No one knows

Insert completely-expected-and-done-to-death-a-thousand-times-before comments about how this song is pretty fucking amazing and perfection in many people's eyes.

God Only Knows - The Beach Boys



I'm pretty critical of covers of any songs from Pet Sounds, I admit it. Mostly because, unlike this song, for example, so much of what made the songs right was tied up personally with who wrote and composed and it and who sang it*, especially for this one. This final product wasn't Brian and Carl's interpretation of it. The final product was Brian and Carl.

Which is why I think these are the two covers I do like best of any I have ever heard, and not just because I have a special spot for both of these series in my heart now, inextricably entwined as they are with two of the worst weeks in my life. Or maybe because of that and how they're more than just interpretations to me, since the second one isn't exactly stellar taken out of context (whereas I think the first one holds up very nicely on its own). I don't know.

God Only Knows (cover) - The cast of 'All The Small Things'
(It's longer in the episode; there's about two more minutes leading up to this. which includes a lovely little subtle humming by Clive Rowe [the guy handing the nosegay to the bride]).



God Only Knows (cover) - The cast of 'Skins'

No embedding, sorry, so click here

***

It's funny how something you were completely sure about up to very recently can turn around and change on you when you least expect. I'd always thought if I ever wrote about this song, I'd end on this cover, no matter what came before, and make a final point about how just because you're a great artist covering a great song doesn't guarantee you a great result. Except, suddenly tonight, after all the times when I've talked (offline) about how this just does quite hit the mark (mostly to the kid, who the patient bearer of my rants, at times), it suddenly...does. For tonight, anyway.

God Only Knows (cover) - David Bowie



* Honestly? Some days I like the slight tinge of prosaic cynicism I hear in Brian's voice better than the light undertone of submissive pathos in Carl's. But don't tell anyone.

God Only Knows (demo) - Beach Boys (Brian Wilson lead vocals)