The Warmth of the Sun

"The Warmth of the Sun"
Single by The Beach Boys
from the album Shut Down Volume 2
A-side	"Dance, Dance, Dance"
Released	October 26, 1964
Format	Vinyl
Recorded	January 1, 1964 January 8, 1964 Western Studios Hollywood, California
Genre	Sunshine pop
Length	2:51
Label	Capitol Records
Writer(s)	Brian Wilson, Mike Love
Producer(s)	Brian Wilson
The Beach Boys singles chronology
"When I Grow Up (To Be a Man)" (1964) "Dance, Dance, Dance" (1964) "The Man with All the Toys" (1964)
Endless Summer track listing 20 tracks Side one "Surfin' Safari" "Surfer Girl" "Catch a Wave" "The Warmth of the Sun" "Surfin' U.S.A." Side two "Be True to Your School" "Little Deuce Coupe" "In My Room" "Shut Down" "Fun, Fun, Fun" Side three "I Get Around" "Girls on the Beach" "Wendy" "Let Him Run Wild" "Don't Worry Baby" Side four "California Girls" "Girl Don't Tell Me" "Help Me, Rhonda" "You're So Good to Me" "All Summer Long"

20 tracks
Side one "Surfin' Safari" "Surfer Girl" "Catch a Wave" "The Warmth of the Sun" "Surfin' U.S.A." Side two "Be True to Your School" "Little Deuce Coupe" "In My Room" "Shut Down" "Fun, Fun, Fun" Side three "I Get Around" "Girls on the Beach" "Wendy" "Let Him Run Wild" "Don't Worry Baby" Side four "California Girls" "Girl Don't Tell Me" "Help Me, Rhonda" "You're So Good to Me" "All Summer Long"

"The Warmth of the Sun" is a song written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love for the American rock band The Beach Boys. It was released on their 1964 album Shut Down Volume 2 and as the B-side of the "Dance, Dance, Dance" single, which charted at number eight in the United States and number twenty-four in the United Kingdom. Brian Wilson produced the song, and the rest of the album.

Wilson and Love began composing the song on the night of November 21, 1963 and completed it early the following morning, mere hours before the assassination of John F. Kennedy. The subsequent recording of the song was informed by the emotional shock felt by its authors in the wake of Kennedy's death.

"The Warmth of the Sun" was started in the early morning hours of the same morning that President Kennedy was killed in Dallas. The melody was so haunting, sad, melancholy, that the only thing that I could think of lyrically was the loss of love, when interest slips and feelings aren't reciprocated…though I wanted to have a silver lining on that cumulus nimbus cloud so I wrote the lyrics from the perspective of, "Yes, things have changed and love is no longer there, but the memory of it lingers like the warmth of the sun." I think it's really impactful and memorable…one of my favorite songs from an emotional and personal point of view.

Brian Wilson recalls that the song was written the day of the assassination, in response to it:

When the shooting happened, everyone knew instantly. It was all over the TV and on every kind of news. I called Mike and he asked me if I wanted to write a song about it. I said sure. It seemed like something we had to think about, and songs were the way I thought about things. We drove over to my office and in a half hour we had "The Warmth of the Sun." We didn't think of it as a big song. It was a personal response. But it got bigger over time because of the history linked to it.

Reviewing the song for AllMusic, Donald A. Guarisco stated, "The sublime balance of lush vocals and sensitive songwriting made 'The Warmth of the Sun' one of the Beach Boys' finest and most moving ballads." Brian Wilson pioneered the use of adventurous chord changes in pop—"The Warmth of the Sun"'s transitions from C to A-minor to E-flat, were unheard of in 1964.

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Wikipedia