they play the parts in staccato, rather than in full quarter notes. Wilson enjoyed the effect and incorporated the change. A string section was subsequently overdubbed onto take 20, marked as "best". The session ended at 4:30a.m. The three-track recording of the instrumental was bounced to one channel of an eight-track tape to allow room for further overdubs. Vocals The first round of vocal overdubs were recorded later that day at Columbia Studios. Brian sang the lead vocal at this juncture, after which he mixed rough edits of the song on March 13 and 22. These early mixes featured a discarded saxophone solo in its bridge and a different, a capella ending. The ending was a fuller arrangement that included the voices of Marilyn, her sister Diane, and Byrds producer Terry Melcher. In Carl's recollection, "[E]everybody got in on it. It was like 'Come on out here into the studio.' Brian would make up a little part. That was fun; we listened to it endlessly." On April 11, the band returned to Columbia to add further (and ultimately final) vocal overdubs. This time, Carl took on the lead. Dillon suggested that Brian may have changed his mind on the lead partly to address concerns over the large percentage of singing roles he was granting himself for the album. According to Carl, Brian later told him that "God Only Knows" was written for his voice: "He says it fits my beautiful spirit. I know I shouldn't be embarrassed by a compliment but..." Carl quoted the performance instructions he received from his brother: "Don't do anything with it. Just sing it real straight. No effort. Take a breath. Let it go easy." He had rarely sung lead on prior Beach Boys songs. The coda was ultimately scaled down to three lines sung by two voices, Brian and Johnston. One of Wilson's lines duplicated the part that had been played on French horn. Johnston recalled, "at the end of the session, Carl was really fried, and he went home.[...] there were just [me and Brian]. So in the fade, he's singing two of the three parts. He sang the top and the bottom part and I sang in the middle." Of Wilson's decision to pare down the vocals, "It works because it caused a perfect vocal-to-track balance, and it's not too top-heavy. It's brilliant—a fine example of 'less is more. The 1996 stereo