Top 10 best song Brian wrote post- 1980

[Myk Luhv]

Well, my personal best would be: "Stevie", "Love And Mercy", "Melt Away", "Rio Grande", "Being With The One You Love", "Soul Searchin'", the demo version of "Midnight's Another Day", "Oh Mi Amor", "Message Man", and "The Like In I Love You". I still haven't listened to That's Why God Made The Radio which is why I've not included anything from that...

Honourable mention: "Little Children" because it sounds so dementedly happy, it's a relentless wash of synth, percussion and vocals!

[Smilin Ed H]

Officially released:

01.   From There To Back Again
02.   Midnight's Another Day
03.   Melt Away
04.   Pacific Coast Highway
05.   Rio Grande
06.   Lucky Old Sun/Morning Beat
07.   Love and Mercy
08.   Meet Me In My Dreams Tonight
09.   Strange World
10.   Live Let Live

Bubbling under:
11.   Summer's Gone
12.   Cry
13.   Lay Down Burden
14.   Happy Days
15.   What I Really Want For Christmas
16.   Baby Let Your Hair Grow Long
17.   Think About The Days
18.   There's So Many
19.   Gettin' In Over My Head
20.   Don't Let Her Know She's An Angel
 

[carl r]

Nothing But Love.

Yes, it's a great track - a bit like the offspring of 'Breakaway' and 'Shortening Bread'. Not exactly sure what the Gershwin origin was here, this is very Brian.

Choosing 10 tracks is really hard - and the great thing is that every year it gets more difficult. Who'd have thought that, even 10 years ago?

It's been suggested that completing BWPS was cathartic ...

[RangeRoverA1]

Excluding Brian-composed songs within The BBs/remakes, this is Top-10 for me as of now:

1. Love & Mercy (find it superior to Melt Away & not just slightly)
2. Walkin' The Line
3. There's So Many
4. Happy Days
5. California Role
6. Rio Grande (contrary to most of you, my fave mo' is the very beginning, one of the best intros in any song I heard)
7. Let's Go to Heaven in My Car
8. Someone to Love
9. He Couldn't Get His Poor Old Body to Move (the v-n with less loud synthesized h/claps)

10. Daddy’s Little Girl

Great choice, Mikie! Glad to know I'm not alone on liking this little charming choon.

If Orange Crate Art counts, then I'll add as 11th & 12th "This Town Goes Down at Sunset" & "San Francisco". The latter is utterly cool & the former's got nice soothing feel to it.

[Andrew G. Doe]

If Orange Crate Art counts, then I'll add as 11th & 12th "This Town Goes Down at Sunset" & "San Francisco". The latter is utterly cool & the former's got nice soothing feel to it.

Suggest you check out the composer credits for those two. The thread title contains a clue in the word "wrote". 

[RangeRoverA1]

Suggest you check out the composer credits for those two. The thread title contains a clue in the word "wrote". 

Sorry, I meant if OCA ever counted, I would add "___________" & "____________". And while we're at it, for bonus track I'll mention "Christine" aka "Living Doll (Barbie)".

[Cabinessenceking]

People don't like Midnight's Another Day?

This live version is fantastic. Almost like a followup to 'Til I Die
https://soundcloud.com/brianwilsonmusic/midnights-another-day

[filledeplage]

My ten: (eleven!) 

Think About the Days
Southern California
Love and Mercy
Lay Down Burden
That's Why God Made the Radio
Isn't It Time?
The First Time (Live at the Roxy)
How Could We Still Be Dancin'?
The Waltz
Midnight's Another Day
Fairy Tale

[the captain]

I thought this topic looked familiar, and sure enough, it was one we began long, long ago. What struck me is how much good material BW has done in the past decade, as opposed to the roughly 25 years that preceded it. My choices in 2005 were these:

Lay Down Burden (preferably a live version, not the Imagination recording)
How Can We Still Be Dancing (live, with Brian singing instead of Sir Elton, and thus with good backgrounds, too)
Melt Away (preferably IJWMFTT, so I can avoid the 88 production)
What I Really Want For Christmas
City Blues (live, w/ good bg vox)

I know everyone on earth except me hates City Blues. But I do like it. I like when Brian's voice strains for the highs on the title words, and I love the bg vox in the solo--very Brianesque.

While I could quibble with myself over material available at that time--I'd now give strong consideration to Some Sweet Day, My Marianne, Do You Have Any Regrets, and Gettin In Over My Head--the following would be strong contenders for my best-of list as well:

What Love Can Do
Speed Turtle
Live Let Live
Forever She'll Be My Surfer Girl
Good Kind of Love
Oxygen to the Brain
Midnight's Another Day
The Like in I Love You
Isn't It Time
Shelter
Strange World
From There To Back Again
Pacific Coast Highway

There are plenty of other really solid songs as well. The pace and quality obviously doesn't match his '60s output by a long shot, but it's pretty impressive for a guy in his 60s and early 70s who had slowed down quite a bit the previous quarter century.

[TimeToGetAlone]

I feel like a lot of my choices would be based more on the performance than the composition, because it's hard to love a song unless it has a definitively enjoyable version.

(in chronological order)

Love and Mercy
Melt Away
Rio Grande
You're Still a Mystery
It's Not Easy Being Me
Lay Down Burden
Midnight's Another Day
Southern California
From There to Back Again
Summer's Gone

Others: Stevie, In My Car, Fantasy Is Reality/Bells of Madness, This Song Wants to Sleep with You, Gettin' In Over My Head, Everything I Need, Cry, Live Let Live

Don't Let Her Know She's An Angel apparently started in the late 70's, so I guess it's out.  Then again some of the songs I have mentioned do have earlier roots.

[smilethebeachboysloveyou]

In chronological order:

Stevie
Melt Away
He Couldn't Get His Poor Old Body to Move
Love Ya
Midnight's Another Day
Southern California
The Like in I Love You
Nothing But Love
Spring Vacation
Strange World

[Wirestone]

I'll do you one better and do the songs he wrote post-1990.

This Song Wants to Sleep With You
You're Still A Mystery
Your Imagination
Cry
Gettin' In Over My Head
What Love Can Do
Midnight's Another Day
Oxygen to the Brain
Just Like Me and You
From There to Back Again

[bgas]

Suggest you check out the composer credits for those two. The thread title contains a clue in the word "wrote". 

Sorry, I meant if OCA ever counted, I would add "___________" & "____________". And while we're at it, for bonus track I'll mention "Christine" aka "Living Doll (Barbie)".

uuhhhhhh.....   I think the point is:    best song Brian wrote

[Andrew G. Doe]

I thought this topic looked familiar, and sure enough, it was one we began long, long ago. What struck me is how much good material BW has done in the past decade, as opposed to the roughly 25 years that preceded it. My choices in 2005 were these:

Lay Down Burden (preferably a live version, not the Imagination recording)
How Can We Still Be Dancing (live, with Brian singing instead of Sir Elton, and thus with good backgrounds, too)
Melt Away (preferably IJWMFTT, so I can avoid the 88 production)
What I Really Want For Christmas
City Blues (live, w/ good bg vox)

I know everyone on earth except me hates City Blues. But I do like it. I like when Brian's voice strains for the highs on the title words, and I love the bg vox in the solo--very Brianesque.

While I could quibble with myself over material available at that time--I'd now give strong consideration to Some Sweet Day, My Marianne, Do You Have Any Regrets, and Gettin In Over My Head--the following would be strong contenders for my best-of list as well:

What Love Can Do
Speed Turtle
Live Let Live
Forever She'll Be My Surfer Girl
Good Kind of Love
Oxygen to the Brain
Midnight's Another Day
The Like in I Love You
Isn't It Time
Shelter
Strange World
From There To Back Again
Pacific Coast Highway

There are plenty of other really solid songs as well. The pace and quality obviously doesn't match his '60s output by a long shot, but it's pretty impressive for a guy in his 60s and early 70s who had slowed down quite a bit the previous quarter century.

Brian didn't write "Speed Turtle".

[Andrew G. Doe]

Suggest you check out the composer credits for those two. The thread title contains a clue in the word "wrote". 

Sorry, I meant if OCA ever counted, I would add "___________" & "____________". And while we're at it, for bonus track I'll mention "Christine" aka "Living Doll (Barbie)".

Ah, I see. We're expected to respond to what you intended to write, not what you actually posted.

[Niko]

Relax, it's not that big of a deal. I understood what RRA1 meant in her original post and I'm sure you did too.

[Micha]

A problem with this thread is that you can make a bad recording from a good song and vice versa.

The recordings that impressed me the most were Midnight's Another Day and Summer's Gone.

If they had used the Paley sessions backing track for "Desert Drive" and the Beach Boys as vocalists, that would have been a great one too. Lay Down Burden is another good song that suffers from suboptimal production.

[Sheriff John Stone]

It's no big deal, but I think the thread title might've changed since 2005. In my December 2005 post, I listed "Joy To The World" as one of my favorite BW solo songs. Brian wrote some classics but I don't think he gets credit for that one! Then I looked at JRauch's original post (he started the thread on December 30, 2005) and he asks "OK, what are your favourite five solo-songs by Brian?" He doesn't mention best songs that Brian WROTE....

[the captain]

I thought this topic looked familiar, and sure enough, it was one we began long, long ago. What struck me is how much good material BW has done in the past decade, as opposed to the roughly 25 years that preceded it. My choices in 2005 were these:

Lay Down Burden (preferably a live version, not the Imagination recording)
How Can We Still Be Dancing (live, with Brian singing instead of Sir Elton, and thus with good backgrounds, too)
Melt Away (preferably IJWMFTT, so I can avoid the 88 production)
What I Really Want For Christmas
City Blues (live, w/ good bg vox)

I know everyone on earth except me hates City Blues. But I do like it. I like when Brian's voice strains for the highs on the title words, and I love the bg vox in the solo--very Brianesque.

While I could quibble with myself over material available at that time--I'd now give strong consideration to Some Sweet Day, My Marianne, Do You Have Any Regrets, and Gettin In Over My Head--the following would be strong contenders for my best-of list as well:

What Love Can Do
Speed Turtle
Live Let Live
Forever She'll Be My Surfer Girl
Good Kind of Love
Oxygen to the Brain
Midnight's Another Day
The Like in I Love You
Isn't It Time
Shelter
Strange World
From There To Back Again
Pacific Coast Highway

There are plenty of other really solid songs as well. The pace and quality obviously doesn't match his '60s output by a long shot, but it's pretty impressive for a guy in his 60s and early 70s who had slowed down quite a bit the previous quarter century.

Brian didn't write "Speed Turtle".

I know. Just fucking around.

[smilethebeachboysloveyou]

A problem with this thread is that you can make a bad recording from a good song and vice versa.

Yeah, I was thinking about this in relation to the thread about GIOMH and, for the most part, the problem with that album is the production and vocal performances more than the actual songwriting.  There are a couple songs on that album that are flat-out bad in and of themselves, but there are also decent, even good songs that are destroyed by the cacophonous production style and poor vocal performances.  Though it's not as bad in terms of production or vocal performance, I think there are some songs on Imagination that might have made my list if I were able to hear a version produced by someone other than Joe Thomas.

[Sheriff John Stone]

A problem with this thread is that you can make a bad recording from a good song and vice versa.

To me, that's the story of Brian Wilson's solo career in a nutshell. When I hear a good Brian Wilson solo song, I think how it could've be a GREAT song with contributions from the Beach Boys. When I hear a mediocre (bad?) Brian Wilson solo song, I think it probably wouldn't even made the cut on a Beach Boys' album because of other songs by Mike, Carl, Al, and Bruce.

[TimeToGetAlone]

A problem with this thread is that you can make a bad recording from a good song and vice versa.

To me, that's the story of Brian Wilson's solo career in a nutshell. When I hear a good Brian Wilson solo song, I think how it could've be a GREAT song with contributions from the Beach Boys. When I hear a mediocre (bad?) Brian Wilson solo song, I think it probably wouldn't even made the cut on a Beach Boys' album because of other songs by Mike, Carl, Al, and Bruce.

I would argue performance is the most important thing.  Imagine any of Brian's solo albums circa 1966.

[RiC]

I wanna see a topic "top 10 worst songs Brian wrote pre-66". Anyway, let's see what I can come up with to this topic.

(Not in any particular order)

Love & Mercy
Meet Me in My Dreams Tonight
Rio Grande
Midnight's Another Day
Good Kind of Love
Going Home
Isn't It Time
From There to Back Again
Pacific Coast Highway
Summer's Gone

Wow, I forgot Imagination completely, so I'd add Dream Angel, Lay Down Burden and Cry to the list. Impossible for me to list just 10. There's so many of them!

[the captain]

A problem with this thread is that you can make a bad recording from a good song and vice versa.

It's an interesting topic, but not really a problem with the thread. The thread is about the best songs being written, not the best performances or productions.

[RangeRoverA1]

Ah, I see. We're expected to respond to what you intended to write, not what you actually posted.

Well, you had every choice to not respond to my post, don't see any issue here. On the other hand, by words of punkinhead taken from his signature,

in this online beach boy community, I've found that you're either correct or corrected. Which in my mind is all in good fun to show one's knowledge of their favorite band.