The Smiley Smile Message Board

I know it's incredibly hard to pick one favorite song, but what would be yours? What is that ONE song that you couldn't do without?
I'd pick Good Vibrations.

that's a real hard one, and I wish I were the person to come up with something unique and funky for this thread, but no. God Only Knows is my favourite song by the Beach Boys.

drats, letsgo, that's pretty tough.

ummm, let it be Surf's Up original with Brian only. it's eighth wonder, I'll tell ya.

Surf's Up (TSS version)

or

We'll Run Away.

Tough one.  :-\

Let Him Run Wild. I think.

My favorite quality-wise is Surf's Up (TSS). The song I've listened to the most, though, is the stereo version of Wouldn't It Be Nice.

Break Away

I've been really into this one lately.
Beautiful tune!

Fig Plucker, easily.

Good Vibrations or Fun Fun Fun (both live versions!)

God Only Knows....my all time favorite song by anyone, ever

Easy. Don't Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder)

Great pick

I was just listening to this!

"Cool, Cool Water" or "Kiss Me Baby", most likely.

Johnny Carson










jk but seriously that song is amazing...

 Don t Worry Baby

God Only Knows.  Brian was operating on a higher level of existence when he composed that one.  In fact, my wife and I chose it as our wedding song.  After that...it's a battle between 'Til I Die and Cuddle Up.

Is listing dozens and dozens of songs tied for first place against the rules?

Surf's Up and All I Wanna Do

At the moment: Please Let Me Wonder

Yes!
Humor us, and pick just one!

It's like Brian fully matured and peaked there for me. Something about it, just how he layers the voices and instruments. It's all in the sound. Murry's lyrics are insightful into both himself and his son. I love everything Brian did in the sixties and early seventies for the most part, but this just seems to be some sort of catharsis for him. Funny enough Celebrate The News might be my second favorite Beach Boys song. I would put that pairing in any list of the best 45's ever.

Impossible, I do say!

River Song if you can count it as a BB song.

    The Little Girl I Once Knew

Time To Get Alone

God Only Knows.

Surf's Up, without a single second thought.

Time To Get Alone.

The best Beach Boys song and the best song ever to me. I cannot get sick and tired of it, it's just so heavenly!

I appreciate how good God Only Knows and agree that it's probably the best song ever written, but it just doesn't make me feel the same as TTGA.

It's amazing how this song isn't considered a classic!

Heroes and Villains,  it's magnificent.  Strong tie with Darlin and Girl don't tell me though..

Time To Get Alone. The most beautiful thing I've ever heard, bar none. The DEEP AND WIDE -part still gets me everytime. After, what, hundreds of listenings.

yeah Time to Get.. is lovely. very happy seeing it gets plenty of love by bb fans now.

Roller Skating Child!

Especially when Brian goes:

Rolllllllllllllll-er,
Skaayyy-ting,
Chi-llllllllllllllllld

Yeah, they sound basically the same. :-D

My absolute favorite is actually Here Today. That's an easy call. To name the second favorite would be a tough call. Help Me Rhonda or Dance Dance Dance?

Yeah, it's amazing.
It sounds like it should be on Summer Days to me though. It has that '65 sound.

I agree completely with that last statement.  Everything about Break Away/Celebrate the News is top-notch.  This sleeve is one of my favorites, too.
(http://www.chartstats.com/images/artwork/3189.jpg)

Don't Worry Baby.  If that one's taken,  I Can Hear Music, Surfer Girl or 409.  Really.

Reading some of the other choices - Surf's Up, Here Today, Time To Get Alone, God Only Know - this is harder than it looks.

'Til I Die

Wouldn't it be nice

YES.

Cool Cool Water

I know it's not a competition, but it's interesting to see what's the most popular amongst the board.

Leader Board:

God Only Knows (4)
Surf's Up (3)
Time To Get Alone (3)
Don't Worry Baby (2)

People I didn't count because they didn't indicate a clear preference:
Dylan61 [Good Vibrations/Fun Fun Fun]
PixleTwin [Surf's Up/We'll Run Away]
JohnnyHypothesis [Cool Cool Water/Kiss Me Baby]
TimeToGetAlone [Surf's Up/All I Wanna Do]

If I must choose I'll give a vote to All I Wanna Do.  The production on that one never ceases to amaze me.

Fine. "We'll Run Away" it is.  ;D

Surfer Girl. 

Without a doubt, I Just Wasn't Made for These Times.

Wow this is really hard.  So many of my favorite songs to choose from.

I guess I have to say Wouldn't it Be Nice.  It's such a joyous hymn.  But honestly ask me in an hour and I'd probably give a different response  :p

Yeah, I'm the same way.

Let's see...

Surfin' Era Favorite: Surfer Girl, Mono
Pre-Pet Sounds Era Favorite: When I Grow Up (To Be a Man), Mono
Pet Sounds/Smile Era Favorite: I Just Wasn't Made for These Times, Stereo
Smiley Smile through Surf's Up: Break Away, Stereo (was this ever released in Mono?)
(As of now, I'm mostly unfamiliar with their work after Surf's Up... but I've got C&TP/Holland coming in the mail soon!)

... so if I were to pick just one from those three, it would be IJWM4TT!

Good choices!
Holland is amazing!

Wouldn't It Be Nice, tho Don't Worry Baby is a very close second.

If somebody put a gun to my head and told me I could play just one Beach Boys song to convince them of their worth, I'd without hesitation choose "Please Let Me Wonder". I never get sick of it.

This is one tough question!! There are probably about 5(+ -) songs I don't like; I can listen to the rest all day.
Per the question, my absolute favorite BB track, for a variety of personal reasons, is Sloop John B. I'm not saying its the best of the catalogue, just my favorite.
You can't go wrong with just about any that have been mentioned so far (and many of those not mentioned!).

Surfs Up, Tack Piano.

after that... either Lets put our hearts... or Heroes and villians

Leader Board update (by number of votes):

4 God Only Knows
4 Surf's Up

3 Time To Get Alone
3 Wouldn't It Be Nice

2 Don't Worry Baby
2 I Just Wasn't Made For These Times
2 Please Let Me Wonder

gotta say Kiss Me Baby

Pedestrian choices, I know, but to really get to the essence of 'absolute favorite', I had to begin by weeding my way through the likes of "Wouldn't It Be Nice," "Sloop John B," "God Only Knows" and "Surf's Up" (Brian).  And believe you me, it's no simple thing to look "Wouldn't It Be Nice" in the eye and say no.

But if there can only be one, then that one undeniably has to be "Good Vibrations" - it's all right there, perfectly, in three-and-a-half minutes!

It helps that the record happens to feature my very favorite Beach Boys moment, roughly 2:53-2:57, the stacked vocal "Aaaahhhhhhh......" and the decay during the stop which follows it.  Now I've heard this occasion described as musical "Zen," and that's as good a descriptor as any, but I like to think of that silence between the notes as an example of pure music.  Not to mention the flood of absolute bliss when the boys re-enter the action.

"Good, good, good, good vibrations..."






My God, how in the world can I say no to "Wouldn't It Be Nice"?

That's exactly what I was thinking.
Wouldn't it be nice is pretty much perfect, but the techniques Brian used for Good Vibrations makes it the best single of all time. The digital age is just now catching up to him!

I'm Waiting For The Day when you can love again.

I'll have to name three: Don't Worry Baby, Sail On Sailor, I'll Bet He's Nice

It will always be 'Wouldn't It Be Nice', which is also my #1 favorite song of all time. I have a copy of the original 1966 Capitol swirl 45 single (b/w 'God Only Knows') and someday I want Brian Wilson and Tony Asher to sign it.  ;D

'Let Him Run Wild' is a distant second.

This is not an easy question to answer, but I would have to go with Cabin Essence - it's just incredibly good.

Updated:

4 God Only Knows
4 Surf's Up
4 Wouldn't It Be Nice

3 Time To Get Alone

2 Don't Worry Baby
2 Good Vibrations
2 I Just Wasn't Made For These Times
2 Please Let Me Wonder

By far the smartest thing David Brent's ever said

And I agree

Wind Chimes - Smiley Smile version

By a dozen country miles times a million to the power of 20.

Trader

It's a tie between You Still Believe in Me and Don't Worry Baby. If YSBIM wins it's by the slightest hair and it's because seeing/hearing BW perform it live made me high.

Please Let Me Wonder

Runners up would be Cabinessence, Surfs Up (tss), and about 20 others.....

Do It Again

Picking my top 5 is tough, almost not possible.  Oddly, number 1 is easy...WIBN

On these older threads, I always like to go back and see what I might have said in earlier years. Occasionally I'm consistent, usually I'm not.

But in this case, oddly enough, I seem to have said nothing at all. So I'll go on record for now: "Wouldn't It Be Nice?"

Lonely Sea

Some great picks already on the board.  Time to Get Alone, God Only Knows, Don't Worry Baby, Good Vibrations...all worthy of the utmost acclaim and adoration.  All better than anything EVER recorded by almost anyone else.  [Then or now.]

That said...I'm going to go back further...back to songs which were SO excellent that they insured I would still be waiting with baited breath for everything that would ever follow in their trail blazing and ever-glorious path.  Harrisonjon mentioned Lonely Sea.  Great tune.  [As was Farmer's Daughter.]  I think, though, that the song which sews it up for me...the one which verified that I was 'in' forever was In My Room.  THAT one I could relate to.  I didn't surf...although I would learn to Wind Surf maybe 15 years later.  I didn't drive...although I'd own my own car 8 years later.  But in 1963 I certainly had a room and I 'got' what Brian and the boys were sayin'.

Feel Flows, Trader, Little Bird, Sail On Sailor, Ballad of Ol' Betsy, ... ... ...they're all ever-so-outstanding.  There are dozens of worthy contenders and whether or not they made the Top 40 doesn't matter one iota.  But In My Room is the Beach Boys' song that's in the pocket for me.

All I Wanna Do

All great choices. The greatness of the music is that so many songs can resonate so strongly. The music contains multitudes.

And everyone who's slogged their way through my stuff here knows already what my pick is--counterintuitive and cracked as it most definitely is...representing "Carl's Big Chance" to refashion the band into something that combined roots music dynamics with the elliptical songwriting form/structure that is a dead giveaway for his big brother...even as it joyously evades virtually all other identifying touches as a song belonging to the BBs. And all hailing the lightning precision of Ricky Fataar!

Always a jolt of sheer joy when I hear the piano kick in...knowing what's coming...joy that often morphs into happy tears which are my "burst of (your) raindrop" that "keeps a flow in my river." And it flows with all its unique funky curlicues into the most unusual, densely packed, and kick-ass coda in the band's incredible storehouse of closing tags.

You know I don't need to mention it by name, now...that would make a mess of things and not help anyone to see it for themselves and take such a stand against the grain, in a region beyond the conventional and familiar, the commonly accepted, all by oneself and utterly alone...

No, I don't need to do that...even if "she don't know a thing"!  :hat