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The 20 Best Beach Boys Songs (Staff Picks)

The Beach Boys' 20 best songs, including "I Get Around," "California Girls" and "Good Vibrations."

The proper wind-up for Pet Sounds, Brian Wilson detailing what a horrorshow he is in relationships — his jealousy, his hypocrisy, his unfair expectations — and concluding, “But she knows me so well/ That she can tell/ That I really love her.” He’s not absolving himself for his crappy behavior so much as he is acknowledging his relative lack of emotional intelligence, understanding that he’s not telling his girl anything she isn’t all too aware of. The lyrics aren’t poetry, but they do exactly what they need to without a wasted word, spinning a concise slice-of-life tale of what the ideal day looked like for an American teen in the early ‘60s: hamburgers, loud radios, fast cars, flirting and pissing off the old man. The song has a line that seems autobiographical, given their rising level of success over the previous two years: “My buddies and me are gettin’ real well-known.” The group projects an infectious confidence, with biographer Mark Dillon comparing the lyrics to “the braggadocio of a modern-day rapper” — fitting that one of the all-time most legendary MCs would recycle the title for his own cockiest hit.

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