The Beach Boys song that inspired Margo Guryan to make pop music
Many modern pop songs pass us by. They’re almost designed to do so – mainstream radio stations and TikTok pages are overrun with catchy choruses and set structures that blend into each other with ease, but it wasn’t always that way. When the genre was still in its infancy, recording pioneers The Beach Boys delivered one of the most affecting pop songs of all time with ‘God Only Knows’.
The magical 1966 track subverted pop music conventions with dense, layered instrumentation and distinctive Beach Boys harmonies, resulting in one of the most comforting songs of all time. It remains one of the most masterful songs in pop and one of the greatest songs of all time, even taking the title of Paul McCartney’s favourite song.
The track was so unique that it convinced a young Margo Guryan to turn away from her jazz roots to pop. Born to two pianists, Guryan studied classical and jazz at Boston University, finding inspiration in the likes of Max Roach, Miles Davis and Bill Evans. She was a born and bred jazz musician who never even considered the appeal of pop music until she stumbled across ‘God Only Knows’.
When her friend and fellow jazz pianist Dave Frishberg recommended that she took a chance on the song, she “freaked”, as she once recalled in Mean Street magazine. “I thought it was just gorgeous,” she enthused, “I bought the record and played it a million times, then sat down and wrote ‘Think of Rain.’ That’s really how I started writing that way. I just decided it was better than what was happening in jazz.”
Taking a step back from her devotion to jazz, Guryan delved into sunshiney baroque pop and penned ‘Think of Rain’ and the now-iconic ‘Sunday Morning’. The latter was recorded by Spanky and Our Gang and Oliver, providing them both with a hit.
In 1968, she released a full-length pop outing with Take a Picture. Infused with her jazz background and the dreamy pop influence of the Beach Boys, the record remains beloved over five decades later. A revived interest in her soft form of pop has led to multiple re-releases and compilations.
Her shift to pop earned her an enduring place in the hearts of music fans, but Guryan seemed unconcerned with popularity. Like Brian Wilson, she simply loved pop songwriting, “There are young people who seem to like the songs, and that’s all I ever wanted to be: a songwriter,” she concluded, “It’s turning around for me. I guess I’m a late bloomer, you know? Real late!”
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