Is this the best version of “God Only Knows”?

11 thoughts on “Is this the best version of “God Only Knows”?”

1. I’m mostly curious why Carl Wilson is playing at an Olive Garden.Report

   1. Endless Summer (of Breadsticks).Report

   2. They were testing out the slogan for their mobile strategy:

      “Wouldn’t it be nice if you pre-ordered, then you wouldn’t have to wait so long.”Report

      1. Alpha Plus!Report

   3. Wouldn’t it be nice if they can all be Italian girls?Report

2. My favorite is the barbershop version that came with Bioshock Infinite.

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   1. @jaybird @jon-row @everyone-else-interested-in-beachboys-covers-and/or-bioshock :

      the anachronistic covers are one of the best parts of that game.

      Later on, it’s super obvious that there are anachronistic covers, but “God only knows” is the first one you come across. If you don’t know much about the history of the song (and I didn’t) the first thought that goes through your head is “huh, I didn’t realize the song was that old.”

      It didn’t really stop at the barbershop quartet version, though. Because from the context of the game’s setting that’s been introduced so far, it makes perfect sense that the song is a barbershop quartet cover of an existing older song–and given that the game is set in 1910 and the prominent reference to god in the lyrics, my head imagined that there was an older traditional folk/christian version of the song that this was a barbershop cover of.

      Which worked really well, and helps set up the story-thread of the anachronistic covers for an even better payoff that it would have had if I’d known at the beginning that God Only Knows was original to the Beach Boys.

      Anyway, that song, that non-existent traditional version of God Only Knows that might have existed in the 19th century by actually only exists at the corners of my musically under-educated mind, that’s my favorite version of God Only Knows.Report

3. God only …

   I mean I’m nor sure.Report

4. Semi-related, I like the Beach Boys singing Do You Wanna Dance on Shindig:

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UFa-2rLfs8Report

5. I went looking for this awesome live concert, which I remember seeing on MTV as a kid and thinking, jeez, the Beach Boys could rock. Some quick observations:

   – Mike Love appears to have been fifty years old from the very first day the Beach Boys started.
   – The decision to make the weakest singer the frontman was a very canny one. The Beach Boys were a very “from each according to his abilities” organization.
   – I suddenly realize what blew Frank Zappa’s mind about “Little Deuce Coupe.”Report

6. The Langley Schools Music Project version is precious. It also seems perfectly designed for ironic use in a horror movie, while the killer stalks (? “I’ll make you so suuuuure about it” ? ).Report

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