"Wendy" | ||||||||||||
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Song by The Beach Boys from the album All Summer Long | ||||||||||||
Released | July 13, 1964 | |||||||||||
Recorded | April and/or May, 1964 United Western Recorders, Hollywood |
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Genre | Rock | |||||||||||
Length | 2:16 | |||||||||||
Label | Capitol | |||||||||||
Writer(s) | Brian Wilson, Mike Love | |||||||||||
Producer(s) | Brian Wilson | |||||||||||
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20 tracks |
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"Wendy" 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 All Summer Long and was also featured on their EP, Four by The Beach Boys.
"Wendy" was originally credited to just Brian Wilson. Mike Love's name was added as a result of a lawsuit filed by him against Wilson in the 1990s.
The opening chords are whole notes played on electric guitar and bass. The song begins with a minor i chord in the key of D minor, moves to a major IV, comes back to the minor i, and then moves to a major VI chord, a IV in the key of F. The song then modulates to the key of F major (the relative major of D minor) through a substituted plagal cadence, using a I-ii progression to solidify the new tonic of F.
The verse begins with another I-IV-I progression, ending on an IV chord in the first line. The second line begins the same as the first, but moves to a major ♭VII (in D minor the neapolitan chord), and then modulates to the relative minor through use of a iii chord (A minor, the V in the key of D minor), the A minor moving to a D minor via an authentic cadence. The chorus/bridge ("I never thought a guy could cry") uses the same chord progression found in the introduction (D: i-iv-i-VI(IV in F), coming back to the key of F for the final line. This repeats for the second verse, before going into the organ solo.
After the second chorus, the song modulates again from F to D minor, this time through the usage of the ♭VII (E♭ major), which is a tritone substitution for the V of D. The solo follows the same general progression of the introduction and chorus. Another run of the verse/chorus follows, and the song then fades out with repeated I-IV cadences.