Forever No. 1: The Beach Boys, ‘Help Me, Rhonda'
What a difference an 'h' makes. When 'Help Me, Ronda' was originally featured on The Beach Boys Today! in early 1965, the band didn't think too much of the shuffling love song with the repetitive hook; you can tell by how little care they took to normalize the volume levels, which inexplicably jump around in the song's last two choruses. But leader Brian Wilson believed in the song's potential, and after the band re-recorded it or single release (and for inclusion on the band's second 1965 album, Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!)) as 'Help Me, Rhonda,' it became the latest in a stunning streak of smashes for the family-and-friends quintet from Southern California.
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In fact, by early 1965, The Beach Boys was one of the only American bands still holding its own against the pop-rock raiders from overseas. The British Invasion was in full swing, and The Beatles alone had topped the Hot 100 six times in 1964. In between No. 1s four and five for the Fab Four that year came the Boys' eternal teen anthem 'I Get Around' and the group had two additional top 10 hits by the end of '64: the wistful 'When I Grow Up (To Be a Man)' (No. 9) and the the ebullient 'Dance, Dance, Dance' (No. 8). Both of those were included on The Beach Boys Today! at the top of 1965, and the set also spawned a third single in a cover of Bobby Freeman's 'Do You Wanna Dance?,' which just missed the top 10 (No. 12) that April.
As the Beach Boys were still enjoying their run of fun-and-sun early hits, Brian Wilson was beginning to stretch out both as a songwriter and a producer. 'I Get Around' was backed by 'Don't Worry Baby,' Wilson's first real attempt to outdo his idol Phil Spector, with impossibly dreamy production and harmonies and a gorgeous rising verse melody that somehow elevated into an even-higher-flying chorus. The flip-side to 'Dance, Dance, Dance' was 'Please Let Me Wonder,' another Spectorian love song with strikingly fragile verses and a near choir-like refrain. And perhaps most notably, Today! included the lovely but disquieting 'She Knows Me Too Well,' Wilson's first real lyrical examination of his own romantic insecurities and failings. All of these would ultimately point the way to the artistic leap forward the band would take on 1966's Pet Sounds, the band's intensely personal and overwhelmingly lush masterwork which disappointed commercially, but made them critics' darlings for the first time.
But they weren't there yet. In mid-'65, they were still fighting to maintain their place in an increasingly crowded pop-rock landscape — and, not having reached the Hot 100's top five since 'I Get Around' nearly a full year earlier, they needed a no-doubter to lead off Summer Days. So Brian Wilson dug back in on the song he'd relegated to deep-cut status on the album before. 'Ronda' was much more in line with the group's earlier, simpler hits than the more lyrically and musically complex fare Wilson was starting to explore, but he was right that the song had real potential: It was a clever number that basically managed to be both a breakup ballad and an upbeat love song at once, with a chorus so relentless that you could hear it once and remember it for the rest of your life. It just needed a little extra maintenance.
In truth, Brian did a lot more on the re-recording of 'Help Me, Ronda' than add an 'h' to her name and keep his finger steadier on the volume controls. He also clipped the intro, so it began right with its 'Well, since she put me down…' intro, dropping you right into the middle of the song's narrative. He tightened the tempo a little, and added some 'bow-bow-bow-bow' backing vocals to tie together the 'help-help me, Rhonda' pleas of the chorus. He added some extra piano and guitar to give the song's instrumental bridge a little extra zip. And perhaps most importantly, he laid an extra falsetto backing 'Help me, Rhonda, yeah!' on top of the chorus climax to make it stand out a little better from the rest of the refrain. They're all small additions, but you don't realize how much difference they make until you go back to the Today! original and wonder why the whole thing sounds so empty and lifeless by comparison.
But while Brian Wilson allowed the song to soar, 'Rhonda' was anchored by a less-celebrated Beach Boy: Al Jardine. A high school friend of Brian's, Jardine had mostly served as a glue guy in the band to that point and had never sung lead on one of their songs, much less a single A-side. But Brian was intent on giving his buddy a spotlight moment, and decided Jardine would take the reins for 'Rhonda.' It was a good match: While the Wilsons' voices drifted towards the ethereal and sentimental, and Mike Love's had a more muscular, occasionally snide edge to it, Al Jardine's voice had both a sturdiness and an unassuming everyman quality to it. He was the Beach Boy best equipped to sell a relatable song like 'Rhonda.'
And while 'Rhonda' was a less musically and lyrically ambitious song than others Wilson was attempting contemporaneously, there is still a bit of trickiness to it. It's a lyric that mourns a romantic split with one girl while attempting to simultaneously ask a new girl to ease his pain — and the vocal matches the shift; Jardine's singing is frenzied and pained and in the first half of his verses and smooth and composed in the second. From a less likable or compelling vocalist, the whole thing could've very easily come off like a cheap come-on, like he doesn't actually give a damn about either girl. But Jardine manages to sound sincere, like he actually is going through it and is genuinely in need of the help that only the titular female can provide. When he begs on the chorus for Rhonda to 'get 'er outta my heart!' — after a couple dozen shorter pleas from the rest of the Boys — you really hope she succeeds in doing so.
With its new arrangement and new title, 'Rhonda' did indeed prove the no-doubter that the Beach Boys were hoping for to re-establish their pop supremacy in '65. The song debuted on the Hot 100 on April 17 at No. 80, and seven weeks later, it replaced — who else — The Beatles' 'Ticket to Ride' to become the band's second No. 1 hit, lasting two weeks on top before being replaced by the other dominant American pop group of the era: The Supremes, with 'Back in My Arms Again.' The Beatles would, of course, be heard from again just a few months later with a 'Help!' No. 1 of their own — and in between them in June, the Four Tops reigned with 'I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch).' (Draw your own conclusions about a generational cry for additional assistance amidst the turmoil of the mid-'60s if you so desire.)
'Help Me, Rhonda' would mark something of the end of an era for The Beach Boys and Brian Wilson, as it was their last major pop hit before the group started rapidly scaling up its ambitions. Even 'California Girls,' the group's universally accessible No. 3-peaking follow-up to 'Rhonda' — which, wouldn't you know it, got stuck behind The Beatles' 'Help!' on the Hot 100 — came affixed with a cinematic instrumental intro and a vocal outro in-the-round that no other pop group of the time would have dared attempt. By 1966, the group was pushing pop music into the future at a rate that would ultimately prove uncomfortable for both the public and for the Beach Boys themselves — though it would culminate in one more all-time classic pop single before it all fell apart.
And 'Help Me, Rhonda' stands alone in all of pop history in at least one respect: It remains the lone Billboard Hot 100 representation for all Rhondas worldwide. No other song (or artist) with that name — outside of a No. 22-peaking Johnny Rivers cover of the song in 1975, featuring Brian on backing vocals — has ever reached the chart since its 1958 introduction. (No 'Ronda's either.)
Tomorrow, we look at the final of the Beach Boys' three Brian Wilson-led No. 1s: the forever singular 'Good Vibrations.'
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