"River Song" is a song written by Dennis Wilson and his younger brother Carl Wilson. It served as the opening track for Dennis Wilson's 1977 debut solo album Pacific Ocean Blue. The song is Wilson's debut solo single after his 1970 collaboration with Daryl Dragon, "Sound of Free". "River Song" was released in Europe with the B-side being "Farewell My Friend". The single however, failed to chart. The track, as with the rest of the album, was credited as being produced by Dennis Wilson and his close friend Gregg Jakobson. Wilson sings the lead vocals on this and every other track on the album.
Recording
All the keyboards featured in the song were provided by Dennis Wilson. The opening piano part of the song had origins seven years earlier during recording sessions held in 1970. The piano riff represents the flowing of a river. In an interview, Wilson explained that he was "in the High Sierras walking by this river that was very small and it kept getting bigger and bigger",[2] and he explained that this is the purpose — to represent the river — of "the guitar sound on the track".[2] The music, according to Wilson, "came from the river".[2]
The Beach Boys version
The Beach Boys performed the song live in the early 1970s and had attempted to record the song, but their version was left unfinished.[citation needed] The band then used Dennis Wilson's solo version for their 1981 two-disc greatest hits collection, Ten Years of Harmony.
