mike Love.

Single version

There are a number of false endings to this version of the song with the volume fading in and out. Brian Wilson later rearranged and re-recorded the song, and released the updated version as "Help Me, Rhonda" (as opposed to "Ronda"). Whereas the original version is a simple and relentless march beat, the newer version has greater variety of rhythm, with a different (and more complex) bass line. It features additional guitar and piano parts, loses the misleading volume fades and the harmonica, and adds more backing vocals, such as the "Bow-wow-wow" part, as well as giving the punchline, "Get her out of my heart", to Mike Love rather than Al Jardine. The re-released song appeared on the next Beach Boys album, "Summer Days (and Summer Nights!!)", in 1965. Re-doing the song proved to be a good move on Brian's part, when it hit #1 on the U.S. charts.

The original version of the song also appears on the popular "Endless Summer" compilation.

Mondegreens

In "Dave Barry's Book of Bad Songs," Barry begins the chapter "Songs People Get Wrong" with a discussion on the opening lyric of the song, which he says is:

"Well, since she put me down there's been owls pukin' in my bed..."

Barry comments, "I hope those lyrics are "wrong," because if they're "right" the singer isn't going to get Ronda to come anywhere "near" him."

(The actual lyric is:

"Well, since she put me down, I've been out doin' in my head."

"Doing in one's head" means here "agonizing" about something.)

See also

*List of songs by The Beach Boys

External links

* [http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=33:wifuxqrrldke "Help Me, Rhonda"] review at Allmusic