The six best songs by The Beach Boys, according to Elvis Costello
Punk’s DIY bulldozer tore asunder rock’s lofty pretensions and public-schooled gatekeeping by the end of the 1970s. It offered many budding artists a path to stardom that otherwise felt remote and intransigent during the days of Led Zeppelin’s stadium bombast and prog’s bloated wizardry. For years, Elvis Costello had been diligently playing the London and Liverpool live circuit before ever tasting fame, offering a mixture of folky pub rock with early bands Rusty and Flip City and still under his real name, Declan.
Yet, upon punk’s arrival, the slicker Elvis rename arrived along with straight jeans, chic glasses, and a tight, spiky new wave front that masked an already versed grasp of songcraft beneath the prickle of punk attitude. However, it didn’t take long for Costello to reveal where his heart truly lay.
Moving on from Stiff Records and the angry songwriting he’d established, in the 1980s he’d enter a new plane of commercial stature and enjoy a songwriting proximity with the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney and Burt Bacharach. Costello also holds a reputation for having an encyclopaedic knowledge of popular music as well as an exhaustive record collection. For a unique feature back in 2013, Vanity Fair granted Costello the chance to compile “500 albums essential to a happy life”, with each selection frequently accompanied by a standout track or two for essential listening.
“There are probably songs being composed right now that will eclipse every entry on this list in somebody’s heart or mind,” Costello acknowledged. “It is my experience that music is more like water than a rhinoceros. It doesn’t charge madly down one path. It runs away in every direction.”
Among his voluminous list, Californian pop legends The Beach Boys make a strong presence with six of their numbers selected for his coveted 500. Bypassing their previous ten LPs, Costello heads straight to their 1966 opus Pet Sounds and points to ‘Don’t Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)’ and ‘God Only Knows’ as his most loved from that record. They’re obvious choices, showcasing principal songwriter Brian Wilson’s lost fascinations with the studio’s sonic possibilities married with his rich songcraft and celestial vocal directions.
Costello’s following picks are curiously idiosyncratic. Smiley Smile‘s ‘Wonderful’ makes the feature as another Wilson gem wrapped in the album’s homespun lo-fi warmth and tacked editing assemblage. It’s a sharp, creative detour from Pet Sounds‘ rich production and the compromised result of the abandonment of the original Smile sessions. Then there is 1971’s Surf’s Up title track, an album finale track that spells The Beach Boys’ last, truly classic record, imbued with an aura of epilogue, despite their lumbering on for another 12 albums.
The final two picks have no involvement from Brian. Drummer Dennis Wilson pens and sings Carl and the Passions—”So Tough”‘s ‘Cuddle Up’, but its Carl Wilson’s ‘The Trader’ from Holland which stands as the last remaining jewel of The Beach Boys’ story, a dazzling pop number exploring America’s bloody ‘manifest destiny’ that segues into an irresistible groove of Moog bass lines and heavenly backing vocals.
While Costello’s Beach Boys list could perhaps do with at least one sunny surf number from their youth, the six collated flash enough of the layers of sophistication and innovations that made the group so enduring to this day.
Elvis Costello’s favourite The Beach Boys tracks:
- ‘Don’t Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)’
- ‘God Only Knows’
- ‘Wonderful’
- ‘Surf’s Up’
- ‘Cuddle Up’
- ‘The Trader’
