"Can't Wait Too Long" is an unfinished song written by Brian Wilson

Brian Wilson

Brian Douglas Wilson is an American musician, best known as the leader and chief songwriter of the group The Beach Boys. Within the band, Wilson played bass and keyboards, also providing part-time lead vocals and, more often, backing vocals, harmonizing in falsetto with the group...

 for the American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 rock band The Beach Boys

The Beach Boys

The Beach Boys are an American rock band, formed in 1961 in Hawthorne, California. The group was initially composed of brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Managed by the Wilsons' father Murry, The Beach Boys signed to Capitol Records in 1962...

. The song dates from 1967–68, but was only officially released in September 1990 via Capitol Records

Capitol Records

Capitol Records is a major United States based record label, formerly located in Los Angeles, but operating in New York City as part of Capitol Music Group. Its former headquarters building, the Capitol Tower, is a major landmark near the corner of Hollywood and Vine...

.

Music and lyrics

The track consists of an elaborate collection of vocal and instrumental tracks comparable to the group's earlier hit "Good Vibrations

Good Vibrations

"Good Vibrations" is a song by American rock band The Beach Boys. Composed and produced by Brian Wilson, the song's lyrics were written by Wilson and Mike Love....

". It includes a main melody line played instrumentally without sung lyrics, plus several sections of chorus and a vocal middle section. There are very few lyrics. A lead vocal track can faintly be heard, although no mixes of this version featuring the lead vocal exist. The title phrase is sung several dozen times, sometime alternating with "been away too long". Elsewhere is a simple couplet: "I miss you darlin' / I miss you so hard".

Towards the end of the master outtake, there is a bass riff that had been labeled for years as an edit piece that is part of the "Heroes and Villains

Heroes and Villains

"Heroes and Villains" is a song by the American rock band The Beach Boys, co-written by the group's leader Brian Wilson and lyricist Van Dyke Parks. Originally intended by Wilson to be the centerpiece of the ambitious but shelved album Smile, a re-recorded version of the song was released on Smiley...

" suite—consult the Smile

Smile (The Beach Boys album)

Smile is a previously unreleased album by The Beach Boys recorded throughout 1966 and 1967. The project was intended by its creator Brian Wilson as the follow-up to Pet Sounds, but was never completed in its original form...

bootleg album, Unsurpassed Masters Vol. 17.

Releases

The song was eventually released in an unfinished form in September 1990, as a bonus track on a CD reissue compiling two Beach Boys albums onto one disc—Smiley Smile

Smiley Smile

Smiley Smile is the twelfth studio album by The Beach Boys, issued in 1967. Released in the place of the much-touted Smile, Smiley Smile is widely considered to be under-produced, and it was received with indifference and confusion upon its unveiling...

/Wild Honey

Wild Honey (album)

-Singles:* "Wild Honey" b/w "Wind Chimes" , 23 October 1967 US #31; UK #29* "Darlin'" b/w "Here Today" , 18 December 1967 US #19; UK #11....

. A shorter form of the song was also released in June 1993 on the group's 5-disc anthology, Good Vibrations: Thirty Years of The Beach Boys

Good Vibrations: Thirty Years of The Beach Boys

Good Vibrations: Thirty Years of The Beach Boys is a 1993 boxed set released by Capitol Records which collects tracks spanning The Beach Boys' entire career to that point on four CDs. A fifth disc contains mostly studio session tracks, complete vocal and instrumental tracks, and rare live...

. On the latter version, we hear Brian instructing brother Carl

Carl Wilson

Carl Dean Wilson was an American rock and roll singer and guitarist, best known as a founding member, lead guitarist and sometime lead vocalist of The Beach Boys...

 on some other lyrics which were never recorded.

In May 2001, a 51 second a cappella

A cappella

A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...

 version of the song was issued on disc two of the Beach Boys rarities compilation album, Hawthorne, CA

Hawthorne, CA (album)

Hawthorne, CA, subtitled Birthplace of a Musical Legacy, is the second anthology collection by The Beach Boys and released through Capitol Records...

.

Solo version

An excerpt of "Can't Wait Too Long" appears on the Brian Wilson album That Lucky Old Sun

That Lucky Old Sun (album)

That Lucky Old Sun is the eighth studio album by Brian Wilson, released on CD and LP on September 2, 2008 by Capitol Records. Originally commissioned by the Southbank Centre for its 2007 opening season, the work was debuted in a series of concerts at the Royal Festival Hall in London, England...

released on Capitol Records

Capitol Records

Capitol Records is a major United States based record label, formerly located in Los Angeles, but operating in New York City as part of Capitol Music Group. Its former headquarters building, the Capitol Tower, is a major landmark near the corner of Hollywood and Vine...

, the Beach Boys' old record label, on 19 August 2008.