Beach Boys – Good Vibrations (Chords)
Very sad news last week that Lyle Ritz died at the age of 87. Ritz was a pioneer of jazz ukulele in the 50s, a member of the Ukulele Hall of Fame and, perhaps most famously, played the ukulele part for Tonight You Belong to Me in The Jerk.
Just as impressive is the other half of his career as a session bassist as part of the Wrecking Crew. He played on a string of massive hits most providing bass and ukulele on one of the greatest albums of all time: The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds. (At least he’s credited with ukulele on the album if you can hear it you’ve got better ears than me.)
If you’re interested in finding out more about them I recommend watching The Wrecking Crew documentary (it’s on Netflix and all good streaming services). Here’s a clip of Ritz talking about working with Brian Wilson.
I’ve written up two versions of Good Vibrations. Below is an easy version using just straightforward chords. And up top is a more difficult version with a bunch of trimmings.
Beach Boys – Good Vibrations (Easy Chords)
Suggested Strumming
I like to do soft down strums for the verses and other quiet bits (e.g. the “Gotta keep those…” section). Then use this pattern for everything else:
d – d – d u d u
In the tricky version of the chorus the strum is divided up. So on the F it’s:
G and A have an extra chord and go like this:
Here’s all that put together:
Twiddly Bits
Good Vibrations (Bass Tab)
Here’s a low-G tuned uke version of the bass part in the verse.
Thanks for this! I had no idea there was ukulele anywhere in Pet Sounds.
Just watched and enjoyed Love & Mercy, a Brian Wilson biopic; the Wrecking Crew bits are the best part of the movie.