Annoying Songs & Covers #37

“God Only Knows”

Firstly, some housekeeping. It was in August of 2024 when Randy Dafoe (Mostly Music Covers) and North Shubert (Quadzillabynorth) had an email exchange about annoying songs, annoying covers of great songs, annoying covers of annoying songs, and…You get the picture! And, on August 10^th the first installment appeared.

(https://quadzillabynorth.com/2024/08/10/annoying-songs-and-annoying-covers-an-origin-story/).

At that time, we had no idea how long we were going to keep this going, but neither of us thought it would go on for seventeen months! But as the old proverb, which is rooted in European folk wisdom says, “all good things must come to an end.” The meaning behind the saying is simply based on the universal understanding that nothing lasts forever. We are almost certain that this should evoke a collective: “Sure hope so” from some!

We have both enjoyed the comments we received on all these songs and covers, and neither of us believe that we offended anyone with our choices, well, not that we know of at least! Since North started things rolling in that inaugural post, and we traded back and forth on subsequent posts (odd and even #’s), it is up to North to provide the last hurrah for this series. So here it is.

The Beach Boys are an American rock band that formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The original line-up consisted of brothers Brian, Denis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and their friend, Al Jardine. Because of their distinguished vocal harmonies, adolescent-oriented lyrics, and musical ingenuity, they are considered one of the most influential acts of the rock era. Their first national hit, “Surfin’ Safari” (1962), was the first of a string of hit singles that reflected a southern California youth culture of surfing, cars, and romance, that became known as the “California Sound.” By 1965, Brain Wilson moved away from the beach-going themes with more introspective lyrics and ambitious studio productions, culminating in the 1966 release of the Pet Sounds album and the single, “Good Vibrations,” which raised the group’s prestige as rock innovators. To this day, both are considered to be among the greatest and most influential works in popular music history.

My featured song, “God Only Knows,” is from the album, Pet Sounds, and was written by Brian Wilson and Tony Asher. It is a baroque-style love song distinguished for its harmonic innovation and complexity, both lyrically and musically. The song’s musical sophistication is demonstrated by its three contrapuntal vocal parts and weak tonal center that competes between two keys. Lyrically, the words are expressed from the perspective of a narrator who asserts that life without their lover could only be fathomed by God-an entity that had been considered taboo to name in the title or lyric of a pop song at that time. It definitely marked a departure for Wilson from previous songs. Some have compared the song’s advanced harmonic structure to the work of classical composers, such as Delibes, Bach, and Stravinsky.

David Robert Jones (1947-2016), known as David Bowie, was an English singer, songwriter, and actor. He is, as he should be, regarded as among the most influential musicians of the 20^th century. He received particular acclaim for his work in the 1970s. His career was marked by both reinvention and visual presentation, and his music and stagecraft have had an enormous impact on popular music. He studied art, music, and design before embarking on a music career, his first chart success coming with “Space Oddity,” in 1969. After a brief period of experimentation, he re-emerged in 1972 during the glam rock era with the alter ego, Ziggy Stardust. The single, “Starman,” and its album, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1972), won him widespread popularity. By 1975, his style had shifted towards a sound characterized as “plastic soul,” which initially alienated many of his UK fans, but garnered him his first major US crossover success with the number-one single, “Fame,” and the album, Young Americans (1975). During his lifetime, his record sales, estimated at over 100 million worldwide, made him one of the best-selling musicians of all time. He is the recipient of numerous accolades, including six Grammy Awards and four Brit Awards. He has often been dubbed as the “chameleon of rock” due to his continual musical reinventions. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 and was ranked by Rolling Stone as one of the greatest singers, songwriters, and artists of all time. So you might be asking yourself right about now, how does an artist this popular and influential end up recording, for me at least, one of the most annoying covers I have ever heard? I wish I had an answer for you, but I don’t. I have read that there was a brief period, post 1970s, that some of his music output was, shall we say, less than stellar, and his cover of this Beach Boys classic was on his 16^th studio album, Tonight, from 1984. Keep in mind that he released ten more albums after this one, the last one, Blackstar, released in 2016 just before his death. There are many great artists who have had hiccups over the years, and I, of course, don’t know what was going through his mind when he decided to cover this song, but it just does not work. As always, you have the last word!

The Beach Boys. “God Only Knows” 1966.

David Bowie. “God Only Knows” cover 1984.

Over and out. Los Angeles 2025