Happy Birthday Brian Wilson! A list to celebrate...

Since yesterday was the 64th birthday of Brian Wilson (who is obviously my favorite singer/songwriter/person), I thought I'd celebrate with a pointless list. This one took some thought to complete since there were so many brilliant options to choose from. But without further adieu, here are:

Tom's Personal Top 10 Favorite Beach Boys Songs

1. "God Only Knows" - If there's a more beautiful song in the world, I have yet to hear it. Carl's gorgeous vocal and Brian's gorgeous everything else (including the song, melody, harmonies, arrangement, etc., etc.) make for the most gorgeous sound recording in existence, as far as I'm concerned.
2. "Good Vibrations" - Brian's "pocket symphony." One of the most innovative, enduring, and popular songs ever recorded, and with good reason.
3. "Wouldn't It Be Nice" - There are two songs listed above this one on this list, but "Wouldn't It Be Nice" often strikes me as the perfect pop song. A melody to die for, surrounded by the most perfect arrangement and harmonies anybody could ask for. There are at least five different versions of this song on the Pet Sounds box set, a cappella, instrumental, outtakes, alternate versions, and everything, and every one of them is worth hearing to get a full picture of the construction of one of the most perfect songs ever recorded.
4. "Surfer Girl" - You could count on one hand the harmonies ever recorded that are more beautiful than this song (one or two of them might be on this list, in fact). Brian might have lifted the harmonic structure from the Four Freshmen, but they never achieved anything this brilliant.
5. "Surf's Up" - One of the few Beach Boys songs that can said to be a work of lyrical genius (thanks to the wonderful Van Dyke Parks), "Surf's Up" has little, if anything, in common with similarly titled works in the Beach Boys' catalog, other than that it's breathtakingly gorgeous. If you can find the version Brian recorded for Leonard Bernstein (just Brian and a piano), you won't be sorry.
6. "Don't Worry Baby" - Brian Wilson has stated many times that his favorite song ever is "Be My Baby" by the Ronettes (and more importantly, by Phil Spector). What better way to pay tribute to your favorite song than by simultaneously ripping it off and making it much better?
7. "Forever" - This one might have made the list due to sentimental value; when I saw Brian live, he sang this song, dedicating it to his deceased brother (who also happened to be the writer of the song), Dennis. Still though, it's a beautiful song about a beautiful feeling, with a wonderful melody, based around a simple chord progression. There wasn't a dry eye in the house when Brian played this song, and there probably wasn't when Dennis was alive to sing it either.
8. "Heroes and Villains" - Van Dyke Parks makes the list again as co-conspirator, writing the lyrics to this quaint tale of Old West swashbuckling. It's as close as the Beach Boys ever came to the avant-garde, touching simultaneously on decades-old Americana and the burgeoning psychedelic movement, not to mention some chromatic harmonies straight out of the Charles Ives playbook.
9. "California Girls" - Perhaps the quintessential Beach Boys song. Another brilliant melody from the height of the Beach Boys' popularity, this song was the rare culmination of everything that made them popular and everything that made them great artists at the same time. Many a person has tried to listen to this song without singing along. All have failed.
10. "All Summer Long" - This song was the real beginning of Brian's creative peak. For the first time, the Beach Boys made a clean break with both the Four Freshmen's harmonies and Chuck Berry's songs, and it resulted in this, a brilliant predecessor and foreshadower of what was to come 22 months (and five albums, with the pressure Capitol records put on them) later on Pet Sounds.


Runners up (because this list was hard to narrow down):

"Help Me Rhonda"
"Cabinessence"
"'Til I Die"
"Fun, Fun, Fun"
"Sail On, Sailor"