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It would be nice if they released one. But until then, I made one for myself...

1. One for the Boys
2. They Can't Take that Away from Me
3. Oxygen to the Brain
4. City Blues
5. She Says that She Needs Me
6. Can't Wait Too Long
7. Live Let Live
8. Baby Let Your Hair Grow Long
9. I Got Plenty of Nuttin
10. Lay Down Burden
11. Wonderful
12. Song for Childeren
13. Surf's Up
14. Midnight's Another Day
15. The Waltz
16. There's So Many
17. Sunshine
18. Rio Grande
19. Southern California
20. Love and Mercy (IJWMFTT)

Argee with you on this but esp 6) Can't Wait Too Long, 3) Oxygen To The Brain, 11)Wonderful (But which one?), 13) Surf's Up, 14) Midnight Another Day. Cheers ;D

"The Waltz"?  Really?  One of things I love about these lists is that they are always sooooo different.  Quite a tribute I think to Brian's unique genius.

I didn't know that Brian had another version of Wonderful. As a solo artist. I was thinking of it going from Wonderful to Surfs Up, just like on BWPS.

I LOVE that song! My favorite on that album by far. I also love the bridge to Make a Wish.

Forgot this post had the word solo in it oops!! :)

The IJWMFTT version and the BWPS version.

We did this recently, i think.

http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,9347.0.html (http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,9347.0.html)

I love these lists. Gives me ideas for playlists and such.

Even though the a cappella intros are wearing out their welcome for me, I think 'One for the Boys' would be a perfect intro to a best of album.

Also love the inclusion of 'Sunshine' - that outro is one of the finest of Brian's solo career....very smile-esque.

Try listening to IJWMFTT a little more closely, especially between tracks 7 and 9.  ::)


Shame it's 100% a Joe Thomas construct.  ;D

NOOOOOOOooooo...!  One of my least fave BW tracks. So un-Brian* in its stilted, stop-start arrangement, and nothing like his best vocal delivery.

* I realise that I'd hereby risk setting myself in a Geffen/Young style conflict, were I Brian's label manager...

The problem with a Brian Best Of is that his albums have had a few different sounds, if you know what I mean.

Baby Let Your Hair Grow Long has such a jarring and clunky production and rhythm that it would stick out like a sore thumb following pretty much ANY song in brian's catalogue.

One For the Boys is a song I don't like, the graceless way the stack of Brians smothers the melody lines would put non-Brian fans off listening any further.

I would like to see a 2CD rarities/unreleased set though, including the best of the Sweet Insanity and Usher sessions. And a studio version of the First Time. The Roxy version is amazing, spare, touching, ruined only by Mertens' designer-bearded sax ejaculating all over it like an 80s session man standing under a streetlight at night in the rain while a yuppie gets rejected by his stuck-up fiancee.

Good points – I'd love a studio version with vocal of This Is Not Love. Far as I know there isn't one about though I'd be delighted to be proven wrong

Thank you for that glorious image, sir.

Yikes! Did I say finest outro of his solo career :o?? I think I forgot about many songs on TLOS.

Eh, even if it is Thomas construct, it's still a wonderful outro....though its credibility is diminished a lot in my book now :-\

...and lifted from Elton John's "Love Lies Bleeding", too - it's fun though.

What's a really interesting tracklisting is doing the "best of the beach boys' solo" I think I posted it on the Gen. Music/80 minute compilation, let me dig it up

Best of a Beach Boy (GH comp)
1. River Song
2. Love and Mercy (IIWMFTT version)
3. PT Cruiser
4. Moonshine
5. Rockin' All Over the World
6. Melt Away
7. I Write the Songs
8. One Good Reason
9. Your Imagination
10. It's Not Too Late
11. What You Do to Me
12. Cool Head Warm Heart
13. What Love Can Do
14. Let's Visit to Heaven Tonight
15. California (recorded back before Endless Harmony)
16. Time (DW)
17. Heaven
18. Desert Drive
19. Love Remember Me
20. Just Like Me and You

BTW, this was before Al's newest solo album came out, thus why none of those tracks were included, and really I still don't have that album, shame on me! It'd prolly be a totally different list today if I really thought about it.

Even though Paul Mertens is a monster musician, I agree that is indeed a glorious image !  :-D

Don't forget the Paley sessions!


BTW, some good live rarities would be great from stuff he performed around the PS tour....When he was "taking request" from the Blueboard, there were some awesome songs performed:
-Busy Doin' Nothin
-Melt Away
-Forever
-You're So Good To Me
-The Night was So Young

In more recent concerts around TLOS tour he performed other great "rarities":
-Salt Lake City
-Girl Don't Tell Me
-I'd Love Just Once to See You
-She Knows Me to Well
-When I Grow Up

Oh, yeah, I forgot about that. I own it, but its been on a shelf for a while.

Problem with a "Best of Brian Wilson solo" idea is that in some cases he does have some great unreleased tunes as a solo artist. I can't see anything from GIOMH or much from Imagination making any sane programmer's list, but only AGD would agree with me there.

Brian Wilson is one of a rare bunch of solo artists whose work demands not just a mere "greatest hits" but a true compilation of the best of the man's work. I would vote to keep the Beach Boys' stuff separate because that's been compiled so many times and the Good Vibrations box set tells a good enough story.

A Brian box set is a much better proposition than a mere "greatest hits". His solo career does have enough of a breadth to yield a serviceable box set, although you'd definitely need to pile on some unreleased stuff, if not to fill gaps, then definitely to tell the complete story, in which case we'd have a box set covering recordings made as early as 1972, when Brian was really beginning to make much of what was basically "solo" music. Thing is, we'd be getting into actual released stuff probably on the second disc or so of this box set, since there could be a full 75 minutes of stuff from 1972-85 on a disc. Then of course, the cream from the official albums and more unreleased stuff.

Perhaps we could settle for a disc of every BW (solo) single (A and B-side)...remastered.