Marcella (song)

The song branched from an earlier track entitled "I Just Got My Pay" (recorded during sessions for Sunflower) and an even earlier outtake recording called "All Dressed Up for School" from 1965. These early versions appear on the box set Good Vibrations: Thirty Years of The Beach Boys and the 2001 remastered edition of Little Deuce Coupe/All Summer Long, respectively.

According to Brian Wilson, "It represents one of the first times we tried to emulate The Rolling Stones. In my mind, it was dedicated to the Stones, but I never told them that. It's one of the rockingest songs I ever wrote."[2] According to Jack Rieley, the tune was named for a woman who was working as Wilson's masseuse at the time. He explains:

About that time Brian began talking in detail about a massage parlour in West Hollywood and one of the girls who worked there. At first he spoke only of going there for massages. Some days later he began going on and on about the masseuse who he said was turning him on.… The only thing I could think of to quell Brian's fixation was to channel it. Thus it was I who suggested Marcella as the title for a tune Brian had been working on. With my promise to write the Marcella lyric, he jumped into the project with immense enthusiasm. Brian, Carl, Desper and I worked hard on that record. Dennis helped too. The zither was a cool idea but it was mixed poorly. My lyric was minor... efficient at best.[3]

The vocal arrangement is characteristic for a Brian Wilson song, featuring various syncopated lines following each other, reminiscent of a post-processed tape delay effect. Wilson later said that one of the lead guitar parts was inspired by George Harrison's playing.[4]

"Marcella" was recorded on February 17, 1972 during the same session for "Out in the Country" and "Body Talk" at Brian Wilson's home studio.[5]