feel:] 'Bom-buh-bum-bah, bom-buh-bum-bah...' It keeps going one scale tone up ['bah'], then down like a walking bass." The next section modulates down a minor third, to D major, and contains the return of a melodic figure from the intro. After this section, the song repeats the end of the verse melody, but this time engages in a decrescendo and ritardando, a device that doesn't often appear in pop music, but does in classical music. At the end, the song returns to its original tempo and fades out. Asher commented, "I love the fact that the song has such a nice, bouncy feel to it. When we were writing, I was aware of the intricate rhythms that Brian had accomplished musically. There are changes in tempo and legato parts that make it very interesting." Recording Backing track Instrumental tracking for "Wouldn't It Be Nice" began at 7:00p.m. on January 22, 1966 at Gold Star Studios. Wilson produced the session with engineer Larry Levine. The calliope-like instrument heard in the opening bars is an electric 12-string guitar plugged directly into the recording console. Due to recording logistics, this created an unusual situation in which the player had to perform the instrument in the control room, away from the rest of the musicians, who could not hear his playing in the regular recording space. The exception was drummer Hal Blaine, who wore headphones and was tasked with signaling the other musicians to play on cue. All of the instruments were played live in a continuous take, with no overdubs. Much of the track's rhythmic accompaniment was provided by two accordions playing a shuffle beat in a manner similar to the band's "California Girls" (1965). Wilson recalled, "I had two accordion players playing at once, both playing the same thing and it just rang through the room, in the booth, and everyone was saying, 'What is that sound?'" During the second bridge, the players performed a technique known as a "triple bellow shake" to make the accordions sound like a violin. Some of the charts that Wilson handed to his musicians were written in different keys from each other. Session musician Lyle Ritz, who was playing in D, mistook the arrangement as an error, as he recalled: "[The] rest of the band was in another key. I knew that was wrong. So during a break, I looked at everybody else's music to see if