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The Beach Boys had already released 10 studio albums by the time Pet Sounds came along in 1966. Five of them had references to surfing or summer in their titles; one was a Christmas album. The band’s sound was dominated by the staccato guitar riffs and skiffle drums of 1960s surf rock. Pet Sounds was different — daring, complex and completely unexpected. “God Only Knows”, track one of side two, was the epitome of that ambition.
Wilson had stopped touring with the band after a panic attack in late 1964. Focusing instead on songwriting, he found himself listening to The Beatles’ Rubber Soul album the following year. “I wanted to try to top it. I felt competitive with The Beatles,” he later said. “The Beatles and The Beach Boys were chasing each other up a spiral.”
It was a crowded, chaotic, late-night process — but one that unlocked Pet Sounds for the rest of the band. “I didn’t understand it until I walked in to too many people in too small of a place playing ‘God Only Knows’ with everything leaking into the other mics and causing this wonderful sound to happen,” Beach Boys singer Mike Love said decades later. “The first time I really got what [Brian] was doing was ‘God Only Knows’,” echoed Brian’s brother and fellow Beach Boy Dennis Wilson.
Let us know your memories of ‘God Only Knows’ in the comments section below
The paperback edition of ‘The Life of a Song: The stories behind 100 of the world’s best-loved songs’, edited by David Cheal and Jan Dalley, is published by Chambers
Music credits: Capitol; Rodgers & Hammerstein/Concord; Cherry Red; Capitol Nashville; Jones/Tintoretto; Pockets
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