Best Beach Boys Single (A-sides only)

haha yeah it's funny how when Brian goes "stripped down" (say on Smiley Smile or Love You) there are zero cymbals+hi hats. Barely any snares too.

xp

zero cymbals+hi hats

well when you pretty much devote your life to trying to re-create "be my baby," it seems like that would be the way to go.

Voted for Break Away. It strikes me as being the archetypal Beach Boys song, somehow encompassing most of their evolutionary stages and lyrical themes and I think it's awesome. (has hi-hats too btw).

It's a bit of a shame that The Beach Boys in most people's minds is the early stuff up until 'Good Vibrations' - it seems that only the hardcore fans and "music geeks" (for want of a better term) are familiar with the great work they did from the collapse of the Smile project onwards. For me, they continued to be great up until at least Holland (I kinda consider stuff like 15 Big Ones and Love You to be strictly hardcore fan territory)

It's like, imagine an alternate universe in which The Beatles most known stuff was from 'Love Me Do' up until Rubber Soul, and everything else was stuff that only the dedicated hardcore fans gave a shit about... that's how the perception of The Beach Boys catalogue looks to me.

And yeah, I know 'Kokomo' was a big hit, but who really gives a shit about it apart from Mike Love?

these guys

http://media.giphy.com/media/5xtDarmC8FHPT2gvon6/giphy.gif

went with "i get around," which never really gets old for me -- it's such a profoundly weird song, impossible to use as background noise; i've probably listened to it more than 200 times and it still kinda startles me every time i hear it.

"rock and roll music" definitely the worst one. i actually kinda dig "kokomo" despite its awfulness.

remembering "god only knows" isn't a single really threw me for a loop. obviously the objective answer would be somehwere in the neighborhood of "california girls" through "villains," but i went with my heart and gave "friends" a vote. such a beautiful lil' ditty and probably the most immediately heartwarming (and listenable) of the lot for me

@everything have you heard the isolated bg vocal track from the end of "break away?" it was so beautiful bootleggers were circulating it as a proto-ambient SMiLE fragment for years before someone realized it's literally just a piece of scenery from a much later single

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mX_cjYr3yl0

so a '68 recording w/ a '69 release date isn't "much" later, but still funny (/beautiful and i have slept to it many times)

It is beautiful, thanks !
As for "California girls" belonging to the psychedelic era, it's clearly in between since it still has the rock n roll kind of bass riff (there must be a more appropriate description...shuffle rhythm ?) and the basic lyrics (girls !) but the arrangements and production are already fantastic and sophisticated (that intro!).
What a joyful shiny track !

voted Wouldn't It Be Nice. the bridge is one of the most gorgeous moments of pop music in recorded history.

Chord progression of California Girls so cool and weird.

I love the Beach Boys but I also have a special love for Blondie Chaplin-era Beach Boys that makes me want to judge them on completely separate terms. So my gut is saying "Sail On Sailor" even though it's barely representative of anything I love about non-Blondie Beach Boys.

Good Vibrations, over Wouldn't It Be Nice and Wild Honey.

Favorite songs not on the list: Aren't You Glad and Girl Don't Tell Me

"God only knows" was a double A but I can imagine it would run away with this..

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

I think I forgot to vote in the end, but I never did really decide between "I Get Around" and "Wouldn't It Be Nice," so the tie there is cool with me.

Missed the poll, but would have happily voted for "Help Me Rhonda." Team Jardine!

"friends" and "darlin" tying "california girls," "breakaway" beating them all – did not see that one coming.

"Breaak Away" is great and deserves its high showing, but thought "Surf's Up" was the ILM fave

I did vote "Breakaway" but "Do it again" would have been my 2nd place.

Remember getting into an argument with my older brother many years ago when he was talking about what a great Beach Boys song "Rock and Roll Music" was. "You idiot," I sneered. "It's the BEATLES!"