"I'm Waiting for the Day" is a song by the American rock band the Beach Boys from their 1966 album Pet Sounds. Written primarily by Brian Wilson, the lyrics describe a man who is "waiting for the day" when the woman he loves will be ready to commit to a relationship with him. Wilson, alongside co-author Mike Love, are the only Beach Boys who appear on the recording. Musically, the arrangement is characterized for its dynamic use of textures and word painting. Wilson produced the track in March 1966 with the aid of 17 studio musicians who variously played timpani, bongos, drums, flutes, English horn, electric guitar, two basses, strings, and an altered tack piano. Background and lyrics "I'm Waiting for the Day" was copyrighted by Wilson as a solo composition in February 1964. When the song was published on Pet Sounds, it was credited to Wilson and Mike Love, who revised eight words in Wilson's original lyric. Asked in 2014 about the song, Wilson said that "there really was no specific inspiration". The song is a simple love poem whose narrator wishes to offer his comfort and support to a girl who was abandoned by her former lover. The narrator feels that she is "the only one" for him, and that he holds the power to "set [her] broken heart free". However, the broken-hearted girl is reluctant to commit herself to another relationship, leading the narrator to pledge, "I'm waiting for the day when you can love again". Biographer Peter Ames Carlin summarizes the song as a "relatively hard-rocking" tune about "love's restorative power". Musicologist James Perone notes, It is one of the five (of 13) tracks on the LP that Wilson did not write in conjunction with lyricist Tony Asher. In his 2003 book about Pet Sounds, Charles Granata refers to "I'm Waiting for the Day" as a "a sensational reminder of the smart songs" Love had co-authored with Wilson on the 1965 album The Beach Boys Today!. Composition "I'm Waiting for the Day" has a verse-refrain structure and AAAB form. It is in the key of E major, and is one of only five tracks on Pet Sounds that does not modulate or waver into other keys. Although slower in the choruses, the verses contain the fastest tempos heard on the album (approximately 168 beats per minute). According to Granata, the song serves as another example of