used were Gold Star ("Do You Wanna Dance?") and RCA Victor ("Dance, Dance, Dance"). Four songs were recorded in the previous year: "She Knows Me Too Well" and "Don't Hurt My Little Sister" (June), "When I Grow Up (To Be a Man)" (August), "Dance, Dance, Dance" (October), and the backing track for "Kiss Me, Baby" (December 16). Wilson had been employing the services of Phil Spector's session musicians (later known as "the Wrecking Crew") since the Surfer Girl sessions. He used them to a greater degree on Today!, with the number of studio musicians used for each track usually exceeding 11 players, while performance takes ran to the 30s. Dillon writes that the further takes "showed his studio skills were sharper than ever and [that he] was increasingly demanding of both the session musicians and the group." Wilson's 2016 memoir states that, following the airplane episode, he had endeavored to "take the things I learned from Phil Spector and use more instruments whenever I could. I doubled up on basses and tripled up on keyboards, which made everything sound bigger and deeper." The recording process typically involved recording an instrumental on two tracks of 3-track tape with one remaining track left for the first vocal overdub. This tape was then dubbed down to a second tape for an additional layer of vocal overdubs. Today! was ultimately mixed down to mono and was their first album not to be issued in stereo since Surfin' U.S.A. (1963). Select tracks from the album were later remixed for stereo on Beach Boys compilation albums. A complete stereo mix of Today! was first released in 2012. Contents Side one "Do You Wanna Dance?" "Do You Wanna Dance?" is a cover of the R&B song by Bobby Freeman, who had a top 10 hit with it in 1958. It is distinguished from the original through its lush orchestration, three-part vocal arrangement, and instrumental bridge key change. Dillon speculated that the rendition may have been inspired by the version by Del Shannon, who had recently recorded the song, although the Beach Boys' version bears a "closer resemblance" to an earlier version by Cliff Richard and the Shadows. It was the first song the group recorded at Gold Star, Spector's favorite studio, and their second song that employed a timpani. "Good to My Baby" "Good to My Baby" is about a man responding to criticisms regarding the way