What does it say about Brian Wilson that, perhaps alone among recording artists, he made his creative breakthrough in a Christmas song? When the single “Little Saint Nick” was released in the fall of 1963 Wilson had already written and recorded the touchstone ballads “Surfer Girl” and “In My Room,” but the bulk of the Beach Boys output up to that point consisted of Four Freshman harmonies grafted entertainingly if sometimes uneasily onto Chuck Berry riffs and surf instrumentals. Something in the assignment—and I have no doubt it was an assignment from Capitol Records, with the cheerfully calculating assent of Mike Love, who wrote the lyrics—of making a seasonal record brought something new out in Wilson.
Here, unlike the earlier ditties merely about hot rods, the song itself fits together like an engine, harmonies meshing like gears: a perpetual motion machine of melody. Instead of merely describing a race or a ride, “Little Saint Nick” produces an actual sense of floating, of weightlessness (eggnog helps here). By exploiting the clichéd instrumentation expected of a Christmas tune, Wilson discovered the glittering sonics that would henceforth mark his work. Indeed, many of the best Beach Boys’s records that would follow in the next years can be considered secret Christmas songs: up-tempo numbers aspired to attain the drive and color of “Sleigh Ride,” while ballads plumbed the depths and complexities of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” And sleigh bells were a fitting percussion touch in any season.
What would have been a crass commercial move for another artist (likely including his lyricist) was a moment of discovery, a turning point for Brian Wilson. It was perhaps even a statement of intent. For the man who explicitly conceived of his records as gifts full of love and generosity and who would soon enough begin writing a teenage symphony to God, why not Christmas every day?
– Tom Fredrickson is the proprietor of the unparalleled music blog, Lost Wax Method.
