‘The Little Girl I Once Knew’: The Beach Boys song John Lennon called “the greatest”
John Lennon never minced his words. If a band or artist produced a piece that didn’t meet his high standards, he would share his opinion in no uncertain terms. Vice versa, Lennon would also happily shout it from the rooftops when he felt strongly about a particular composition for the right reasons.
No act was off limits when it came to criticism courtesy of Lennon’s scathing tongue, least of all his own band. The late musician harboured many regrets about a whole host of their material despite their back catalogue being widely recognised as the most impressive in musical history. For example, although Abbey Road is accepted to be a masterpiece, it was an album that Lennon later publically disowned.
However, one act that he did worship was The Beach Boys. Although the Californian group had direct creative competition throughout their careers with the Fab Four, they had strong mutual respect. The affinity between the two bands never turned sour, with Lennon and Paul McCartney essentially working as unpaid public ambassadors for The Beach Boys. During interviews, they expressed their adoration for Brian Wilson’s genius whenever possible. Moreover, McCartney has repeatedly stated that he believes The Beach Boys’ ‘God Only Knows’ is the greatest song ever written.
Following the release of Pet Sounds, The Beatles famously tried to outdo their Californians on their next record with Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. It was a friendly contest; they would have never strived to such previously unseen heights without one another. Conversely, in 2004, Wilson told Paste how Rubber Soul shaped his band: “Rubber Soul blew my mind. I liked the way it all went together, the way it was all one thing. It was a challenge to me to do something similar. That made me want to make Pet Sounds, I didn’t want to do the same kind of music, but on the same level.”
In 1965, before the release of Pet Sounds, Lennon was already a paid-up member of The Beach Boys fan club. Following the release of ‘The Little Girl I Once Knew’, Lennon provided a glowing review of the single for Melody Maker. He wrote: “This is the greatest! Turn it up, turn it right up. It’s GOT to be a hit. It’s the greatest record I’ve heard for weeks. It’s fantastic. I hope it will be a hit. It’s all Brian Wilson. He just uses the voices as instruments. He never tours or anything.”
Lennon continued: “He just sits at home thinking up fantastic arrangements out of his head. Doesn’t even read music. You keep waiting for the fabulous breaks. Great arrangement. It goes on and on with all different things. I hope it’s a hit so I can hear it all the time.”
Despite Lennon’s endorsement of the track in the Melody Maker, ‘The Little Girl I Once Knew’ failed to become a hit record for The Beach Boys. At this time, Lennon’s opinion held colossal weight, and few individuals’ voices could swing popular culture like his, but it proved not enough to fire ‘The Little Girl I Once Knew’ up to the top of the charts. The standalone single was the lowest charting release from The Beach Boys in almost three years and only just sneaked into the top 20 of the Billboard Chart in the United States.
Although it’s an impressive track with the artistic quality required to become a hit, ‘The Little Girl I Once Knew’ features moments of silence that led radio stations to shun the song to prevent dead air. Nevertheless, Wilson was undeterred by the single’s commercial failure and stayed true to its avant-garde principles on the band’s next release, Pet Sounds. Wilson never deliberately chased hit records or radio plays. Instead, he cared solely about artistic fulfilment, making him an inimitable force in music
