The Beach Boys<\/a>\u2019 classic \u2018God Only Knows\u2019 is a watermark in pop music. There is a before \u2018God Only Knows\u2019 and there is an after \u2018God Only Knows\u2019 with the masterpiece representing the moment that pop went baroque and stood firmly on the shoulders of all that had gone before, gazing ahead and forecasting the sonic-surfing future.<\/p>\nIt would\u2019ve had its own place in music history for its beauty alone, but beyond the majesty was the diegesis of a story: the moment pop culture truly usurped traditional art \u2013 novels, classical music, and so on \u2013 as the cultural comfort blanket that humans crave and are proud enough to realise that. This moment was even heralded by Leonard Bernstein, one of the fellows who was busy being usurped by pop at the very moment that he was praising it.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor a long time now I\u2019ve been fascinated by this strange and compelling scene called pop music,\u201d Bernstein told CBS\u2019 Inside Pop programme. \u201cI say strange because it is unlike any scene I can think of in the history of all music,\u201d he said, hinting at the modern renaissance that it represented.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cThis new music is much more primitive in its harmonic language. It relies more on the simple triad, the basic harmony of folk music. Never forget that this music employs a highly limited musical vocabulary; limited harmonically, rhythmically, and melodically. But within that restricted language, all these new adventures are simply extraordinary.\u201d<\/p>\n
With \u2018God Only Knows\u2019, Brian Wilson and his band seemed to escape the notion of these restrictions and pushed pop to new heights. As Wilson explained himself: \u201cIt\u2019s not really in any one key. It\u2019s a strange song. That\u2019s just the way it was written. \u2026 It\u2019s the only song I\u2019ve ever written that\u2019s not in a definite key, and I\u2019ve written hundreds of songs.\u201d This was melded even further as elements were layered by the technology on top of each other, creating three-dimensions of sound that practically put a halt to mono recording on the spot.<\/p>\n
Thus, the moment it hit the radio, it wobbled every musician\u2019s head in that era. It was a flawless piece of music\u2014somehow pairing innovation and beauty in a manner where one elevated the exultancy of the other. In short, \u2018God Only Knows\u2019 is a song that shaped the second half of the 20th century and beyond. We can all be thankful for that because it is the sort of beautiful utopia where prettiness unrivalled revels in progress and stirs us all with the same simple loveliness as a sunny day.<\/p>\n
But you shouldn\u2019t just take our word for it; there are countless musicians who have also asserted its position as perhaps the paramount pop song in music history. We\u2019ve collated these glowing views from some of the most iconic names in music below.<\/p>\n
Musicians on \u2018God Only Knows\u2019 greatness:<\/p>\n
Related Topics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: Far Out \/ Alamy) Mon 13 October 2025 19:18, UK It\u2019s the sound of summer, it\u2019s the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198605,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[10864,15412,96,86438,128,6470,33162,15745,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-198604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-bono","tag-christine-mcvie","tag-entertainment","tag-jimmy-webb","tag-music","tag-paul-mccartney","tag-pete-townshend","tag-the-beach-boys","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/The-Beach-Boys-Beach-Boys-1964-Far-Out-Magazine-F-1140x855.jpg\")
<\/p>\n