Why fans couldn’t stand one of The Beach Boys’ biggest hits
The Beach Boys rode a successful wave in the 1960s, crafting a sound that reflected Californian summer culture and leading the vocal surf rock movement, which originated from instrumental surf rockers like Dick Dale.
The band, led by Brian Wilson and managed by his father, Murry, had their first hit with ‘Surfin’ U.S.A’, a rewritten version of Chuck Berry’s ‘Sweet Little Sixteen’. The single appeared on an album of the same name, which hit number two in the US charts, remaining on the chart for 78 weeks. The Beach Boys released a whopping fifteen studio albums in the 1960s, including the seminal 1966 record Pet Sounds. Setting out to create “the greatest rock album ever made” comprised of no filler tracks, Wilson composed the album almost entirely himself.
Pet Sounds was lauded for its innovative production, completely revolutionising the field. Furthermore, the album, which could not be replicated live, incorporated sounds never before associated with rock and roll, such as flute, French horn, Electro-Theremin and lush string sections. The album affirmed the band’s status as one of the most influential of all time, and they have since released 18 more studio albums and 61 compilations.
However, despite the band’s success, having such an extensive discography makes possessing a few terrible tracks inevitable. The Beach Boys released their most hated song in 1988, which is, strangely, one of their most popular. The song is ‘Kokomo’, taken from their album Still Cruisin’. The track also appears in the Tom Cruise movie Cocktail, directed by Roger Donaldson, which aided the track’s popularity. The band scored their first number one in 22 years with the hit, which details two lovers journeying to a dreamy island called Kokomo.
The track earned a Grammy nomination for ‘Best Song Written for Visual Media’ and a Golden Globe nomination for ‘Best Original Song’. The song has over 186million streams on Spotify, making it one of the band’s most played on the platform. Yet, critics unanimously agree that the track is one of the worst pieces of music the band have ever released, with plenty of die-hard fans in agreement.
Upon the release of ‘Kokomo’, Rolling Stone labelled it as setting “the pattern for the new, passion-free songs” and a “joyless ditty.” Furthermore, in 1998, Stereo called the track “insipid.” As the years have progressed, critics haven’t been kinder, frequently selecting the track as one of the worst of all time. But why do critics and fans of the band hate ‘Kokomo’ so much?
The derision that the track has received comes down to its sloppy writing (“Aruba, Jamaica, ooh I wanna take ya/ Bermuda, Bahama, come on pretty mama”) and bland melodies, sounding more like a poor imitation of The Beach Boys at their peak. ‘Kokomoto’ sounds distinctive of its time and does little to reach the same heights as hits such as ‘God Only Knows’ or ‘Good Vibrations’.
Moreover, it is evident that Wilson, responsible for the band’s brilliance, is absent on the track. According to Jim Keltner, who played the drums on the song, “it’s just sooo syrupy pop,” which put off listeners. He continued, “But while the critics killed it with their words, they couldn’t kill the ‘hitness’ of it. It’s just a bonafide hit record, that’s all there is to it.”
The divide between the song’s commercial success and its critical reception highlights a familiar tension in popular music. ‘Kokomo’ may lack the emotional depth and innovation that defined the band’s earlier work, but it taps into something far more immediate and accessible.
Its breezy escapism, simple structure and glossy production made it perfectly suited to late-1980s radio, even if that came at the expense of the complexity that once set The Beach Boys apart. For longtime fans, the track can feel like a dilution of everything the band once represented, especially given Brian Wilson’s limited involvement. Yet, for a broader audience, those very qualities made it appealing, offering an easy, feel-good anthem that required little investment beyond the surface.
In that sense, ‘Kokomo’ serves as a reminder that popularity and artistic merit do not always align, and that even the most critically revered acts are not immune to producing work that divides opinion so sharply.
Listen to the track below:
