TOP 10: Beach Boys Songs
Summer is here, and if there is one American music act inextricably linked to the season, it’s The Beach Boys. The group launched out of the burgeoning surf scene in 1950s California, and quickly became international sensations with their surf-rock style that eventually evolved into some of the most inventive arrangements in pop music, past or present.
While The Beach Boys had dozens of amazing songs, we did our best to rank our Top 10 favorites. These are, of course, highly subjective. So if you disagree with our takes, drop a comment below and tell us YOUR favorite Beach Boys tracks.
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Honorable Mention: “Sail On, Sailor”
This 1973 track has a very different song than most associate with the Beach Boys, with more of a bluesy, folk-rock delivery that was more of a time in the 1970s than the upbeat surf-rock that the Boys had popularized a decade earlier. It’s still a great swaying summer song, and one I had never heard prior to starting to working on this list. It was not a huge single success for the band, but I think it’s deserving of more consideration as something different, yet still excellent.
10. “Sloop John B”
This 1966 Beach Boys track is actually a Bahamian folk song dating to at least the early 1900s, given a jangly, surf-rock coating. The song is about a boat trip to Nassau, a fight that happened overnight, and the sailor desperate to leave, leading to even more fights and arrests. If you’ve ever been on a bad trip with friends or family, you have to relate to the lyrics, “This is the worst trip I’ve ever been on.” It’s one of those songs that sounds upbeat, but the lyrics are actually super depressing, and I love that dichotomy.
9. “Fun, Fun, Fun”
This 1964 song is quintessential Beach Boys — super catchy hooks, lyrics about being young and irresponsible, and just fucking around having a great time. It is highly referential of the works of Chuck Berry and other early black rock ‘n’ roll artists, but is still undeniably Beach Boys.
8. “Don’t Worry Baby”
One of the Beach Boys’ signature ballads, “Don’t Worry Baby” gives us Brian Wilson singing his heart out on lead vocals, and a plaintive, haunting melody perfect for a slow dance or a tear-soaked reminiscence. It is the band at, arguably, its finest musically — certainly up to that point in its career. It’s only so low because, in my opinion, The Beach Boys are not really a ballad band, they’re all about the bangers.
7. “California Girls”
One of the band’s signature songs, this ode to horny youth was apparently inspired by Brian Wilson’s first acid trip. That symphonic introduction and the bopping B-3 organ line, plus the backing harmonies — which verge on clashing with the lead vocal line — give this song a wholly unique sound that borders on haunting. It’s only so low because there have been so many covers, including the one by David Lee Roth in the 1980s, that nearly match or exceed the laid-back energy of the original.
6. “Kokomo”
A highly controversial pick for the middle of the pack. If you were an original Beach Boys, you probably consider 1988’s “Kokomo” to border on heresy. But if you’re a Gen X-er or later, chances are you probably love the song. While Brian Wilson was not involved in this song at all, it features the essential Beach Boys DNA — beachy vibes, great harmonies, lyrics about having a good time, infectious hooks — but with a distinctly updated musical vibe. Released with the Tom Cruise movie Cocktail, it was a huge smash at the time and continues to be wildly popular…unless you were alive in the 1960s.
5. “I Get Around”
Released in 1964, “I Get Around” would become The Beach Boys’ first No. 1 single in the United States, and in my opinion, it remains one of their very best songs. While many songs in the Beach Boys catalogue incorporate similar topics, vibe, or energy, this one is the group operating at the top of its beach-rock game. Those harmonies! The unrelenting chorus! That stellar bridge! Tell me you aren’t bopping in your chair listening to this right now.
4. “Wouldn’t It Be Nice”
The lead single of the critically important Pet Sounds album, “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” ushered in a more grown-up and adventurous sound for The Beach Boys, while simultaneously giving us one of its more innocent/naive lyrics, about young lovers excited about what life would be like once they were married. (Suckers!) Recording for the single was apparently grueling, as Brian Wilson pushed the band members to achieve the sound he was going for — but it was worth it. This song remains hugely influential in pop music, and is a huge step up for the band in terms of its musicality.
3. “Surfin’ USA”
This 1963 track from the group was, actually, a cover of Chuck Berry’s “Sweet Little Sixteen,” featuring new surf-related lyrics by Brian Wilson. Done without Chuck Berry’s permission, so that’s…complicated. It became the Boys’ first Top 10 hit, and is one of the songs most identified with the band, and for the surf-rock genre generally. Even if you’ve personally never been surfing, you probably love this song.
2. “Good Vibrations”
This 1966 song is iconic for so many reasons. It is simultaneously of that time — the 1966 “flower power” movement that would give us the Hippies and counter-culture in general — and yet sounds almost alien, with that theremin line cutting through the laid-back chorus. It was instantly a hit single, and was intended to be part of the much-discussed Smile album, which never came to fruition. No other group could record this song. Only The Beach Boys. It was nominated for a Grammy, which — by the way — the Beach Boys never won, not a single one.
1. “God Only Knows”
Completely contradicting my earlier point about “the Beach Boys are about fun upbeat songs,” our No. 1 spot has to go to a song that is neither of those things, Brian Wilson’s magnum opus, “God Only Knows.” Released in 1966 along with “Wouldn’t It Be Nice?” it is a staggering work of pop music; if it were released in 2024, listeners would still be astonished by the musicality and originality of the song. It is beautiful. It is delicate. It is evocative. It is joyous. It is melancholy. It sounds corny to say that a pop song contains multitudes, but if any pop song does, it’s this one. Songwriters including Paul McCartney have said it is their favorite song of all time, and in 2021 Rolling Stone listed it as No. 11 on its 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list. It is exquisite.
Disagree with our rankings? Which Beach Boys songs did we forget? Drop a comment below!