Leon Theremin

First of all, it's still Mike Love's birthday. Here he is with a beard, in probably the best version of this song ever put together.



But wait a minute. That is not a theremin!

"In the 1960s its sound made its way into popular music, most notably in the Beach Boys' song Good Vibrations - though it is believed the group may have used a Theremin-like instrument to mimic the sound, rather than the Theremin itself."

So it would appear, but the video isn't definitive. They may have recorded a theremin, and used something else in performance. A theremin, of course, is that science fictiony sounding instrument that you don't actually touch: you play it by waving your hands in the air. But how much do you know about its inventor, Leon Theremin?

For instance, he came to America from the USSR to promote his instrument. RCA actually went into the business of manufacturing it. As for Theremin, "he stayed in the US for a while working on other projects, and engaging in industrial espionage... Demonstrating the theremin instrument was just a distraction, a Trojan Horse, as it were."

No kidding! Theremin is a fascinating character: musician, inventor, spy, political prisoner. Martin Vennard gives the details in Leon Theremin: The man and the music machine.

Whether or not the Beach Boys used a theremin, there is no question that its sound was instrumental in the development of electronic instruments, and that, no matter how you slice it, that sound is the sound of extraterrestrials.