Absolute favorite BB track?

[blank]

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!

[Letsgoawayforawhile]

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, DVD Stereo Version
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!

[Phoenix]

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

[Myk Luhv]

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.

[BB Universe]

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!).

[FatherOfTheMan Sr101]

Surfs Up, Tack Piano.

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

[doinnothin]

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

[punkinhead]

gotta say Kiss Me Baby

[Generation42]

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"?

[Letsgoawayforawhile]

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!

[Youre Under Arrest]

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

[phirnis]

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

[Summer_Days]

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.  

'Let Him Run Wild' is a distant second.

[Paulos]

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

[doinnothin]

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

[Adult Child]

Surf's Up, without a single second thought.

By far the smartest thing David Brent's ever said

And I agree

[Hickory Violet Part IV]

Wind Chimes - Smiley Smile version

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

[fishcane]

Trader

[Scaroline No]

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.

[jmc]

Please Let Me Wonder

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

[Peter Reum]

Do It Again

[southbay]

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

[the captain]

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?"

[harrisonjon]

Lonely Sea

[Lee Marshall]

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.