Brian Wilson's best, worst, most famous, and highest charting solo songs

[GoogaMooga]

Okay, let's do them...

Brian Wilson solo:

Best: "The Spirit of Rock and Roll" (Dylan version)
Worst: "He Couldn't Get His Poor Old Body to Move" (B-side of "Love and Mercy" single)
Most famous: "Love and Mercy"
Highest charting: "Caroline, No" - Brian Wilson - Peaked at #32 on 4.30.1966

Only one Brian Wilson solo song has cracked the Billboard Hot 100

[BeachBoysCovers]

In terms of UK singles charts:

Wonderful (BWPS) at 29
Good Vibrations (BWPS) at 30
What I Really Want For Christmas at 66
God Only Knows (BBC Music version) at 20 (* not sure this counts but the charts listed it as Brian Wilson & Various Artists so....)

[Lonely Summer]

(Quoting Herman Cain) "I don't have facts to back this up" but I believe Brian has had a few showings on the Adult Contemporary chart. Your Imagination might have charted there. I think at least one song from BW88 showed up at the bottom of Billboard's Rock Tracks chart.
I have heard Your Imagination on in store muzak, and Dear Santa by the Wilsons.

[Needleinthehay]

According to wikipedia
Love And Mercy: 40 on US Rock according to his discography wiki page, but according to the Love and Mercy single page it says it failed to chart...?
Your Imagination: 20 on Adult Contemporary
Deck The Halls: 8 on AC (Wow surprised....in 2005)
What I Really Want for Christmas: 29 on AC

[Rocker]

Best: "The Spirit of Rock and Roll" (Dylan version)

I don't think that one was ever released.

[GoogaMooga]

Best: "The Spirit of Rock and Roll" (Dylan version)

I don't think that one was ever released.

It's on one of the two Sweet Insanity versions floating about. The other version is on the Hallmark CD. The song was first introduced in the 25th anniversary gig in Hawaii, which I have on DVD.

[Rocker]

Best: "The Spirit of Rock and Roll" (Dylan version)

I don't think that one was ever released.

It's on one of the two Sweet Insanity versions floating about. The other version is on the Hallmark CD. The song was first introduced in the 25th anniversary gig in Hawaii, which I have on DVD.

Yes, but only the version on "Songs from here & back" was ever released. The others are bootlegs. The 25th anniversary show featured them miming to Brian's recording, but was never available afterwards.

[HeyJude]

The 25th Anniversary version of "Spirit..." was a mostly mimed performance using a new variation of the '86 Usher version with additional backing vocals pre-recorded by Mike, Bruce, and Glen Campbell (this is all recounted in excruciating detail in the Usher diaries book) on top of the backing vocals already recorded by Brian, Bill Champlin, and Jason Scheff (as I recall).

While no DVD has ever been officially released of that show, one could argue the song did technically get an official release on old Laserdisc (and probably VHS?) releases of the 25th show in Japan.

[hideyotsuburaya]

the BEST solo years single easily is MELT AWAY (b/w he couldn't get his poor old body to move)

[Magic Transistor Radio]

Was Live Let Live released as a single?

[hideyotsuburaya]

Melt Away single flip-side was not He Could'nt.....Move, it was BEING WITH THE ONE YOU LOVE.  Pardon me

[HeyJude]

While how Brian has fared on various charts is, I suppose, of some interest from a history/trivia perspective, his solo career has pretty much always existed in an era/age where ("Kokomo" aside), neither the collective nor individual BBs are really relevant as far as "singles" go.

And in more recent years you could argue that there almost aren't "singles" released from albums anymore, and when a song is pulled and put up on YouTube and sold on Amazon/iTunes and streamed, etc., it doesn't see much if any action on the singles charts.

It's worth looking at best and worst from a subjective fan point of view. But my answer to the question of "What has been Brian's highest charting single?" would be "He's never had even a minor hit, and has usually not even charted, so it kinda doesn't matter."

Again, much like any sort of trivia based on weird curios and exceptions, it might be a bit interesting to know that he cracked the AC charts 30 years ago one time or something. But the singles charts stopped being a thing worth talking about when it came to the Beach Boys some time in the 80s, and I've never referred to anything Brian has done as a "hit", as in a "hit single."

A separate sort of subset of argument could be, I guess, what songs *should have* been picked as singles, or what songs *could have* been hits. But the answer to the latter is for the most part "none." The quality of his material is of course an entirely different subject.

But the only relevancy (and action) the band collectively or individually has had for the last 30+ years has been on the album charts (and even then, the action has been quite sporadic).

[CenturyDeprived]

Melt Away single flip-side was not He Could'nt.....Move, it was BEING WITH THE ONE YOU LOVE.  Pardon me

I'd argue those are his 2 very best released solo songs, bar none. I love those songs more than pretty much anything he's released from his solo catalog. To have them together on a single, that's a pretty darn underrated release IMHO.

 It bugs me especially how forgotten BWTOYL is. Well worth rediscovery.

[hideyotsuburaya]

"I wonder why...nothing ever seems to go my way".........."But when I hear you talkin' I feel my heart unlockin"

......and my words just melt away


talk about a Pet Sounds major contender

[Lonely Summer]

Melt Away single flip-side was not He Could'nt.....Move, it was BEING WITH THE ONE YOU LOVE.  Pardon me

I'd argue those are his 2 very best released solo songs, bar none. I love those songs more than pretty much anything he's released from his solo catalog. To have them together on a single, that's a pretty darn underrated release IMHO.

 It bugs me especially how forgotten BWTOYL is. Well worth rediscovery.

And thanks to a great friend at a local record store, I was able to get a cassette single of those two songs - never did see the vinyl version. I played that tape every day for weeks, or months.

[CenturyDeprived]

Melt Away single flip-side was not He Could'nt.....Move, it was BEING WITH THE ONE YOU LOVE.  Pardon me

I'd argue those are his 2 very best released solo songs, bar none. I love those songs more than pretty much anything he's released from his solo catalog. To have them together on a single, that's a pretty darn underrated release IMHO.

 It bugs me especially how forgotten BWTOYL is. Well worth rediscovery.

And thanks to a great friend at a local record store, I was able to get a cassette single of those two songs - never did see the vinyl version. I played that tape every day for weeks, or months.

Very cool. Two great sides of Brian's music... a heartfelt slower ballad, and an uptempo love song. Both very different but yet complementary. Both of those songs truly deserve to be better known.

[Lonely Summer]

Melt Away single flip-side was not He Could'nt.....Move, it was BEING WITH THE ONE YOU LOVE.  Pardon me

I'd argue those are his 2 very best released solo songs, bar none. I love those songs more than pretty much anything he's released from his solo catalog. To have them together on a single, that's a pretty darn underrated release IMHO.

 It bugs me especially how forgotten BWTOYL is. Well worth rediscovery.

And thanks to a great friend at a local record store, I was able to get a cassette single of those two songs - never did see the vinyl version. I played that tape every day for weeks, or months.

Very cool. Two great sides of Brian's music... a heartfelt slower ballad, and an uptempo love song. Both very different but yet complementary. Both of those songs truly deserve to be better known.

Absolutely. When Brian started touring after Imagination, I was disappointed he didn't include more of his solo stuff in the shows. Now I've given up hope that they will ever do those songs. People just want the old Beach Boys songs.