Exclusive: The 40 Greatest Songs by THE BEACH BOYS Ranked - The Perfect Playlist for Your Summer Vacation

“I believe that music is God’s voice.” --Brian Wilson

“Roll down the window, put down the top/Crank up The Beach Boys, baby/Don't let the music stop!” --Randy Newman, “I Love L.A.”

It’s summertime, which means one thing: It’s time to follow Randy Newman’s advice and crank up The Beach Boys!  If any group can be deemed “America’s Group,” it’s these guys.  If you’re on a yacht, sunbathing on the beaches of Florida, enjoying Disney World or Disneyland, or watching the “California Girls” on the coast of the Golden State, then this is your soundtrack. Although I rank each selection on this list, you can hit a Beach Boys playlist like this on shuffle and it’s just as strong.  Each song listed below should be crowned a classic. 

Brian Wilson, the group’s leader, turns 81 in a few days (June 20th), so it's a good time for a list like this.  Brian has been often tagged a genius, but he’s more than that.  Anyone can be a genius songwriter; Wilson adds so much heart and God-given soul to his songs that his talent cannot be described.  His name should be mentioned in a church-like whisper, celebrated for giving more joy to the world than almost anyone.  He ranks up there with John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Stephen Sondheim and Burt Bacharach as the greatest songwriter of the past 60 years.  And with only McCartney and Wilson still living amid that Mount Rushmore list, and since McCartney’s best work was with Lennon (who died nearly 43 years ago), Brian Wilson remains the single greatest living songwriter.

Brian worked to create the magic Beach Boys sound with his family members and friends, including brothers Carl and Dennis, cousin Mike Love with his famous nasal bravado, a friend, Al Jardine, and Brian Johnston, who would take Brian’s place during live performances.  Together, along with members of the Wrecking Crew, they created perhaps the greatest harmonies in pop history and charted a whopping 37 hits in the Top 40 (with four of those landing at the #1 position).  

If you’ve read his autobiography or watched the movie Love and Mercy, then you know the struggles Brian faced while creating his  two greatest works: Pet Sounds and Smile.  But if Brian had listened to his critics (including family members) and collapsed due to his inner demons—and never created all of those gorgeous tunes--then think of all the beauty that would be missing from this world.  His music, and the music of his family and friends, has been nothing less than a gift to us for over six decades.   Even though he wasn’t made for those times, Wilson changed with them. Working with the likes of lyricists Tony Asher on Pet Sounds and Van Dyke Parks on the then-doomed Smile, he turned away from the halcyon “Fun, Fun, Fun” good ol’ days  and wrote about the dire realities of growing up and feeling alone in the world (with the beauteous hang-dog likes of Caroline No and I just Wasn’t Made for These Times).

As the Sixties grew, so did Brian as an artist.  And when he dropped out for a long stretch, his legend continued to increase.  But even in those early pre-Pet Sounds years of surf and cars, Brian, barely out of his teens, showed a penchant that most often leaned melancholic; listen to “In My Room” or “Don’t Worry, Baby” if you doubt me.

Like the Beatles, where some fans enjoy the mop-top early days while others enjoy the cooler latter years, Beach Boys fans are torn: Those who enjoy the songs about surfin’, drivin’ and girls, and those who prefer the trippy mid-1960s numbers where songwriting brilliance reigned and led to some of the most transcendent music to ever grace the Billboard Hot 100. If you want to hear what genius sounds like, then listen to Side 2 of Pet Sounds on the original vinyl, from “God Only Knows” to “Caroline No.”

Picking The Beach Boys top songs is as tough as selecting the Beatles greatest or Stephen Sondheim’s best.  Maybe even more difficult.  Any one of the songs honored to be in the top 5 could be awarded #1, i.e. “The Greatest.” I kept my process honest and simple by using this rubric to pick the winners:

1. Artistic Merit: Music & Lyrics.
2. Critical Recognition. Formal commendation from critics.
3. Overall Popularity. Does anyone, not just a Beach Boys fan, know the song?  Has the song lasted for more than a generation, or will it potentially?
4. Innovation. A song's impact through innovation and groundbreaking achievement.
5. Historical & Cultural Significance. A song's mark on society in matters of style, substance and historical importance.

Looking at the rubric, you can see how it may skew toward the mid-1960s Beach Boys classics, especially when dealing with “Innovation” and “Historical & Cultural Significance.”  The earliest Beach Boys songs will certainly get a boost in the “Popularity” category.  We’ll see where your favorites land.

But enough from me; let’s get onto the list, starting with the pick for their #1 song and then scrolling down to #40.  Consider this a love letter to Brian Wilson and the various members of The Beach Boys, hands down the greatest American group of the 1960s. 

So here they are, my Beach Boys’ Top 40, perfect for your summer listening pleasure…

1. “God Only Knows” [Pet Sounds; 1966]

Perhaps the most gorgeous love song ever written.  Paul McCartney thinks so, and his “Here, There and Everywhere,” one of the Beatles loveliest songs, was obviously inspired by Brian Wilson’s beautiful tune.  But using the word “beautiful” to describe this is too limiting.  “God Only Knows” is something else altogether: Otherworldly, God-like even.  It brings together Brian’s own religious pronouncement--about music being the voice of God--and his own heartache and fears.  Wilson is also a master at that oxymoron--“joyous melancholy,” or as Cameron Crowe once called it, “the happy/sad greatness that defines the group.”  Led by Carl Wilson’s astounding vocals, there’s a sadness pervasive in this song, but we don’t feel sad listening to it.  We feel rejuvenated, almost like having been Baptized by Pop Music.  I know such words are over the top because, after all, this is only a song, a mere song, but it’s a song that turns each of us into an instant Lazarus the moment we hear it, bringing us back from the dead  after maybe a hard day at work or the break-up of an important relationship.  It soothes with empathy; it tells us that we are not alone in this harsh world.  Let go and let God. If any pop song can be more than just a listening experience and, indeed, change your soul, then it’s this one.

2. “Good Vibrations” [Smiley Smile & the Smile Sessions; 1966]

Many of you might be surprised or maybe even upset that this isn’t the #1 selection on this list.  But the #1 song--“God Only Knows”--has a special place in the world, an almost religious experience upon listening to it. “Good Vibrations” is more like a drug--music as the ultimate Mushroom Experience.  You don’t need to drop acid; just listen to this with the lights off and the volume turned way, way up.  It’s like a carnival of pleasure, taking Brian over seven months and $400,000 (in today’s dollars) to produce.  Voted the #1 greatest song by Mojo Magazine, while Rolling Stone Magazine clocked it at #6 on their list of the 500 greatest songs of all time; Paste and the Guardian also cite it as the #1 Beach Boys song.  It gets major kudos from all walks of life, making the RIA’s American Songs of the Century list. It even became the title for The Beach Boys' Broadway jukebox musical, Good Vibrations. So why is it a lowly #2 here?  Because there’s no way of getting around “God Only Knows.”  ”Good Vibrations” may take you on quite a trip--the world’s greatest musical roller coaster ride--but “God Only Knows” actually takes you to heaven.

3. “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” [Pet Sounds; 1966]

Progressive Pop never sounded so good.  On first listen, it’s easy to mistake this for an upbeat tune about growing up, two teen lovers imagining what being an adult would be like:  “Wouldn't it be nice if we could wake up/In the morning when the day is new?/And after having spent the day together/Hold each other close the whole night through…”  But listen again and you can hear that devastating “joyous melancholy” that is Wilson’s signature.  It’s also been recently heralded as sort of LGBTQ anthem, even being played at gay rallies. Although it’s used in a plethora of movies--from Roger and Me to The Big Chill--it’s most effective use was in a Doonesbury comic strip from 1990. Andy Lippincott listens to this song as he dies of AIDS.  His last written words: “Brian Wilson is God.” Who but perhaps the most severe fundamentalists can argue?

4. “Surf’s Up” [Surf’s Up & the Smile Sessions; 1971]

The title seems so optimistic until you listen and soon realize the wave being described is a tidal wave.  You get a sense that this tidal wave—perhaps progress--destroys the old stodgy world, “the blind class aristocracy” of horse-drawn carriages, dim chandeliers, music halls and opera glasses.  Everything old, including Edgar Allen Poe and Robert Burns, is hit by this tsunami of change, causing “columnated ruins” to “domino” on top of one another.  An Apocalypse of sorts, where the young are set to take over. But the song ends with an epiphany—the singer ultimately finds his utopia, nirvana, God.  Enlightenment. He goes back to relive his childhood as showcased in a children’s song, “Frere Jacques.”  He may even go beyond that, back to the womb and rebirth where “child is father to the man,” in much the same way Kier Dullea becomes the Star Child at the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey.  And like the great Stanley Kubrick sci-fi film, the song “Surf’s Up” is often misunderstood and open to all sorts of interpretations.  Then again, like 2001, it’s also a head-trip masterpiece.

5. “’Til I Die” [Surf’s Up; 1971]

With both words and music by Brian Wilson, written around the time he asked his gardener to dig his grave in the backyard of his home, it stands as perhaps his most haunting song.  You would be surprised how many people outside Beach Boys fans do not know this. A boomer fan of 1960s music (who accurately guessed my top three Beach Boys songs in the correct order) told me that he had never heard “’Til I Die,” at least from the title.  I’ll give you the advice that I gave him:  Please give it a listen and dive into the battered, glorious wonders of Brian Wilson’s genius. I first heard the song two decades ago while watching a video of Brian playing this solo on the piano…and I quickly became obsessed.  What is that song?  Why have I never heard it before? I searched and search for it, and when I found it, I listened to it nonstop, usually while driving. Still do.  It may teeter on the depressing side of life—where Brian sings of a world out of his control, where he is like a cork floating on the ocean or a leaf being blown away by the wind.   But it’s also achingly lovely and if you can do yourself a favor right now, find it on Spotify or YouTube, and listen.  You’ll first wonder if it’s a suicidal cry set to music.  And then you’ll wonder why, before now, you’ve never heard its bruised beauty, its nakedly painful glories. And soon enough it may even become one of your favorite songs as well.

6. “Heroes and Villains” [Smiley Smile & the Smile Sessions; 1967]

This is what you get when you mix the Old West with George Gershwin, Phil Spector, Marty Robbins’ “El Paso,” a galvanizing Beach Boys beat that will get you off your butt to dance…and Brian’s 1966-67 unique headspace. Jimi Hendrix may have snubbed the song as a “psychedelic barbershop quartet,” but what’s wrong with that?

7. "Don’t Worry, Baby” [Shut Down Volume 2; 1964]

Brian always showed sheer songwriting prowess in his very first hits, but this was the one to really showcase his genuine genius to anyone who would notice such things.  Do you find it interesting that the singer here is such a passive worrywart that his girlfriend makes love to him and it’s not the other way around?

8. “I Get Around” [All Summer Long; 1964]

Here it is, perhaps the ultimate hymn to the teenage joys of fast rides and fast girls. In it, the singer vrooms down the streets in his car, bragging of being too cool to even have enemies. He makes money and cruises around, picking up girls. It’s shallow exuberance. (Although “All Summer Long” would play during the closing credits of American Graffiti, this is the song that best describes the 1973 film, “driving up and down the same old strip.”)  The Beach Boys’ first #1 hit, it also remains one of their very best.  

9. “California Girls” [Summer Days (And Summer Nights); 1965]

The lyrics describe girls from all walks of American life, from funny-accented Southern girls to Midwest farmer’s daughters, with the singer wishing they could all be in a sort of California harem.  It’s so much fun to listen to, a great last look of bitchin’ bikini beachgoing before the more cerebral, more mature, less trivial Pet Sounds would shake things up.

10. “Caroline, No” [Pet Sounds; 1965]

And then there’s this, the last song on Pet Sounds that’s on par with the depressing ending of Chinatown where nobody wins.  It’s an elegy of youth, a coming-of-age funeral mass of sorts about a young virginal girl growing up and obviously diving into sex, and now she’s suddenly different.  Her blossoming into womanhood wilts the singer.   "Where did your long hair go? Where is the girl I used to know?” he sings. “How could you lose that happy glow?” This loss of innocence is almost too unbearably personal to listen to.  Pure gloominess wrapped up in some of Brian Wilson’s most exquisite, heartbreaking and soul-crushing music.  And it ends with a roaring train followed by dogs barking, the singer perhaps moving on.  This locomotive ending reminds me of the famous proverb: “The dogs may bark, but the caravan moves on.”  Listening to “Caroline, No,” I imagine a frowning Charlie Brown with his head bowed down in sorrow after finding out that that cute little red-haired girl turned out to be a slut.   

11. “Fun, Fun, Fun” [Shut Down Volume 2; 1964]

Following up “Caroline, No” with “Fun, Fun, Fun” is like following Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer with Beach Blanket Bingo.  The fun-bad girl at the center of this adrenaline rush is like a teenage Bonnie Parker without the bank robberies and murder; she lies, she steals her daddy’s car to go to a fast-food joint, and she speeds so fast that “she makes the Indy 500 look like a Roman chariot race now.” The rush of the music matches the rollicking lyrics and delivers one of the most exhilarating songs in the entire Beach Boys catalogue.

12. “Help Me Rhonda” [Summer Days (And Summer Nights); 1965]

Written by Brian, with additional Mike Love lyrics, this became their second #1 hit. Interestingly, it started off as an inferior single on The Beach Boys Today album with a different spelling (“Ronda” instead of “Rhonda”); but Brian knew he had it in him to create a better song and, with Al Jardine on the lead vocals and lots of tweaking, created one of their most memorable hits.

13. “Wonderful” [Smiley Smile & the Smile Sessions; 1967]

Here comes God again, this time when a girl’s religious convictions smash head-on with her hots for a guy. The young lady, innocent like Caroline, pledges her life to the Lord: “God reached softly and moved her body/One golden locket, quite young…”  She’s a good girl who loves her mother and father, but then she succumbs to sexual awakening with a “non-believer,” the “won-won-wonderful” world of mysteries.   Sex frees her and also makes her closer to God, to whom she thanks at the end of this, yes, wonderful song.

14. “I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times” [Pet Sounds; 1966]

Brian’s ultimate self-portrait. Filled with loss and sadness, this is an anthem for every outsider and misfit in the world.  It’s the musical equivalent of the line that Seymour (Steve Buscemi) utters in Ghost World: “I can’t relate to 99% of humanity.” Obviously neither could Brian.

15. “Cabinessence” [20/20 & the Smile Sessions; 1969]

In the mid-1960s, Brian notoriously wrote songs with Van Dyke Parks in the middle of a giant sandbox inside his home. What songs did he create in this odd, child-like atmosphere?  “Surf’s Up” (#4 on this list), “Heroes and Villains” (#6), “Wonderful” (#13) and this beautifully bizarre number at #15.  Whatever eccentricities Brian showed in his composing mode, such an alarming practice obviously worked out well, with a batting average of .1000, including this banjo-laden stream of consciousness extravaganza.

16. “Feel Flows” [Surf’s Up; 1971]

Music by Carl Wilson with incredibly odd lyrics by Jack Rieley, with Carl singing the lead, this trippy ditty is unlike any other Beach Boys song.  Hell, it’s unlike any other song ever created, something Mike Love even agreed, calling it “amazing.”  Brilliantly used twice by Cameron Crowe in his coming of age masterpiece, Almost Famous.

17. “Surfin’ U.S.A.” [Surfin’ U.S.A.; 1963]

18. “Surfer Girl” [Surfer Girl; 1963]

19. “Surfin’ Safari” [Surfin’ Safari; 1962]

These three songs are what put The Beach Boys on the pop music map.  The roaring travelogue song, “Surfin’ U.S.A.,” may have stolen its music from Chuck Berry’s “Sweet Little Sixteen,” but if you’re going to steal something, steal from the best (Berry was later given songwriting credit). “Surfer Girl” is a dreamlike ode with incredible harmonies that outshine any of their contemporaries like the Four Preps. “Surfin’ Safari” gets stuck in your head more than any other Beach Boys song, with the exception of perhaps “Barbara Ann.”  These three songs were the template that groups like Jan & Dean would use in songs like “Surf City” (co-written by Brian), but no one could outmatch the Wilson brothers and their friends. 

20. “Sloop John B.” [Pet Sounds; 1966]

The greatest Beach Boys cover song, originally called “The John B. Sail” from 1916 and included in the 1927 Great American Songbook.  The Kingston Trio put it on the folk map with their recording of it in the 1950s, and Brian upped the ante, much to the urging of folk-loving Al Jardine. Some suggest that it’s odd song out on Pet Sounds, that it doesn’t belong. But I think it adds a balance to the album, a fast-paced, ripping tale with exquisite harmonies that offers us a reprieve from the more dour numbers about growing up.  Without it, Pet Sounds would be a lesser work, far more staid; with it, it puts the album in constant conversations about what is the Best Album of All Time.

21. “In My Room” [Surfer Girl; 1963]

Brian Wilson is not alone in celebrating his sanctuary, his kingdom.  The song would take on a deeper meaning much later when a depressed Brian would reportedly not leave his bedroom for several years. 

22. “All Summer Long” [All Summer Long; 1964]

Listening to the slow motion contemplativeness of “In My Room” and following it with the sheer liveliness of “All Summer Long,” you get a real sense of the group’s pendulum of hits—swinging from the sad to the energetic, from the dour to the joyous, from solitude to the ultimate beach party.

23. “Sail On, Sailor” [Holland; 1973]

It may have peaked at only #79 on the Billboard Hot 100,  but it has grown in stature ever since, certainly the greatest Beach Boys song without Brian, Carl, Mike, Dennis, Bruce or Al singing lead (Blondie Chaplin got that honor). Beautifully utilized by filmmaker Martin Scorsese in 2006’s The Departed.

24. “The Warmth of the Sun” [Shut Down Volume 2; 1964]

Mike Love and Brian wrote this on a very important date: November 22, 1963, the day of JFK’s assassination.  It’s such a somber tune, like a meditative dirge but with glimmers of hope calmly blanketing us as if with the sun’s warmth.

25. “Don’t Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)” [Pet Sounds; 1966]

Is this the most romantic tune in Brian’s oeuvre?  Only a cynic--or a child embarrassed by such gooey, slow-moving, lovey-dovey sentiments--could deny it.

26. “Break Away” [1969]

27. “Good Timin’” [L.A. (Light Album); 1979]

28. “Friends” [Friends; 1968]

These three songs get my vote for The Beach Boys’ most underrated classics. “Break Away,” written by Brian with his father, Murry (under the pseudonym Reggie Dunbar), is filled with so much verve with incredibly moving harmonies, yet it only reached #63 on the Hot 100.  And it’s impossible to feel anything but sky-high good will when listening to their relaxing and endearing “Good Timin’” (landing at #40 on the Billboard charts).  As for the third song, decades before the sit-com Friends, comes the album and the single that go by the same name. The song “Friends,” sung by Carl and only landing at #47 on the charts, is the closest thing to a Wilsonized waltz to hit the Hot 100 in the late 1960s. If this particular list of mine does anything, I hope it’s to get you to listen to songs that you might not have otherwise sought out.  And these three—along with “’Til I Die”—are tops in that department.

29. “Barbara Ann” [The Beach Boys Party!; 1965]

Another great cover song (written by Fred Fassert, with vocals by Brian along with Dean Torrence of Jan and Dean), “Barbara Ann” clocked in at #2 on the Billboard charts.  Even looking at this title makes it near impossible not to sing along loudly and proudly: “A Ba-Ba-Ba-Ba-Barbara Ann/Ba-Ba-Ba-Ba-Barbara Ann/Barbara Ann/Take my hand/Barbara Ann/You got me rockin' and a rollin'/Rockin' and a reelin'/Barbara Ann…”

30. “Dance, Dance, Dance” [Today; 1965]

Composed by Brian and Carl, with lyrics by Mike Love and Brian, this remains one of The Beach Boys most scorching rockers.

31. “Kokomo” [Still Cruisin’; 1989]

Something you might find in Margaritaville, this remains one of The Beach Boys’ best-known songs, a monster #1 single in 1988.  You haven’t lived until you’ve seen a young teen recite a dramatic oral interpretation to it (something I experienced in 1989, during my first year of teaching).  Brian wasn’t involved with this song, and although the critics enjoyed trashing it at the time, “Kokomo” has survived, proven to be at least a pleasant excursion, cool as a breeze on a sunny day, nothing more.

32. “Little Saint Nick” [The Beach Boys’ Christmas Album; 1964]

Is this toe-tapping, adorable favorite the best rock and roll Christmas song?  Although it’s preferable to Paul McCartney’s “Wonderful Christmastime” and Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” and holds its own with Bruce Springsteen’s “Santa Clause is Comin’ to Town,” but does it surpass Elvis Presley’s “Blue Christmas” or John Lennon’s “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)"?

33. "Disney Girls (1957)” [Surf’s Up; 1971]

A nostalgic look back at a time and “fantasy world” of Patti Page, “early night and pillow fights,” “open cars and clearer stars.”  Bruce Johnston, who would later write the Barry Manilow megahit “I Write the Songs,” took the reigns on this one.

34. “Be True to Your School” [Little Deuce Coupe; 1963]

So hokey and fun.  “Rah! Rah! Rah! Rah! Sis Boom Bah!”

35. “Darlin’” [Wild Honey; 1967]

Brian driving in the R&B lane with this one (“more soul than I ever had,” he sings). Hitting #19 on the charts, It’s been covered by the likes of Herb Alpert and David Cassidy.

36. “I Know There’s an Answer” [Pet Sounds; 1966]

Part of The Beach Boys’ struggles with being taken seriously as groundbreaking musicians comes to one basic fact: The name of the band. Calling themselves Beach Boys helped in the early surf ‘n turf days, but then in their latter grown-up phase, audiences blew them off and trivialized their greatness. (Besides, only one of them really surfed: Dennis.) Many people will always lock them in the beachy fun in the sun vaults, not where their legacy actually resides—in a land where they created some of the most beautiful, cutting edge, serious music in pop and rock history.  They are the only American group to rival the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. For proof, take this song, “I Know There’s an Answer,” not quite a throwaway but a mid-cut from Pet Sounds that would be centerpiece on anybody else’s album.

37. “Little Deuce Coupe” [Surfer Girl; 1963]

This salute to the 1932 Ford Model 18 is more beloved than great, more iconic than satisfying.  But as much as it revs and rocks, it remains a true snapshot of the era.  And yes, Tom Cruise sings this to his daughter in Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds.

38. “Wendy” [All Summer Long; 1964]

This should have been a much bigger hit (#44 on the Billboard Hot 100). Brian tries to emulate and even surpass Bob Crewe and the whole Four Seasons sound here, and he does so winningly.

39. “Catch a Wave” [Surfer Girl; 1963]

With this song as well as the surf anthems at the center of their early years, The Beach Boys found themselves, like the singer here, sitting on top of the world.

40. “Getcha Back” [The Beach Boys; 1985]

Imagine a universe where the later 1960s and 1970s never existed.  It's just surf and girls and cars zooming down the streets before the deluge of change, before Pet Sounds and Smile.  That’s what hearing this lovely ode to a past age reminds me of; it was produced in the mid-1980s, not twenty years earlier.  Written by Mike Love and Terry Melcher, it’s a perfect way to end this list, looking back at the early Beach Boys years the way we look at old yearbooks.  It makes you remember the notes your friends would scrawl to you in those Annuals, usually ending with the most heartening four letters: “H.A.G.S.”  And that’s how I’ll conclude this dive into The Beach Boys’ 40 greatest songs, with a hope and a prayer for you, whoever you are, to HAVE A GREAT SUMMER!

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