| I Wanna Pick You Up | |
| Artist: | the Beach Boys |
| Album: | The Beach Boys Love You |
| Released: | April 11, 1977 |
| Recorded: | October 13, 1976 |
| Studio: | Brother Studios, Santa Monica, California |
| Length: | 2:39 |
| Label: | Brother/Reprise |
| Producer: | Brian Wilson |
"I Wanna Pick You Up" is a song by American rock band the Beach Boys from their 1977 album The Beach Boys Love You. It was written by Brian Wilson and features lead vocals from Dennis Wilson.
According to Brian Wilson, "I Wanna Pick You Up" demonstrates how he had "worked specifically at getting the lyrics right" for the Love You album.[1] He explained that the song is about "a man who considers this chick a baby. [...] she's too big to pick up, of course. But he wants to; he wants to pretend she's small like a baby: He really wants to pick her up!"[2]
At the end of the song, the singer instructs the listener to "pat, pat, pat her on her butt, butt / She's gone to sleep, be quiet". Biographer Peter Ames Carlin felt that the song concerns an "object of desire" that is "either a disturbingly sexualized infant or a dismayingly infantilized adult."[3]
"I Wanna Pick You Up" was tracked on October 13, 1976, at Brother Studios.[4] Dennis Wilson sings the majority of the lead vocals on the song with brother Brian joining him on the second half of the verses and the chorus.[5]
