In My Room


"In My Room" is a song written by Brian Wilson and Gary Usher for the American rock band the Beach Boys. It was released on their 1963 album Surfer Girl. It was also released as the B-side of the "Be True to Your School" single. The single peaked at number 23 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and was eventually inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999. "In My Room" was ranked number 212 on Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Composition

The song is written in the key of B major and features a flat VII A major chord.
Gary Usher explained that
Usher further describes that "Brian was always saying that his room was his whole world." Brian Wilson seconds this opinion: "I had a room, and I thought of it as my kingdom. And I wrote that song, very definitely, that you're not afraid when you're in your room. It's absolutely true."
In 1990, Wilson wrote,

Demo version and final release

The 1993 CD box set, Good Vibrations: Thirty Years of The Beach Boys, contains an early version of "In My Room" with a number of differences from the eventual official release. It is unclear if this fully developed demo was recorded the same day as the final version on July 16, 1963. The tune features six Beach Boys: both Al Jardine and David Marks are present. This was the last of eight charting songs to include Marks until nearly 50 years later, performing on 2012's That's Why God Made the Radio.
The demo begins with an intro that was later scrapped, and launches into the first verse with full group vocals, unlike the finished recording. There, as previously mentioned, the single brings in Brian Wilson's voice first, then his brother Carl Wilson and finally Dennis Wilson. Then the final version adds, in the title/hook, Al Jardine, and Mike Love's bass voicing which both join in to complete the vocal mix.
The Beach Boys also recorded a German version of the song under the title Ganz allein, with lyrics written by a former German girlfriend of Mike Love's. The German version was first released on the 1983 album Rarities, and later as a bonus track on the 1990 and 2001 CD re-releases of the Surfer Girl album.

Reception

Cash Box described it as "a tearful, oh-so-smooth ballad."

Charts

"In My Room" remained on the Billboard Hot 100 for 11 weeks, peaking at #23 in 1963. In the UPI weekly survey it was #17 nationally, upheld by its widespread success across the country wherever it was treated as an A-side:
  • #1 in Boston and Seattle
  • #2 San Francisco;
  • Top 10 Washington, D.C., Houston, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, Columbus.
Rolling Stone named it #212 on its list of greatest songs of all-time.

Recognition and later versions

  • David Crosby of The Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash admitted to being an admirer of the song, quoting In My Room' was the defining point for me. When I heard it, I thought 'I give up—I can't do that—I'll never be able to do that. He recorded it as a trio with Jimmy Webb and Carly Simon at the An All-Star Tribute to Brian Wilson concert in 2001.
  • A remake by Gary Usher's own band, Sagittarius from their album The Blue Marble, peaked at #86 in 1969.
  • Wilson Phillips included their version of the song as the closing track to their 2004 studio album California. This version includes vocals by Brian Wilson, the father of group members Carnie and Wendy Wilson.
  • Grant Lee Buffalo performed a cover of "In My Room" for "The One with the List", a season 2 episode of the American sitcom Friends in 1995. The song was included in the official soundtrack album of the show.
  • Tammy Wynette's last recording was "In My Room", a duet with Brian Wilson. It was featured as the last track on the album Tammy Wynette Remembered released in September 1998 on Asylum Records.
  • Jacob Collier's cover of "In My Room" was the title track to his debut album released in 2016.
  • Los Straitjackets released an instrumental version on May 1, 2020, in recognition of the Coronavirus pandemic.
  • Brian Wilson performed a solo piano version of this, his own song, on his album At My Piano in 2021.

    Personnel

Partial credits sourced from Craig Slowinski.