Top 100: Beach Boys songs not by the Beach Boys

There's lotsa Jan & Dean tracks, if they qualify. (Co-written/Produced by Brian Wilson, of course.)

"kill surf city," obviously.
also there's the honeys, brian wilson's girl group. they did a surf song to the tune of "old folks at home" -- "we're surfin' down the swannee river..."

Yeah, Brian Wilson-related stuff would qualify, as well unrelated folks' homage/pastiche/ripoff songs.

97. "Weird Al" Yankovic: Trigger Happy
96. "Weird Al" Yankovic: Pancreas

95. Let's Hope Nobody Finds Us - Lewis Taylor
94. Lovesick (First Boy in this Town) - Scritti Politti (acapella chorus towards the end)
93. Back in the USSR - Beatles

92. Dr Jones - Aqua

91. We Hate You Little Girls - Throbbing Gristle

90. Shout at the Devil - Motley Crue

89. Starlight - The Tweenies

88. Put 'Em on the Glass - Sir Mixalot

87. The Knife - Genesis

86. David Ackles, Surf's Down
85. The Raspberries, Cruisin' Music
84. Dukes of Stratosphear, Pale and Precious
83. Chris White, Spanish Wine

82; Fuck the Millennium - Scooter

81. Hal - Play The Hits

80. Fleet Foxes - Red Squirrel

79. High Llamas

78. Borstal Breakout - Sham 69

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dial-A-Song:_20_Years_Of_They_Might_Be_Giants

77. The first song on the Panda Bear record

78. Super Furry Animals - "She's Got Spies" (mid-song vocal breakdown)

76. Gary Lewis and the Playboys-Just My Style

75. I'm Bad - LL Cool J

74. Kraftwerk, Autobahn

73. The entire recorded output of the Wondermints obvs.

72. Johnny Paycheck - He Stopped Loving Her Today

71. Brian Wilson - Alone Again (Naturally)

70. Ripgroove - Double 99

69. Too Drunk to Fuck - Dead Kennedys

60. rhythm of love: yes

'Buzzbomb'/'Buzzbomb From Pasadena' - Dead Kennedys

urgh - 59 - 'Buzzbomb'/'Buzzbomb From Pasadena' - Dead Kennedys

58. John Cale, "Mr. Wilson"

I wonder if "Be My Baby" by the Ronettes qualify? To me, I hear a strong kinship to "Don't Worry Baby".

87. The Knife - Genesis

???

some of you are going to surf.....

57. FM, "One O'Clock Tomorrow"

56. "The Best Day Ever" - SpongeBob SquarePants

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHcRd5hhN88

55. "Near Wild Heaven" - R.E.M.

54. Raspberries-"Drivin' Around"

A couple Norwegian ones:

53. Bakklandets Bassangforening: Gamle Gule Plata Til Beach Boys
52. Vazelina Bilopphøggers: Surfbrett

51. The Wondermints: Tracy Hide

50. Electric Light Orchestra - Jungle

Do we count "cue Beach Boys-esque bit here for irony purposes" items? I'm thinking of the intro of "So Much For The Afterglow" by Everclear, although it seems there must be dozens of such examples...

48. Freiheit: Give People a Chance

Also quite some bits by Jellyfish although their harmonies probably sounded more like Queen.

47. some Jesus & Mary Chain song

everything by David Scott since 1995

I seriously think about this thread weekly.

46. California Jam - Klaatu
47. Above the Clouds - ELO

uh, or whatever numbers I should've typed

Love Generation - Montage from How Sweet It Is (I knew that you knew)

my cool cucumbered non commital speech, that i wrote while hanging out at the beach!

43. Saint Etienne - Milk Bottle Symphony
42. R.E.M. - At My Most Beautiful
41. The Last - Every Summer Day

40. XTC - "Chalkhills and Children"

The "everybody does a Beach Boys homage" thing used to be kind of endearing, but it finally got on my last nerve when R.E.M. did "At My Most Beautiful." Especially the inevitable sleigh bells.

I wonder if "Be My Baby" by the Ronettes qualify? To me, I hear a strong kinship to "Don't Worry Baby".

The other way around actually--Wilson supposedly wrote "Don't Worry Baby" for the Ronettes but it didn't happen. Ronnie finally recorded it in 1999.

39. Smithereens - Strangers When We Meet

Gidea Park - Beach Boys Medley

37. The Critters - Mr. Dieingly (sic) Sad

36. Jonathan Coulton - Stroller Town

35. Willups Brighton, "Mouthful of Sores"

Same clip in proper context

34. Tommy Boyce & Bobby Hart - Goodbye Baby (I Don't Want To See You Cry)
(m e l t i n g l y great)

33. dino, desi & billy - tell someone you love them

32. Animal Collective - Bluish

32. Some of the harmonizing in the Zombies' "Care of Cell 44" is the most uncanny Beach Boys imitation I've ever heard.

Oops--31.

30. Ditto the one section in the Who's "A Quick One While He's Away."

this thread is an interesting reference for what signifies "Beach Boys" to people.

Fleetwood Mac - "Honey Hi" (esp coda which has "Honey *honey* honey hi" in round with the swelling reverb choruses of "Daddy all I'm trying to tell you" and "When I'm far away from home"... a total Pet Sounds/Smile pastiche).

28. Paul and Linda McCartney - Back Seat of My Car

27. Harvey Danger - Flagpole Sitta

26. Atlas Sound- Walkabout

Euclid Beach Band - There's No Surf in Cleveland

I sort of feel a Beach Boys vibe on some of the songs off of the new (tbr) Final Fantasy album

24. Tradewinds--New York's a Lonely Town

68. The Rolling Stones - I'd Much Rather Be With The Boys
(an interesting interlude in their "high mimic" phase, thanks, Tyler!)

67. The Besnard Lakes - Disaster

(Numbers 68-61 are as yet unused. 78 was used twice, but Noodle Vague sucked up a handful of numbers with his high-larious "deconstructivist" humour entries.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-jqEj1Hvnc
skeet surfin!

66. His Name Is Alive, "Universal Frequencies"
65. The Apples in Stereo, "Silver Chain"

64. Roy Wood - Why Does A Pretty Girl Sing Those Sad Songs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9To94tvjrA
63. Roy Wood - Forever
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8V-F4cXKRA
62. They Might Be Giants - The World Before Later On

61. "I've Got a Tiger in My Tank"- The Intimates (pre-VU Lou Reed co-write)

Next one's #23!

^Whoops, that's The Beach Nuts, altho it looks like there might have been an Intimates version. (Why cover a song so unutterably shitty?)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdOl2yXNFOg

64. Roy Wood - Why Does A Pretty Girl Sing Those Sad Songs

Mind blowing that all of the vocals and playing on this track is by Roy Wood - how the fuck did he do it??!?!?

I was just going to correct the person who posted that by saying it's more Neil Sedaka, then realised I posted it

anyway

61. XTC - Humble Daisy

23. World Party - Kuwait City

83. Chris White, Spanish Wine

Took me a long time to put 2+2 together and realise this was the guy from the Zombies

22. Cleaners From Venus - Pearl

21. Chris Rainbow - Dear Brian (and lots of other Chris Rainbow stuff)

(Numbers 68-61 are as yet unused. 78 was used twice, but Noodle Vague sucked up a handful of numbers with his high-larious "deconstructivist" humour entries.)

lol at this btw

none of them are by the high llamas

20. The Wondermints - Ride
19. The Wondermints - So Nice
18. Lisa Mychols - Lost Winter's Dream
17. Louis Philippe - Roll Back the Years

16. Jeffrey Foskett - Thru My Window

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSezk43b8_E

(basically a rewrite of "I Know There's an Answer')

15. Buster - We Love Girls

https://youtu.be/LttFMLHBNJM

14: Racing in the Streets by Springsteen. Sonically it's nothing like, but I can totally hear it structurally. And I imagine it in Mike Love's voice.

(Doo-doot, un-doo-doot, un-doo-doot, un-doo-doot)
I got a 59 Chevy with a 396, fuelly heads and a Hurst on the floor
(Ooh-woo-ooh-ooh)
She's waiden tonight down at the parkin lot ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIpNP-qmpU8

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

83. Chris White, Spanish Wine

Took me a long time to put 2+2 together and realise this was the guy from the Zombies

It isn't! It's an entirely different Chris White!

"I've Got a Tiger in My Tank"- The Intimates (pre-VU Lou Reed co-write)

lmao @ Lou being responsible for this

13. Tom Petty: "Hung Up and Overdue" (bonus points for having one of Carl Wilson's final recorded harmonies)

69. Andrew W.K. - Party Mindset

12. Flo and Eddie - Keep It Warm

11. The Who - Bucket T.

came here to say Keep It Warm

I can't believe no one said it in 11 years! Keep it warm, dl.

it's a fantastic song

The Tradewinds - I Believe in Her

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uF61kAXle34

I love this song just about as much as I love anything by the Beach Boys

oops that's #10

this is nice!

9. The Rolling Stones - "What To Do" (though it's not actually very good)

8. ELO - Across the Border

Several ELO songs previously listed, but none of the are this one, which blatantly cops the melody from Heroes and Villains

7. The Shins - Weird Divide

6. Manic Street Preachers - So Why So Sad (actually sounds more like Pinkerton's Assorted Colours)
5. XTC - Wrapped in Grey

4. The Shins - Phantom Limb
3. Wilco - I'm Always in Love

2.5 Big Sur, the Thrills

oh yeah that's a good one. always reminded me of early high llamas, but that's functionally the same thing.

2.25 Tears for Fears - "Brian Wilson Said"

came here to say Keep It Warm

I read this while scrolling up and thought it meant the Black Sabbath song

2.125 Elton John - "Better Off Dead"

Wrapped in Grey is really more of a Bacharach thing, don't you think?

2.126 The Raspberries - Overnight Sensation

They should have covered it, would have been perfect for Carl on lead vocals.

2.127 Chicago - Wishing You Were Here

It even has actual Beach Boys on harmonies. One of the few Chicago singles I actually enjoy.

whoops, should be the other way:

2.124

2.123

2. Coloursound – Jack Lemmon

Not gonna touch that numbering system

10cc: "Fresh Air For My Momma"

Erasure's 'A Little Respect' melody is pure Brian Wilson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWgrGNS6RWo

Paul Revere & the Raiders - "Good Thing"

2.125 Elton John - "Better Off Dead"

― Halfway there but for you, Thursday, March 27, 2025 9:26 PM (seven months ago) bookmarkflaglink

great call - i can't imagine this is a Love lead.

"Russian Hill", Jellyfish

John C. Reilly - Black Sheep