“God Only Knows” (The Beach Boys)

Today’s classic song of the day may be the best song ever written. (Or maybe the second-best; I vacillate between this one and Jimmy Webb’s “Wichita Lineman,” which I’ll feature next week.) The song is “God Only Knows,” written by Brian Wilson with lyrics by Tony Asher. It was recorded by the Beach Boys and featured as the first track on side two of the legendary Pet Sounds album.

“God Only Knows” was released as the B-side of the “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” single in July of 1966. That A-side is also a remarkable song, peaking at #8 on the Billboard Hot 100. “God Only Knows” placed separately on the charts, reaching the #39 slot. Its lasting impact, however, is timeless.

Brian wrote “God Only Knows” with Tony Asher, who supplied almost all the lyrics to the songs on the Pet Sounds album. It’s about a lasting love but without being all moon in June mushy. In fact, the lyrics never flat out say “I love you;” instead, they start with sort of the opposite, as in “I may not always love you.” But, of course, it goes on from there.

I’ll flat out say it: Asher’s lyrics are damned near perfect, short and to the point. Here they are in their entirety:

I may not always love you
But long as there are stars above you
You never need to doubt it
I’ll make you so sure about it

If you should ever leave me
Well, life would still go on, believe me
The world could show nothing to me
So what good would living do me?

God only knows what I’d be without you

Musically, the song is harmonically sophisticated, written in the key of E but not really staying there. As proof, note that the chords in the verse go D/A – Bm – F#m – B7/A – E/B – A6/C# – E/B – F#9 – A – E/G# – F#m7 – E. Analyzing that, you’re looking at VII/IV – v – vi – V7/IV – I/V – IV6/VI – I/V – II9 – IV – I/III – iim7 – I — chords that don’t really fit within the stated key. At least it starts and ends in E, but you can’t really tell the home key during the trip from here to there. Brilliant, really, in the way it keeps the listeners on their toes.

Brian Wilson recorded the song over multiple sessions in March and April of 1966. He used more than twenty session musicians on a variety of what were then somewhat unconventional instruments for a pop recording, including French horn, clarinets, flutes, accordions, strings, harpsichord, upright bass, sleigh bells, and plastic orange juice bottles cut to different lengths for different tones. The musicians included most of the famed Wrecking Crew, including Larry Knechtel on harpsichord, Don Randi on piano (with strings muffled by tape), Carol Kaye on twelve-string electric guitar, Frank Morocco and Carl Fortina on dueling accordions, Jim Horn on flute and alto flute, Jay Migliori on clarinet, Ray Pohlman on electric bass, Lyle Ritz on upright bass, Hal Blaine on drums and sleigh bells, and Jim Gordon on those plastic juice bottles.

(The following clip documents the March 10, 1966, session at Western Recorders, recording the song’s instrumental tracks.)

Then there are the vocals. Brian’s brother Carl Wilson sang lead, supported by Brian, Bruce Johnston, Brian’s wife Marilyn and her sister Diane, and others. The heavenly vocal coda at the end was just two voices, Brian and Bruce; Brian sang the top and bottom parts while Bruce sang the middle.

By the way, that ending was originally more of an a cappella doo-wop kind of thing that I may actually prefer to the recorded version. You can hear it starting around 2:15 in the following clip.

“God Only Knows” is much praised as not only the best Beach Boys song, but one of the best songs ever, period. No less an eminence than Paul McCartney called it “the greatest song ever written.” When he got to sing the song with Brian Wilson at a 2002 gala, McCartney said:

“I was okay at the actual performance, I held it together. But at the rehearsal, at the soundcheck, I lost it, because it’s very emotional, this song, I find it… ‘Oh my god, I’m singing with Brian,’ it just got me, I couldn’t. So all it is, it’s little vibrations reaching your music, it’s only little vibrations, little words, and little things. There is this powerful effect, you know.”

McCartney isn’t alone in his praise for “God Only Knows.” Fellow composer Jimmy Webb said the song was “a spiritual part of Brian’s music. And Carl’s singing is pretty much at its pinnacle—as good as it ever got.” Music historian John Robert Greene wrote that it was “one of the most complex—and beautiful—songs in the annals of American popular music.” Pitchfork named it the best song of the 1960s, Popdose ranked it the best single of the past fifty years, and Consequence of Sound placed it as the number-one song on their list of the 100 Greatest Songs of All Time. Yeah, it’s that good.

My wife and I had the distinct pleasure of seeing Brian Wilson in concert in 2008. Brian is not what you would call a confident performer, but when he and his band started playing the opening notes to “God Only Knows,” the entire audience knew that something special was happening. It was truly a spiritual experience, one of the top concert moments of my entire life. The beauty of that song, performed by the guy who wrote it (and supported by a top-notch backing band), brought tears to my eyes and took my breath away. It’s something I treasure to this day.

To my ears, “God Only Knows” is both a perfect song and a perfect recording. It simply doesn’t get any better than this; the world is a better place for Brian Wilson and this song. God only knows what we’d do without it.