God Only Knows

Genres attributed to "God Only Knows" include baroque rock,[5][6] baroque pop,[7][8] art pop,[9] psychedelic rock,[10][11] avant-pop,[12] and experimental pop.[13] Brian Wilson has said that he wrote the song as an attempt to match the standard of the Beatles' Rubber Soul album, which was released in December 1965.[14][15] In his recollection, he was under the influence of marijuana and was "so blown away" with the album that he sat at his piano and began writing the song.[16]

A visual representation of the chord progression and melodic structure for the first verse and chorus

The composition is known for its harmonic sophistication[5] and extensive use of inverted chords, including third inversions such as B⁷/A. The first chord of the verse (D major/A) is a non-diatonic chord. The tonic chord (E major) usually only appears with the major 3rd or the 5th in the bass. The entire verse progression sounds restless and ambiguous, until the line "God only knows what I'd be without you" when the chord progression finally reaches a clear goal (A–E/G♯–F♯m⁷–E). This has been cited by musicologists as a good example of how lyrical meaning can be supported and enhanced by a chord progression—along with the melody hook which also provides an example of "a sense of increasing melodic energy that comes by way of the gradually ascending line".[17] Stephen Downes similarly named the song's "tonal plasticity" emphasized by the disuse of authentic cadences and root-position tonics as the reason for its "expansiveness".[5] In musicologist Philip Lambert's opinion, the song's vocal counterpoint evokes the sacred traditions of a cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach or an oratorio by George Frideric Handel.[18] Andy Gill of the post-punk band Gang of Four describes the composition:

It's really very like the way classical music works, like a classical opera, say Lakmé by Delibes (the music that British Airways has appropriated). The melody rises and falls while the echo of that melody, sung by another voice, intertwines with it. Then it goes back to the verse, with its own melody, which is a variation on the chorus melody. As that is sung, the background voices provide an abstract, disconnected harmony. All the time, upfront, is the poetic heart of the lyric.[19]

The key gravitates between A major and E major,[20][21] while the bass-line was written in a different key from the rest of the song.[22] The music theorist Daniel Harrison compared the song to an earlier Brian Wilson composition, "California Girls", as it both avoids a root-position tonic and suppresses a cadential drive.[23] It also contains a step-wise descending bass-line like Wilson's other compositions on the Pet Sounds album.[24] Dominic King believed the barbershop flat seventh saved the song from "excessive sentimentality".[25]

After its instrumental linking passage, the key ascends to its fourth interval.[26] According to author Jim Fusilli: "Brian came pretty close to writing himself into a dead end. There's really nowhere to go coming out of the bridge, which modulates to G major from D major but ends with a D major–A major–B minor pattern. Thus, when the song returns to D Major, it must do so from B minor, which is kind of a static change, particularly when the next chord is a B minor with only a slight variation in the bass."[27] Along with the 8+4 measure verse/chorus scheme, Downes called the idea of a "bridge section in a related key" standard for rock/pop music, but adds: "What is different here, however, is how the move to the subdominant in the bridge conditions the tonal behavior of the entire song, which, though nominally in E Major, is characterized throughout by a tension between it and A major."[5] The "choral fantasy" during this key change eventually concludes that "a clear sense has eluded us for the entire experience—that in fact, the idea of 'key' has itself been challenged and subverted", in Lambert's opinion.[20]

The song closes with perpetual rounds, a centuries-old technique that was not normally heard in pop music of its time.[28] According to Wilson: "I liked all those old songs that used rounds, like 'Row, Row, Row Your Boat' and 'Frère Jacques'. I liked rounds because they made it seem like a song was something eternal."[29]

The song is told from the point of view of someone contemplating life without their lover, as Asher describes, "'I'll love you till the sun burns out, then I'm gone,' ergo 'I'm gonna love you forever.'" Wilson explained that "God Only Knows" was "a vision that Tony and I had. It's like being blind but in being blind, you can see more. You close your eyes; you're able to see a place or something that's happening."[1] He initially hated the opening line of the song as "it was too negative." He eventually gave in after hearing the subsequent lyrics.[30] In 1976, Brian said there was no one particular that the song was written for.[31]

Fusilli extrapolated that the song was "a mature proclamation of love and a desperate plea. And it's a distillation of what much of Pet Sounds is about: the sense that if we surrender to an all-consuming love, we will never be able to live without it. And, though we're uncertain that the reward is worth the risk, we yearn to surrender." Fusilli also noted a closing phrase Wilson had once written to his wife in 1964: "Yours 'til God wants us apart."[32] James Perone wrote: "While Wilson's character may indeed be in love with the woman to whom he sings, there is a hint that part of this 'love' may be self-serving and part of a cycle of codependency."[33] Asher denied that the song alluded to suicide.[34] He describes his interpretation:

This is the one [song] that I thought would be a hit record because it was so incredibly beautiful. I was concerned that maybe the lyrics weren't up to the same level as the music; how many love songs start off with the line, "I may not always love you"? I liked that twist, and fought to start the song that way. Working with Brian, I didn't have a whole lot of fighting to do, but I was certainly willing to fight to the end for that. …"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.[30]

"God Only Knows" is frequently cited for referencing "God" in its title,[lower-alpha 1] a decision that Wilson and Asher agonized over, fearing it would not get airplay as a result. As Wilson's then-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.[39]

Asher explains that he and Wilson had "lengthy conversations" about it, "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?"[30] Wilson stated that although he feared putting the word "God" in the title of the song, he eventually agreed to keep it, firstly, "because God was a spiritual word", and secondly, because the Beach Boys would "be breaking ground".

The instrumental section of the song was recorded on March 10, 1966,[42] at United Western Recorders, Hollywood, California,[43] with the session engineered by Chuck Britz and produced by Brian Wilson. The instrumental part of the song took 20 takes to achieve what is the master take of the song.[37] Present on the day of the instrumental recording was Carl on twelve-string guitar[44] among other session musicians collectively known as The Wrecking Crew. A strip of masking tape was placed over the strings of a piano while the bottoms of two plastic orange juice bottles were used for percussion.[45]

According to Brian, many of the musicians who were present at the "God Only Knows" sessions claim that those sessions were some of "the most magical, beautiful musical experiences they've ever heard". He added that there were 23 musicians present during the "God Only Knows" sessions, though only 16 are credited as being present on the actual take that was used for the final song. At the time, 23 musicians was an astounding number of musicians for a pop record. All the musicians played simultaneously, creating "a rich, heavenly blanket of music".[46] A string section was overdubbed thereafter.[37]

Brian originally intended to sing lead vocal on "God Only Knows" but after the instrumental portions of the song had been recorded, Brian thought Carl could impart the message better than he could.[39] Brian reflected in October 1966, "I gave the song to Carl because I was looking for a tenderness and a sweetness which I knew Carl had in himself as well as in his voice. He brought dignity to the song and the words, through him, became not a lyric, but words."[47] At the time, it was rare for Carl to sing lead on a Beach Boys song.[25]

Bruce Johnston explains that "Brian really worked a lot on 'God Only Knows', and at one point, he had all the Beach Boys, Terry Melcher and two of the Rovell sisters [Brian's wife Marilyn and her sister Diane] on it. It just got so overloaded; it was nuts. So he was smart enough to peel it all back, and he held voices back to the bridge, me at the top end, Carl in the middle and Brian on the bottom. At that point, Brian's right move was to get subtler. He had a very tender track here. 'God Only Knows' is a very small masterpiece with a major heartbeat, and he was right to peel everybody back and wind up with the three parts. In fact, it's probably the only well-known Beach Boys track that has just three voices on it."[39]

The final vocal track was recorded between March and April 1966 at CBS Columbia Square, Hollywood,[43] with the session engineered by Ralph Balantin and produced by Brian. The song features three voices on the track. Carl is featured on lead vocals, with Brian and Johnston backing him. Johnston explained that, "The really cute thing is that at the end of the session, Carl was really tired, and he went home. So Brian ... remember, this was 8-track, so, he now has these extra tracks at his disposal. But there were just the two of us. So in the fade, he's singing two of the three parts. He sang the top and the bottom part and I sang in the middle."[39] Brian used the production technique of double-tracking Carl's voice, so that his voice is simultaneously singing the same part twice, to give the vocal a fuller and richer sound; Brian used this technique often during the recording of Pet Sounds. The song's sessions concluded on April 11.[48][43]

Per band archivist Craig Slowinski.[49]

The Beach Boys

• Bruce Johnston – backing vocals
• Brian Wilson – backing vocals
• Carl Wilson – lead vocals, 12-string electric guitar

Additional musicians

Cover released in Italian territories with flipped A and B-sides

The song first appeared on the Beach Boys' 1966 album Pet Sounds in monophonic sound format. Initially, Brian considered releasing it as a single under Carl Wilson's name, but the group were in demand for a new single. Because their impending "Good Vibrations" was not yet ready, "God Only Knows" was issued instead.[50]

On July 11, 1966, it was issued as the B-side of the American "Wouldn't It Be Nice" single. In other territories, the song was the A-side.[51] The song only reached 39 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1966.[52] Treated as the A-side across Europe, it was a success, peaking at number 2 in the UK,[53] and in national charts cited contemporarily by Billboard: 4 in the Netherlands and Belgium, 6 in Ireland and Norway, 22 in Germany; and 17 in Australia. In September, the song peaked at 6 in Canada and 24 in France.[54]

Domenic Priore reports that in some parts of the United States, "God Only Knows" was banned from radio for blasphemy.[41]

Author Barry Miles wrote that it was one track of Pet Sounds which proved that rock music was an art form.[56] Sound engineer Eugene Gearty called "God Only Knows" a perfect example of "how much [Brian] modulated from key to key. He was far more complex than the Beatles and mostly like [Igor] Stravinsky in orchestral music where the key changes and key centers change four or five times within a pop tune, which is unheard of."[57] Gill believes: "I can’t think of any other 'pop love song' that is pinioned between a febrile, almost desperate desire and fear and its opposite, a contented contemplation of a harmonious relationship."[19]

Mojo magazine ranked the song as the 13th greatest song of all time. In a poll on the MTV station, VH1, it placed at number 28 on the UK's Nation's Favourite Lyric. It was voted by listeners of BBC Radio 2 as one of the three songs that changes people's lives. In its list of the 100 best singles of the last 50 years, Popdose ranked "God Only Knows" at number 1, saying: "It is simply one of the most beautifully composed and arranged songs in the history of not just pop music, but Western music. To place 'God Only Knows' in its proper context is to compare it not just to 1966 Paul McCartney, but 1836 Frédéric Chopin."[58] English broadcaster Dominic King deemed it the most "perfectly constructed song in pop history".[25] Brian's mother, Audree Wilson, believes that "God Only Knows" was one of Brian's finest ever compositions, as she stated in an interview: "'God Only Knows' ... What can you say about it? I still think it's one of his greatest pieces."[39] Entertainment Weekly ranked the song number one in its "Fifty Greatest Love Songs" list.[59]

Film

• 1997: Boogie Nights[3]
• 2002: Scooby-Doo
• 2003: Love Actually[3]
• 2003: My Life Without Me
• 2004: Saved!
• 2019: Toy Story 4[66]

Television

• 1989: The Wonder Years – used in the episode, "Heartbreak"
• 2006–09: Big Love – used as opening music for the first three seasons[3]
• 2007: Skins – sung by characters performing in a choir
• 2016: The Goldbergs – used in the third episode of the fourth season, "George! George Glass!"
• 2017: The Leftovers – used in the seventh episode of the third season, "The Most Powerful Man in the World (and His Identical Twin Brother)"[67]
• 2019: Grace and Frankie – used in the thirteenth episode of the fifth season, "The Alternative"

Video Games

• 2013: BioShock Infinite – contains a turn-of-the-century barbershop quartet that sings the song while floating past the player on an airship. As the game is set in 1912, the song is used anachronistically, one of many time-bending experiences that characterize the game.

The Beach Boys

The Vogues

Marilyn Scott

• "God Only Knows" at Last.fm
• Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics