My Beach Boys Top 20 Countdown
The Beach Boys in my opinion are one of the most misunderstood bands in all of pop music. A lot of people these days just think they are a one note band who only sang about summer, surfing and beach girls. In reality The Beach Boys are one of the greatest acts in the history of pop music and form the holy trinity of 60s Rock 'N Roll along with The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. That said, before the Beatles and The Rolling Stones came along as part of the British Invasion in 1964 the Beach Boys were pretty one note with a few exceptions (such as In My Room.) Yet after the Beatles arrived The Beach Boys (or really Brian Wilson) stepped up their game and for the next few years the Beach Boys got better and better as they tried to keep up with The Beatles, who seemingly kept re-writing the rules of pop music every few months. The Beach Boys would hit their peak both commercially and artistically with the Good Vibrations single at the end of 1966 and for a brief moment they were ahead of The Beatles. Then Sgt. Pepper dropped 6 months later and Brian felt overwhelmed with the Smile project and the Beach Boys (aka Brian) gave up the fight for pop music supremacy and they slowly faded away from the pop charts.
Yet the music The Beach Boys recorded between 1967-1973 is extremely underrated. This era is a treasure trove of forgotten pop music from the late 60s/early 70s that is ripe for rediscovery. It's also the era where Carl Wilson emerges as the band's de facto leader and in my opinion Carl was the second best songwriter in the group and their best singer period. Carl could reach heavenly highs in a falsetto (Surf's Up) as well as gritty blue eyed soul too (Wild Honey). After the Endless Summer greatest hits in 1974 though Mike Love took control of the band and had them revert back to not just their pre Pet Sounds era but back to their earliest pre British Invasion incarnation. It's at this point I lost interest in The Beach Boys with one exception which made the list below. This list leaves out their earliest material which, while cute for what it is, is certainly not my favorite era. The list really starts in 1964 after The Beatles arrive and I have also cherry picked some songs from 1967-1971 as well. I have well known hits throughout but also many songs you probably don't know or remember. Like I always preference this list is by no means definitive but I am hoping that through this list you will discover just how much more depth and artistry there is to The Beach Boys and why for a few years they were the only real rivals to The Beatles during the 60s.
20. This Whole World
1970's Sunflower is a wonderful little album featuring such gems like Add Music to Your Day and Forever, the latter of which is usually declared the best song Dennis Wilson ever wrote for the group (and it was used in the wedding episode of Full House.) That said my favorite song off Sunflower has always been This Whole World. At 2 minutes This Whole World is short but sweet and it packs in a lot of hooks during its short duration. If it had been released in 1965 this would have been a top 10 hit for The Beach Boys but by 1970 rock critics and pop music fans had moved on. Their loss but you're gain.
19. Feel Flows
This Carl Wilson song is characteristic of how much he pushed the Beach Boys into new sonic directions during the late 60s/early 70s after Brian slowly ceded from the group. It has such great atmospheric production and experimentation. The way the music flows in and out of the speakers like waves in the ocean is a brilliant touch. It also features a great sax solo and a great distorted guitar solo which you don't expect from The Beach Boys. In some ways this song has a very jazzy quality to it the way the song keeps going off into different directions but yet always comes back to where it started.
18. Surf's Up
Written initially during the Smile sessions, Surf's Up finally saw release when The Beach Boys made it the title track to their 1971 album which is easily my favorite album by them after Pet Sounds (Feel Flows is also featured on that album and I have 2 more songs from it on my list to come.) Despite it's title this does not sound anything like past hits such as Surfin' Safari and Surfing U.S.A. Instead it is an elegant but extremely atmospheric piece of music that feels like a mini symphony due it sounding like it has 3 separate movements. I remember my friend Emily telling me she had heard this song on a college radio station and loved it and I also remember playing it for a friend of Cory and Emily's who is also a musician and he really liked it too. It's really another masterpiece by Brian that confirmed why classical composers, such as Leonard Bernstein, saw Brian as more of a true music composer and genius than a pop singer. This song also features some of the best Carl Wilson vocals on tape as well.
17. Kokomo
OK I get it! This song isn't cool and it's definitely the type of song that defines the Mike Love years of the group but what can I say I still love it anyway. Also, most of the people who complain about this song are typically guys who don't like most 80s pop because most girls I've met all seem to love this song. To me this is another case of guys arguing what's artistic and what's not based on silly commercial reasons while girls just enjoy it for what it is and don't make a big to do about it either. I tell you sometimes listening to music with girls is a lot easier than it is with straight guys lol. There's a reason Kokomo went # 1 and remains one of their most beloved songs to this day. It also reminds me of one of my all time favorite T.V. shows Happy Endings, where you hear the song play during an indoor beach party they have at the end of one episode. Also LOVE that Sax!
16. Girl Don't Tell Me
One of the first songs that saw Carl Wilson emerge as a credible songwriter for the group. This song sounds very 1965, which means it sounds influenced by the jangly folk/pop of the Byrds, who I love so I love this as well. As I keep saying Carl was the group's secret weapon. He was kind of the George Harrison to Brian's Lennon & McCartney.
15. I Know There's An Answer
One of many great deep cuts off the Pet Sounds album. Like the rest of Pet Sounds it's a brilliantly produced and arranged pop song that sounds symphonic in scope and detail. So many different instruments and harmonies are layered on top of one another with different melodies and hooks interlocking throughout. It's really quit breathtaking and again show's just how amazingly talented Brian really was because he pretty much arranged and produced this entire song himself. Brian truly was without peer back then. Lyrically it has the universal message of trying to discover who you are and why you matter as a person. Brian felt like an outsider and for the next several decades outsiders from all walks of life would fall deeply in love with the Beach Boys due to songs like I Know There's An Answer.
14. I Just Wasn't Made For These Times
Now here's another example of how Brian was both a genius and gave voice to those felt like they didn't fit into mainstream culture. It's a pop song that sounds classical in execution, particularly the Baroque period with the harpsichord. That chorus where they sing "Sometimes I feel very sad....I guess I just wasn't made for these times" can still hit me in the gut. As a gay man I definitely felt the same way throughout most of my life but the message again is universal enough that many other people I know also deeply relate to the message of this song. The song was also brilliantly used in an episode of Mad Men where Roger's character takes acid for the first time at a dinner party and this song is playing in the background. Here Mad Men flipped the context so instead of the youth feeling isolated it now speaks to the older generation, who very quickly found themselves out of touch with the rising counter-culture and hippie generation.
13. I Get Around
On the surface this feels like most early Beach Boys songs since it is about being young, hip and at the beach. At the same time this also feels like the band's first response to The Beatles because the song just feels tighter, stronger and more melodically interesting than what came before. In fact, audiences noticed too because this became the group's first # 1 hit. The Beatles may have taken over pop music 1964 but The Beach Boys were not going down without a fight. I Get Around represents the moment Brian Wilson steps up his game to compete with the British Invasion and the beginning of The Beach Boys most fertile period both commercially and artistically.
12. All Summer Long
As I said in my last post my love for this song comes from how it played over the closing credits of my favorite episode of The Simpsons growing up called Summer at 4 & half feet. It's an episode that revolves around Lisa discovering she actually doesn't have any real friends at school and tries to make new friends on the family's summer vacation. It's an episode that connected with me deeply when I first saw it in 5th grade and this song connects me back to that episode. Still as my friend Emily also pointed out the this song has strong lyrical appeal in the way that it has a sharp eye for detail such as the line "Remember when you spilled coke all over your blouse." It's lines like this that make the song feel more real than it might have otherwise.
11. Long Promised Road
My favorite Carl Wilson song and another winner off The Surf's Up album from 1971. Long Promised Road does not sound like a traditional Beach Boys song at all but that's part of its appeal. Like the rest of the album I adore the atmospheric production. I also love the different musical instruments throughout from the sparkly synth at one part to the distorted guitar/keyboard solo later. It's a very transportive song that I find myself returning to over and over again.
10. The Warmth of the Sun
The vocal harmonies on this song are so beautiful it gives me goosebumps. Say what you want but nobody can harmonize like The Beach Boys could. They were in a whole different class when it came to vocals and this is one of their most jaw dropping vocal performances period.
9. Don't Worry Baby
This is just a really great pop ballad with wonderful harmonies and production that was later sampled by Garbage in their 1998 single Push It. Beach Boy ballads were really just a showcase for the group's stunning harmonies and this is one of their best. I also like the guitar solo here a lot. Simple but effective.
8. Wild Honey
This underrated gem off the 1967 album of the same name features an instantly memorable use of the Theremin instrument (which had also been used effectively in Good Vibrations.) It grabs your attention right from the start and thanks to Cark's impassionate vocal performance it never lets go of your attention either. Here Carl proved what a great Blue Eyed Soul singer he truly was as his gritty vocal performance is very much outside the norm for the Beach Boys but impressive nonetheless. Man these guys could really sing!
7. Help Me Rhonda
Definitely the second version of Help Me Rhonda, which improved on the original version and ended up becoming another big hit for The Beach Boys as a result. This shows the Beach Boys at full flight as Brian kept pushing them to be better and better to compete with the Beatles. The solo here also shows how much more sophisticated the group had gotten by this point with their music and that sophistication would only increase for the next 2 years.
6. She's Not the Little Girl I Used to Know
The last song released in 1965 before the rollout for Pet Sounds began. This song again shows how far Brian had come in just a few short years. The way he arranges and produced this song was groundbreaking for the time, especially the moments of silence used throughout which many radio stations feared would cause listeners to flip the station. Yet those moments of silence are vital to the song because they help increase the thrill and rush of the song itself when it comes back from those short pauses. The swirling carnival keyboard used throughout is used to even more dramatic effect than it was on California Girls and adds a wonderful sense of urgency but fun to the song. Between the instruments, vocal harmonies and moments of silence this song has a wonderful build to it that gives me the "feels" every time it approaches the end and those swirling carnival keyboards go into overdrive.
5. California Girls
Brian has said that while Pet Sounds is his best album California Girls is his favorite song and I can hear why. That intro was completely groundbreaking and gutsy for 1965. It starts with a melody not attached the main song itself which is just not how pop music was done back then. If anything it sounds like the first movement to a symphony that sets the stage before the main melody arrives. Here we see the brilliance of Brian as both a songwriter and arranger hitting its peak. After that lovely intro we finally hear that wonderful keyboard riff that has since become absolutely iconic. While lyrically the song seems to still deal with fun in the sun and cute girls imagery that we come to expect from The Beach Boys it feels like more than that within this song. As a Gay man who is not attracted to women sexually I still find the message of California Girls very alluring because it's about more than cute girls. It's about the idea of paradise that the Beach Boys themselves had built up over the years and reached its conclusion here. It was a paradise where the sun never sets and you are always young and in love. It's a paradise that we know doesn't truly exist in this life but we still yearn for it anyway and California Girls captures that yearning perfectly. By the end of the song you feel like even if that paradise doesn't really exist The Beach Boys have somehow given you a taste of it anyway if only for a brief a moment. The fantasy this song is selling would prove to be powerfully influential to the point that Katy Perry based her entire Teenage Dream album around the fantasy built by California Girls alone. California Girls feels like one of the only times where both Brian Wilson and Mike Love got what they wanted and as a result it remains one of their best beloved and most timeless song no matter which version of the Beach Boys you subscribe to.
4. Darlin'
Despite being a top 20 hit in 1967 nobody remembers this song which is a shame because it's one of the best pop songs they ever did. Another Carl Wilson sung winner, Darlin' has a very memorable piano riff, nice use of horns and another great vocal performance from Carl. It was upon discovering this song around 2011 that made me realize that maybe there was more to the Beach Boys besides that Greatest Hits CD I had. This is the song that made me want to get Greatest Hits Vol. 2 which when hearing it made me start to really fall for The Beach Boys. This song was my gateway into their lost years when they were no longer popular but were still producing top notch material.
3. Till I Die
Brian wrote this song when his depression was at its worst. He was on the beach by himself at night reflecting on how in the grand scheme of things humans are but a tiny blip on the universal radar and that we will be dead and gone long before the earth itself. It's an incredibly depressing thought but it's turned into something beautiful and grand on Till I Die. The way Brian can reach down and pull his pain out for the whole word to hear and still make it sound absolutely gorgeous and stunning is a testament to his brilliance. Till I Die is both emotionally moving and comforting and it's one of my favorite songs Brian ever wrote.
2. Good Vibrations
Good Vibrations represents that brief moment at the end of 1966 when The Beach Boys jumped ahead of the Beatles in the arms race for pop music supremacy. With Good Vibrations Brian Wilson declared he wanted to make a pocket symphony where all his ideas could be contained in the span of one pop song. Brian spent months in the studio tinkering with Good Vibrations, which at the time ended up being the most expensive single ever produced. It was worth every penny. Good Vibrations is a watershed moment in pop music where commercialism and bold experimentation came together to create an experience that had never been heard before in the context of pop music. Years of Good Vibrations being so well known sometimes hides the fact that this is a really weird song that takes a lot of unusual detours and features various clashing instruments and production. Listen to it again with fresh ears and image just how groundbreaking this was for 1966. I can only imagine the reactions from people when they first heard this coming out of their car radios back then and being blown away by it. Unfortunately, Brian's perfectionism and Bipolar got the best of him not long after the release of Good Vibrations but for one shining moment the Beach Boys had shown everyone, including the Beatles, what pop music could be and what the future could sound like. That future arrived in 1967 and while the Beach Boys didn't get to enjoy the fruits of their labor that year Good Vibrations still stands as one the greatest and most monumental songs in pop music history, especially for the 60s.
1. Wouldn't It Be Nice
Brian Wilson is the master of emotion within the context of pop music. Songs like Till I Die and In My Room convey a deep sense of sadness and isolation that can still crush you decades later. Yet Brian could also capture moments of joy and happiness like few others can as well. Wouldn't It Be Nice captures the feelings of euphoric happiness and love better than almost any other song I can think of. Wouldn't It Be Nice is the sound of everything we want out of life: love, happiness, contentment, connection and being with the one you love for all eternity. This is how we all want love to feel like which is why the song still resonates with listeners decades after Pet Sounds came out in 1966. Brian's songwriting here taps into a very deep and real human need for connection and love. People have been connecting with Wouldn't It Be Nice as a result ever since and will continue to do so as long as people still listen to and care about pop music.
