Take a Load Off Your Feet
"Take a Load Off Your Feet" is a song by the American rock band the Beach Boys from their 1971 album "Surf's Up". It was written by Al Jardine, Brian Wilson and Gary Winfrey. Background and recording. Gary Winfrey returned to California, after serving in the Air Force, in 1968. He and Al Jardine quickly rekindled a friendship that had begun back when both were in high school. Winfrey's wife Sandi was pregnant at the time, and her ankles were swollen. With the song "Hair" being popular at the time, somebody suggested  writing a similar song about ankles. That song turned into "Take a Load Off Your Feet". Brian Wilson would later add some lyrics and help with the melody. Conversely, Jardine said of the song in a 1976 interview, Release. According to band manager Jack Rieley, Jardine "demanded" the song be included on the "Surf's Up" album, while Jardine said that the song appeared at Rieley's insistence. Jardine explained, "It's cute, but come on ... for some reason Jack Rieley liked it too and said, 'It's got to be on the album. That's definitely an ecology song .' 'Ecology? A song about your feet?' It's personal ecology." Reception. Biographer Timothy White writes that the song is "a slice of social commentary about rundown bodies as well as sullied beaches, its droll sound effects succeeding where a more heavy-handed scolding would not have done."