The Beach Boys – Wouldn’t It Be Nice (Chords)

The Beach Boys – Wouldn’t It Be Nice (Chords)

If you’re quick, you’ve still got time to cast your vote for the 2011 ukulele video of the year. It’s really close between Manitoba Hal and Bella Hemming (just a handful of votes between them at the time of writing). Voted? Right, down to business.

I’ve done plenty of Christmas and Halloween posts but never a Valentines post. And not because I’m one of those people who hates Valentines. But because most love songs – mutual-love songs – are tripe. Not a word you could ever use to describe the Beach Boys’ Wouldn’t It Be Nice.

I wrote up the chords based on the Beach Boys version but She and Him’s version is in the same key and is very similar.

Suggested Strumming

You can use this as the main strumming pattern:

d – d u d u d u

In the verses use it twice for F and once for the Bb. Then split it in half and do d – d u on the Gm7 and d u d u on the C7 (in the She and Him version they do the full pattern for Gm7 and C7

In the bridge and the middle use it once for every chord.

Twiddly Bits

The main reason I wanted to do this song is so I could write up the intro.


Intro

Science Bit

Bollocks to L’Oreal, you can skip the science bit if you’re so inclined.

One small difference between my version and the She and Him version is in the middle section. I’ve gone with the F#m shape for Dmaj7 (2120). Zooey uses 2224. I went with that because I prefer the sound of it with a band playing along. Neither of the versions are particularly good with just uke though. I think I’d go for 7654 for Dmaj7 and 7675 for Gmaj7.

View Comments

21 Comments

  1. cardboardfrog February 15th, 2011 6:04 pm

    i have spent large sections of my weekend humming this, a wonderful piece of synchronicity you posting chords,
    Another excellent piece of work woodshed, cheers!

  2. Hello Jodi February 15th, 2011 8:00 pm

    I love the Beach Boys. This song was “our song” for an ex and I. Thanks for posting it.
    And a belated happy Valentine’s day to you.

    xo

  3. Vatsal February 16th, 2011 4:00 am

    This song is almost always stuck in my head. But I find it SO hard to sing the song and strum the chords at the same time… its the most basic of things and it seems like everybody can do it, but I always get tripped up!

  4. krabbers February 16th, 2011 9:11 am

    cheers for posting Al. I’ve been trying to play it this morning.
    I love the beach boys, if you dont tune up the intro sounds like an ice cream van.

  5. Bombolino February 16th, 2011 12:09 pm

    yeah, ice cream van!

  6. Ralph Flores February 16th, 2011 6:02 pm

    Thank you very much for posting this song. You did a great job and it’s appreciated!

    Sincerely,

    Ralph Flores

  7. Joshan February 16th, 2011 6:16 pm

    thanks woodshed i love this song

  8. pepamahina February 17th, 2011 2:48 am

    Thanks Al, this is great! Altough I do admit that after your nod to Saturnalia I was kind of hoping for some kind of Lupercalia ditty.

  9. Woodshed February 17th, 2011 11:04 am

    cbf: Thanks very much. Great minds and all that.

    Jodi: And an even belateder happy Valentines right back at you.

    Vatsal: I can’t sing and strum either. But I can’t sing even without strumming.

    krabbers: It reminds me of the Jim’ll Fix It Theme.

    Bombolino: You’re making me hungry.

    Ralph and Joshan: You’re both very welcome.

    pepamahina: Ha ha ha! I can’t think of any Lupercalia-appropriate tunes. I’ll have to ponder on it.

  10. Readie February 17th, 2011 2:51 pm

    Was about to say that I’d never realised how similar the Jim’ll Fix It Theme is to the intro – a thought I see you share, Woodshed. I’ve never felt more confident about my limited musical abilities!

    Thanks for posting this, by the way – I really love this song. Can’t wait to print out the chords and have a bash at playing it.

  11. Rob NY February 18th, 2011 3:18 am

    Thanks! Love it!

  12. zym February 18th, 2011 12:17 pm

    @Al hahaha my friend and i have spent many a happy hour mashing this with Jim’ll Fix it :D

  13. Woodshed February 19th, 2011 1:49 pm

    Readie and zym: Glad it’s not just me.

    Rob: You’re welcome.

  14. Tim J March 21st, 2011 1:52 am

    Double check the fingering for the Dmaj7 chord on the PDF. I think its a copy of the F#m. I’m new to this and could be wrong. Tim

  15. Woodshed March 21st, 2011 7:27 am

    Tim: You can play Dmaj7 the same way you play F#m.

  16. Beetroot September 9th, 2012 1:10 pm

    My dad made me listen to Beachboys, sundays are never complete witout them. Thanks for posting this!!!!! :-)

  17. Woodshed September 9th, 2012 1:44 pm

    Beetroot: Aww bless! You’re welcome.

  18. Liz January 3rd, 2015 5:47 am

    I know this is a really old post (wow, 2 years!) but I just love the way you’ve written it up and I think it sounds perfect on the uke. Sweet but not twee. Thanks!!

  19. Woodshed January 3rd, 2015 11:25 am

    Liz: Thanks! Comment on old posts all you like!

  20. Madeleine April 28th, 2017 1:43 pm

    Great, my parents brainwashed me with the beach boys when I was wee so I love it. I realise this isn’t a jukebox but I would love tab/chords for Don’t talk put your head on my shoulder and God Only Knows by The Beach Boys, my favrits!

  21. Woodshed April 28th, 2017 9:31 pm

    Madeleine: There’s a distinct possibility God Only Knows will show up in some form or another.

Sorry, Comments Are Broken Right Now

You must be logged in to post a comment.