Did Brian Wilson Create “The Greatest Song Ever Written”

How the Beach Boys classic “God Only Knows” was created

In the list of great songs that Brian Wilson wrote for The Beach Boys, God Only Knows  has a special place. It is a quintessential Brian Wilson track. In just over 2’30” it has elements of Baroque phrasing, surprising chord changes, unusual instruments (including plastic cups) and the lush vocal harmonies that were a signature of the Beach Boys.

In the hands of a lesser composer, it would be a pretentious jumble. Brian Wilson, who died on June 11, and co-writer Tony Asher turned it into a deceptively simple, touching teen love song. It has become one of Wilson’s most played songs that Paul McCartney called “the greatest song ever written”. U2’s Bono famously commented that the string arrangement was "fact and proof of angels". Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees lamented, “My first thought was, 'Oh dear, I'm wasting my time, how can I ever compete with that?'”

Despite how easy God Only Knows is on the ear, it was an intense song to record. The core of the track was laid down in a Hollywood studio by 20 musicians. Wilson was known to be very particular about the sound he was looking for. It took more than 20 takes to get it just right. Many of the vocals were added later. Co-writer Asher remembers that Wilson "spent more time tweaking the instrumental part than we did writing the words!”

God Only Knows went on to become a major hit for the Beach Boys and has been covered by very many performers since then. One of the most spectacular versions has to be the one produced by BBC Music for the Children in Need charity, in 2014. It features Pharell Williams, Chris Martin, Kylie Minogue and Elton John, who famously said, “He was the biggest influence on my songwriting ever; he was a musical genius and revolutionary. He changed the goalposts when it came to writing songs and shaped music forever."

(Michael Leahy. Source: Genius, Wikipedia et al. Photo: Awais Butt / Avalon / picturealliance)