Guest Post: Lynn’s Six Favourite Beach Boys Songs

In a new series of sorts, I’m inviting some of my favourite writers from the internet to list for WWL their favourite six songs by an artist they really admire. Our first entry in the series comes from Lynn Roberts, who founded the UK’s definitive folk music website, For Folk’s Sake. Lynn used to call me her friend until I challenged her to choose only six songs from the Beach Boys back-catalogue for this post. Now I consider myself lucky if she acknowledges my existence at all. Nah, not really. She’s lovely. You can listen while you read, with Lynn’s selections on Spotify here.

Choosing just six Beach Boys songs when they are probably your favourite band in the world ever — and one with 28 studio albums — is quite tricky. Nigh-on impossible in fact. But I’ve finally whittled it down, here I present you with six of the very best bits of music ever recorded.

I Can Hear Music (from the album 20/20, 1969)

‘I Can Hear Music’ was written by Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich and Phil Spektor, and first performed by the Ronnettes (of ‘Be My Baby’ fame). With the lyric “I can hear music/Sweet sweet music/Whenever you touch me baby/Whenever you’re near”, the Beach Boys version sounds like the music you would hear, should you be soppy enough to be moved to hearing lovely things by the presence of a swoonsome boy or girl. It’s sung by the middle Wilson brother, Carl. She & Him recently did a decent cover, released as a B-Side to ‘In The Sun’, but it’s nothing on this version.

Please Let Me Wonder (released as the B-Side of ‘Do You Wanna Dance’, 1965)

An earlier song that doesn’t get enough plays, ‘Please Let Me Wonder’ is a Brian Wilson/Mike Love collaboration, sung by Brian. Had Love, all twinkly eyes and jazz hands*, got lead vocal the song could have been cheesy, even throwaway, but Brian’s gloomy vocals make it heartbreaking.

Don’t Worry Baby (released as a single and on Shut Down Volume 2, 1964)

‘Don’t Worry Baby’ is a Brian Wilson composition sung in the falsetto that he adopted in the band’s early years. Brian said he wrote it to emulate the song ‘Be My Baby’ by the Ronettes, which was his favourite song. I think this is better.

Feel Flows (from the album Surf’s Up, 1971)

When Brian’s health deteriorated, Carl took over much of the songwriting and ‘Feel Flows’ is one of his earliest compositions. It features some rather spectacular jazz flute, and the softly psychedelic atmosphere seems like an accurate sonic portrayal of the sensitive — and drug-using — Wilson brothers at the time.

God Only Knows (from the album Pet Sounds, 1966)

A pretty obvious inclusion, this one, but as the most perfect love song ever written, I just couldn’t leave it out. Written by Brian and sung by Carl, its incredibly tender lyrics keep to the right side of the paper-thin line dividing “so lovely I want to cry” and “makes me want to vomit in my own shoe”.

Cuddle Up (from the album Carl & The Passions, 1972)

Brian Wilson, Carl Wilson and Mike Love are widely considered to be the Beach Boys’ songwriters, but youngest Wilson brother Dennis started penning songs in the group’s later years. The band’s rebel, Dennis’s rugged vocals contrast beautifully with the simple love songs he wrote. I had a terrible time deciding between this song and ‘Only With You’, from the album Holland, so please also listen to that. And check out his recently re-released solo album Pacific Ocean Blue.

Lynn Roberts is the founder and editor of For Folk’s Sake, where I moonlight as a regular columnist and resident film expert. She owns seventeen or so Beach Boys albums, and is regularly seen debating with Mike Love apologists.

*In the Beach Boys documentary Endless Harmony, a deluded Mike Love, who is the Wilsons’ cousin, explains that what people love about the band is that they were upbeat, and that the positivity all came from him. I hate Mike Love.