God Only Knows

The Beach Boys released God Only Knows in 1966 on Pet Sounds, with Brian Wilson's younger brother Carl taking the lead vocal. Wilson wrote it with the lyricist Tony Asher, and both men worried that putting God in the title would keep it off the radio. Couples choose it for the honesty of its opening line, for the French horn that opens the record, and for a tempo that drifts rather than pushes. Paul McCartney has called it the greatest song ever written and broke down during a soundcheck when he sang it with Wilson in 2002. It was released in Britain as an A side, though in America it was the B side of Wouldn't It Be Nice.