because he knew it would work." Love developed the "Good night [...] " couplet during the studio sessions. Like other tracks on the album, "Wouldn't It Be Nice" contains a prominent technical flaw in the final mix, in which an audible tape splice is heard between the chorus and Love's vocal entrance in the bridge. The error was mended on the track's 1996 stereo mix created by Mark Linett for The Pet Sounds Sessions. Linett explained, "The abrupt edit [...] was an edit that took an older mix with Mike Love singing and put it in the bridge. I didn't figure that out for years!" The 1996 stereo mix features Wilson singing the bridge because the tape with Love's singing was not available. Release "Wouldn't It Be Nice" was first released on May 14, 1966 as the opening track on Pet Sounds. In his self-described "unbiased" review of the album for Record Mirror, Norman Jopling said that the song "starts off prettily, and develops into a complicated ponderous beat number taken at a reasonably fast tempo. It slows down half-way through but brightens up again, and the lyric is pleasant. But not exceptional Beach Boys." Billboards terse review of the album, published uncharacteristically late, highlighted the track for its "strong single potential". Cash Box described the song as a "rhythmic, medium-paced, danceable sincere pledge of devotion." On July 18, the song was issued in the U.S. with the B-side "God Only Knows" as the third single from Pet Sounds. In other countries, "Wouldn't It Be Nice" was issued as the B-side of "God Only Knows". It debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at number 26 on August 20, and it peaked at number 8 on September 17. Also in September, it peaked at number four in Canada and number two in Australia. In October, it peaked at number 12 in New Zealand. Live performances The Beach Boys adopted the song into their live performances, typically with Al Jardine handling the lead vocal originally sung by Wilson. They did not initially incorporate the tempo change into the live arrangement, and instead skipped that section entirely, as can be heard on the 1968 recording released on the live album Live in London (1970). In April 1971, a version recorded Live At Big Sur was released as a single. By the early 1970s, the group had begun playing the whole song in