end", elaborating that "when the song returns to D Major, it must do so from B minor, which is kind of a static change, particularly when the next chord is a B minor with only a slight variation in the bass." The song ends with a final coda that features repeating vocal rounds—a centuries-old technique that was highly unusual for pop music of the era— with triplet fills played on a drum kit. Wilson's 2016 memoir states, "I liked all those old songs that used rounds, like 'Row, Row, Row Your Boat' and 'Frère Jacques'. I liked rounds because they made it seem like a song was something eternal." At its conclusion, Lambert writes, "we hear A major chords that want to provide harmonic stability, but as before, the chords and vocal lines surrounding them make us want to think otherwise." Recording Backing track Following several months of recording for the Pet Sounds album, instrumental tracking for "God Only Knows" began at 12:30a.m. on March 10, 1966, at the Studio 3 room of Western Studios, Hollywood, making it one of the last tracks to begin recording. The studio space was relatively small for the 20-some musicians that were hired for the session. Carl joined them on this occasion, playing 12-string electric guitar. As usual, Brian produced the session with engineer Chuck Britz. Among the distinguishing features of the arrangement is an echo-laden "clip-clop" percussion part, sleigh bells played on every beat, and a low-range melodic phrases played on flute during the latter sections of the song. A strip of masking tape was placed over the strings of a piano while the bottoms of two plastic orange juice bottles were used for percussion. Singer Danny Hutton was present at the session, as he recalled, "[Brian] would hear something wrong, and bam 'One more time.' I just sat there and didn't say a word. I had been in sessions where I thought to myself, they should do this and that. Not this time. I just shut up. What could I add?" Bruce Johnston, who joined the band a year earlier, later said that he "didn't realize just how great" Pet Sounds was going to be until he witnessed this session. A total of 22 takes were attempted for the song. The musicians struggled to play the instrumental break to Wilson's satisfaction. To address this issue, pianist Don Randi suggested to Wilson that