THE LAST TURKEY

Omitting a couple of rogue entries, here is the top 20 to 2:

02. Hey Jude/Let it be - The Beatles
03. All You Need is Love - The Beatles
04. Wouldn't it be Nice - The Beach Boys
05. California Girls - The Beach Boys
06. Good Vibrations - The Beach Boys
07. In my Life - The Beatles
08. She Loves You - The Beatles
09. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds - The Beatles
10. Surfin' USA - The Beach Boys
11. Do it again - The Beach Boys
12. Barbara Ann - The Beach Boys
13. I want to hold your hand - The Beatles
14. Help me Rhonda - The Beach Boys
15. With a little help from my friends - The Beatles
16. Sloop John B - The Beach Boys
17. Twist and Shout - The Beatles
18. Strawberry Fields Forever - The Beatles
19. I Get Around - The Beach Boys
20. Can't Buy me Love - The Beatles

But the greatest of them all is yet to come. At number one is song that I not only rate as the best by either of The Beatles/Beach Boys, but also one of, if not the greatest song ever made. Even Paul McCartney rates it as the greatest of time, it is the perfect "God Only Knows" by Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys:



"God Only Knows" is the eighth track on the Pet Sounds album and one of the most widely recognized songs performed by American pop band The Beach Boys. It was composed and produced by Brian Wilson, with lyrics by Tony Asher, and the lead vocal was sung by Carl Wilson.

The song broke new ground in many ways. It was one of the first pop songs to use the word 'God' in its title. The song was also far more technically sophisticated than anything the Beach Boys, or arguably any pop group, had ever attempted before - particularly the complicated melodic structure and vocal harmonies. As producer, Brian Wilson also used many unorthodox instruments for the genre, including the harpsichord and French horns that are heard in the song's famous introduction.

Tony Asher has noted the irony that this, one of the all-time great love songs, opens with the line 'I may not always love you' (although the line is turned on its head by the subsequent lines).

Mojo Magazine ranked the song as the 13th greatest song of all time. Pitchfork Media named it the best song of the 1960s. The song is 25th on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.

"God Only Knows" was one of the first pop songs to use the word "God" in its title (a decision that Wilson and Asher agonized over, fearing it would not get airplay as a result). As Brian's former wife Marilyn describes "The first time I heard it, Brian played it for me at the piano. And I went, 'Oh my god, he's talking about God in a record.' It was pretty daring to me. And it was another time I thought to myself, 'Oh, boy, he's really taking a chance.' I thought it was almost too religious. Too square. At that time. Yes, it was so great that he would say it and not be intimidated by what anybody else would think of the words or what he meant."

Tony Asher also explains that he and Brian "had lengthy conversations during the writing of 'God Only Knows', because unless you were Kate Smith and you were singing 'God Bless America', no one thought you could say 'God' in a song. No one had done it, and Brian didn't want to be the first person to try it. He said, 'We'll just never get any air play.' Isn't it amazing that we thought that? But it worked, and 'God Only Knows' is, to me, one of the great songs of our time. I mean the great songs. Not because I wrote the lyrics, but because it is an amazing piece of music that we were able to write a very compelling lyric to. It's the simplicity - the inference that 'I am who I am because of you' - that makes it very personal and tender.

Brian explains that although he feared putting the word 'God' in the title of the song, he eventually agreed to keep it. He explains that he agreed to keep the word 'God' in the title firstly, "because God was a spiritual word, and secondly, because Brian and The Beach Boys would "be breaking ground."

Brian Wilson originally intended to sing lead vocal on 'God Only Knows' but in the end he sacrificed the lead vocal to his brother Carl: "Well, I thought I was gonna do it. As the song progressed, I said, 'Hey, I feel kind of natural doing this.' But when we completed creating the song, I said my brother Carl will probably be able to impart the message better than I could, so I sacrificed that one. But he had a good time singing it."

Carl Wilson later described how lucky he felt being given the opportunity to sing 'God Only Knows': "I was honored to be able to sing that one. It is so beautifully written, it sings itself. Brian said something like, 'Don't do anything with it. Just sing it real straight. No effort. Take in a breath. Let it go real easy.' I was really grateful to be the one to sing that song. I felt extremely lucky."

Paul McCartney has expressed on a number of occasions his love for the song. In an interview with David Leaf in 1990, he stated that "It's a really, really great song—it's a big favorite of mine. I was asked recently to give my top ten favorite songs for a Japanese radio station...I didn't think long and hard on it, but I popped that [God Only Knows] on the top of my list. It's very deep. Very emotional, always a bit of a choker for me, that one. There are certain songs that just hit home with me, and they're the strangest collection of songs...but that is high on the list, I must say...God Only Knows' ' lyrics are great. Those do it to me every time."

Speaking on a special Radio 1 show to mark the British station's 40th anniversary, McCartney said "'God Only Knows' is one of the few songs that reduces me to tears every time I hear it. It's really just a love song, but it's brilliantly done. It shows the genius of Brian. "I've actually performed it with him and I'm afraid to say that during the sound check I broke down. It was just too much to stand there singing this song that does my head in, and to stand there singing it with Brian."

Bono said in October 2006 during Brian Wilson's induction into the UK Music Hall of Fame that "the string arrangement on 'God Only Knows' is fact and proof of angels."