“Perfect”: Five iconic musicians who call ‘God Only Knows’ the greatest song ever written
It’s the sound of summer, it’s the sound of love, and many would say it’s also the sound of the greatest song ever written. The Beach Boys’ classic ‘God Only Knows’ is a watermark in pop music. There is a before ‘God Only Knows’ and there is an after ‘God Only Knows’ with the masterpiece representing the moment that pop went baroque and stood firmly on the shoulders of all that had gone before, gazing ahead and forecasting the sonic-surfing future.
It would’ve had its own place in music history for its beauty alone, but beyond the majesty was the diegesis of a story: the moment pop culture truly usurped traditional art – novels, classical music, and so on – as the cultural comfort blanket that humans crave and are proud enough to realise that. This moment was even heralded by Leonard Bernstein, one of the fellows who was busy being usurped by pop at the very moment that he was praising it.
“For a long time now I’ve been fascinated by this strange and compelling scene called pop music,” Bernstein told CBS’ Inside Pop programme. “I say strange because it is unlike any scene I can think of in the history of all music,” he said, hinting at the modern renaissance that it represented.
He added: “This new music is much more primitive in its harmonic language. It relies more on the simple triad, the basic harmony of folk music. Never forget that this music employs a highly limited musical vocabulary; limited harmonically, rhythmically, and melodically. But within that restricted language, all these new adventures are simply extraordinary.”
With ‘God Only Knows’, Brian Wilson and his band seemed to escape the notion of these restrictions and pushed pop to new heights. As Wilson explained himself: “It’s not really in any one key. It’s a strange song. That’s just the way it was written. … It’s the only song I’ve ever written that’s not in a definite key, and I’ve written hundreds of songs.” This was melded even further as elements were layered by the technology on top of each other, creating three-dimensions of sound that practically put a halt to mono recording on the spot.
Thus, the moment it hit the radio, it wobbled every musician’s head in that era. It was a flawless piece of music—somehow pairing innovation and beauty in a manner where one elevated the exultancy of the other. In short, ‘God Only Knows’ is a song that shaped the second half of the 20th century and beyond. We can all be thankful for that because it is the sort of beautiful utopia where prettiness unrivalled revels in progress and stirs us all with the same simple loveliness as a sunny day.
But you shouldn’t just take our word for it; there are countless musicians who have also asserted its position as perhaps the paramount pop song in music history. We’ve collated these glowing views from some of the most iconic names in music below.
Musicians on ‘God Only Knows’ greatness:
Paul McCartney
Like the Colonel complimenting your chicken or Johnny Cash complimenting your quiff, getting the nod from Paul McCartney for your music is like Henry J Heinz saying you make a pretty good ketchup. He’s the best-selling artist in history, but the Beatle once decreed: “‘God Only Knows’ is one of the few songs that reduces me to tears every time I hear it. It’s really just a love song, but it’s brilliantly done. It shows the genius of Brian [Wilson]”.
He added: “I’ve actually performed it with him, and I’m afraid to say that during the soundcheck, I broke down. It was just too much to stand there singing this song that does my head in and to stand there singing it with Brian.” Not only did it pack an emotive punch for ‘Macca’, but upon release, it also inspired Sgt Pepper thanks to its stereo-sound wizardry. As Jackson Browne said with a smile, “Imagine a band influencing The Beatles!”
Following its release, the Fab Four saw the song and Pet Sounds in general as the standard-bearer for modern pop that they had to surpass. This competitiveness drove pop towards radical new heights.
Pete Townshend
The Who guitarist Pete Townshend is mostly noted for his iconoclastic criticism. “When you actually hear the backing tracks of The Beatles without their voices, they’re flippin’ lousy,” he once said. He’s also bashed Led Zeppelin, Kiss, and plenty of others. However, this makes his praise all the more notable, especially when he declares a song as a perfect work of art. “I love Brian [Wilson],” Townshend once said of The Beach Boys’ leader.
“There’s not many people I would say that about. I think he’s a truly, truly, truly great genius. I love him so much it’s just terrible – I find it hard to live with. ‘God Only Knows’ is simple and elegant and was stunning when it first appeared; it still sounds perfect,” he added. His assertion was that it delivered a succinct message to the counterculture movement: music wasn’t about selling records or merely hummable melodies, it was a force of its own.
The spiritual reckoning of ‘God Only Knows’ helped to turn The Who from a roaring rock ‘n’ roll band into the first true concept record group, channelling transcendentalism and matters of the soul.
Jimmy Webb
Jimmy Webb, the revered songwriter behind hits like ‘Wichita Lineman’ and ‘MacArthur Park’, has always been noted for a sense of classic depth both in his music and the literary motifs of the lyrics. However, he thought that he never came close to ‘God Only Knows’. Wilson always said that the song was about spirituality in an unbounded sense. The music matched that ethos.
As Webb explained: “[The song] represents the whole tradition of liturgical music that I feel is a spiritual part of Brian’s music. And Carl’s singing is pretty much at its pinnacle—as good as it ever got.” He is far from alone when it comes to composers recognising the traditionalist roots of this masterpiece. It is a measure of its influence that it is endlessly cited as the impetus for a lot of neo-classical work.
As many others have opined, Wilson wrote hymns more so than pop songs, and ‘God Only Knows’ may well be his most heavenly.
Christine McVie
Unlike many, the late Fleetwood Mac songbird Christine McVie was lucky enough to have a first-hand emotive connection with the classic track. In her younger years, she was in a relationship with Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson, and she heard this masterpiece in its most humble form. From then on, she was moved by its simple beauty, and she looked to emulate it with everything she did in music thereafter.
Recalling this on BBC Radio, she said: “Many years ago, I was going out with Dennis Wilson for a couple of years or so,” McVie shared. “I went on the road with him. I just adored Carl [Wilson]. I thought was the most wonderful man; he had the sweetest voice in the world, he sounded like an angel, and that was my favourite song.”
Tracks like ‘Songbird’ would soon pay homage to Wilson’s swooning homily, defining how the Beach Boys classic remained an inspiration throughout McVie’s life.
Bono
While the song sings of God in a figurative sense, almost emblematic of the exultant release music afforded Brian Wilson following his abusive childhood and subsequent struggles with drugs and depression, U2 frontman Bono took the notion rather literally. “The genius of his music is the joy that’s in it,” he said of the man even the cynical Lou Reed described as a “beautiful” and ingenious musician.
Bono concluded his religious praise by adding, “I know that Brian believes in angels. I do too. But you only have to listen to the string arrangement on ‘God Only Knows’ for fact and proof of angels.” The Irishman has drawn on it for inspiration endlessly, and it is a sign of the transcendent nature of the track that it has even informed his worldview.
Pop culture, at its best, becomes more than a work of art and enters our lives at large, informing the way we view the world. Few songs in history have done that quite as monumentally as this singular, promethean masterpiece.
