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While "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit" were, of course, the standout singles from Jefferson Airplane's platinum-selling 1967 album Surrealistic Pillow, they weren't the only songs on the record that would stand the test of time.
The sweet, sincere ballad "Today" was never released as a single but did get plenty of airplay on college radio stations. Today, it remains one of Jefferson Airplane's most beloved tunes, in addition to a popular wedding song. From the lyrics, one would probably assume that "Today" was written for the object of someone's affection...but according to Marty Balin, he actually wrote the song in an attempt to meet Tony Bennett.
"He was recording in the next studio," Balin explained in the liner notes for the 2003 Surrealistic Pillow liner notes. "I admired him, so I thought I'd write him a song. I never got to meet him, but the Airplane ended up doing it."
Though Bennett's influence on "Today" was indirect, another music legend contributed to the song (and the entire album) in a more concrete manner. Credited as the "musical and spiritual adviser" on Surrealistic Pillow, Jerry Garcia reportedly had a major presence during the recording sessions for the album and played guitar on a few tracks. One of those was "Today," as Garcia explained in a 1967 interview.
“On 'Today' I played the high guitar line, and I played on 'Plastic Fantastic,' and I played on 'Comin’ Back To Me,'" Garcia said.
"I’m fond of the songs that Grace [Slick] is in: I like '[White] Rabbit' a lot, I like 'Someone to Love' — the original on the album is more or less my arrangement, I kind of rewrote it," he continued. "I’ve always liked the song she used to do with the Great Society, but it didn’t have — the chord changes weren’t very interesting.”
Garcia went on to explain that "the Airplane thought it would be helpful to have somebody there who could communicate to their producer…And since they all knew me and I understood their music and understood pretty much what they were doing at the time, it would be far-out. I went down there and hung out and was a sort of go-between between them and their producer. I helped out with some arrangements and stuff — I just hung out.”
As Slick recalled in her autobiography, Somebody to Love: A Rock-and-Roll Memoir, Garcia even came up with the album's name.
"When Marty Balin asked Jerry Garcia what he thought of the studio tapes, Jerry said, 'Sounds like a surrealistic pillow,'" she wrote. "It's one of those names that leaves the interpretation up to the beholder."
Years later, Rolling Stone ranked Surrealistic Pillow at #471 on a list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, stating, "Grace Slick’s vocal showcases — 'White Rabbit' and 'Somebody to Love' — made Surrealistic Pillow a commercial smash during San Francisco’s Summer of Love, and Marty Balin’s spectral 'Today' is still the greatest ballad of that city’s glory days."
