Watch 26 Versions of God Only Knows By the Beach Boys and Their Offshoot Bands

Pet Sounds is a Beach Boys album, and every member of the group sings on it, even new member Bruce Johnston, but much of the hard work was done by Brian Wilson, lyricist Tony Asher, and a large group of L.A. session pros that were later known as the Wrecking Crew. Mike Love, Carl Wilson, Al Jardine, Dennis Wilson, and Johnston were touring Japan when the basics tracks were laid down. To hear how the song came to fruition, check out this incredible recording that cobbles together some of the most interesting moments from the tracking sessions, including a rendition with Brian on vocals.

There’s a lot of trial and error when it comes to crafting a pop song. And sometimes the most important decisions aren’t about what to put in, but rather what to take out. And Brian Wilson wisely removed a sax solo from “God Only Knows.” As you can hear here, it was one element too many. The French horns, sleigh bells, flutes, accordions, multiple bass players, grand piano, and the string section were quite enough.

When the Beach Boys returned from their Japanese tour, Brian gave Carl an incredible gift when he let him sing the lead on “God Only Knows.” The early renditions with Brian all sound great, but Carl makes it soar. He was put on Earth to sing this song. It was the final element in a work that Paul McCartney has often called his single favorite song of all time. “‘God Only Knows’ is one of the few songs that reduces me to tears every time I hear it,” he told the BBC in 2007. “It’s really just a love song, but it’s brilliantly done. It shows the genius of Brian.”

In August 1967, shortly after pulling out of the Monterey Pop Festival, the Beach Boys flew to Hawaii for a series of shows they planned to release as a live album. Brian even went along, making it his only live appearance with the band between 1965 and 1970. They planned on calling the LP Lei’d in Hawaii until they came back and heard the tapes. Simply put, they did a ton of LSD before the show and were not at their best. Thankfully, the tapes survived, and we get to see and hear an early live version of “God Only Knows.” Recreating the sublime majesty of the Pet Sounds version was not possible, and they’d never manage to pull it off, but Carl is still in peak voice here. Perhaps it’s time to resurrect Lei’d in Hawaii as a proper live album.

The Beach Boys’ career took a significant nosedive in the late 1960s, even as they continued to release stellar albums like Wild Honey, Friends, and 20/20. This was a time of radical politics, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, and Jimi Hendrix. In this environment, the Beach Boys seemed as passé as The Donna Reed Show or Make Room for Daddy. They tried to adapt by ditching the striped shirts, growing out their hair, and even hanging out with the Beatles in India, but nothing worked. To get a good sense of them near their lowest ebb, check out this 1969 rendition of “God Only Knows,” where Mike is wearing loose white robes like a member of a cult, and Carl is sporting a nifty neckerchief.

A mere 10 years had passed since their debut LP, Surfin’ Safari, when the Beach Boys hit the road in 1972, but they’d already released an astounding 18 albums and were seen by much of the industry as relics from an unimaginably distant past. That didn’t mean they couldn’t still play venues like Carnegie Hall, and it didn’t mean the new lineup — featuring singer/guitarist Blondie Chaplin and drummer Ricky Fataar — wasn’t still capable of an incredible show. They professionally taped the Carnegie Hall gig, and there’s a stellar rendition of “God Only Knows.” Not many people were paying attention at this point, but that would all change in a very dramatic way just two years later.

As the Vietnam War was moving toward an ignominious conclusion and Watergate dominated the headlines, Americans were very anxious to look back toward a more innocent time. This is why Grease, Sha Na Na, American Graffiti, Happy Days, and reunion tours by CSNY and Bob Dylan with the Band were all so successful. And that’s why the Beach Boys’ Endless Summer compilation — centered exclusively around their 1960s hits — became one of the best-selling albums of the year. Its success brought the Beach Boys back into stadiums. Brian Wilson wasn’t initially part of the live band, but Carl, of course, sang a heartfelt “God Only Knows” every night.

The Beach Boys recorded a lot of new music throughout the second half of the 1970s, including oddball efforts like 1977’s The Beach Boys Love You, that would take decades to be fully appreciated, but their live show remained an oldies revue. “We knocked them dead every time we went out just playing the hits,” Jardine told Rolling Stone in 2025. “It allowed us to grow musically at home while we could continue to entertain. It was a nice balance.” One of the great triumphs was a massive U.K. show at Knebworth featuring all six core members of the band, including Brian Wilson. It was professionally filmed and recorded, commemorating one of the last glorious moments before Dennis Wilson’s tragic death.

Burned out from endless touring and ready to finally focus on his own career after two decades of tireless dedication to the band, Carl Wilson took a break from the Beach Boys to record his self-titled debut solo LP and go on the road as a solo act. This was a chance for the Beach Boys to take a year off and recharge their batteries, but that’s not what happened. They instead soldiered on and had Brian Wilson take over the “God Only Knows” vocals every night. As you can hear from this rendition, Brian’s voice isn’t exactly what it was in 1966, for a multitude of reasons, but he largely pulls it off.

Carl Wilson returned to full-time Beach Boys duty in May 1982, but then Brian left that November to devote himself fully to psychologist Eugene Landy’s treatment plan. Much as they had in the period between 1965 and 1975, the other members kept on gigging without him, often playing over 200 shows a year. Brian reemerged in 1988 with his first proper solo album, but he didn’t actually tour behind it. He did play the occasional special event, including a National Academy of Songwriters show in 1989 where he delivered a solo piano rendition of “God Only Knows.”

In 1988, the Beach Boys pulled off one of the great comebacks in music history when “Kokomo,” from the Cocktail soundtrack, hit Number One. It was their biggest hit since “Good Vibrations.” This could have been the start of a new golden age, but it was a one-off, and their attempts at pairing songs with other movies, like Problem Child, were abominations. Throughout it all, the concerts never stopped. Here’s a 1990 stop at the Garden State Arts Centre in Holmdel, New Jersey. Plug your ears when they play “Problem Child,” but listen to Carl’s work on “God Only Knows.” It’s transcendent.

We don’t know who set up the camcorder when Carl Wilson performed at a friend’s swanky private event in 1992, as chefs worked in a kitchen directly behind him, but we’re very grateful to them. It’s a rare chance to see Carl deliver a stripped-down rendition of “God Only Knows,” joined only by a keyboardist. He’s a mere 45 years old here, but already nearing the end of his life. That somehow adds even more poignancy to this rendition.

The “Kokomo” juggernaut was a distant memory by the 1990s, especially after grunge hit, but the Beach Boys had more than enough hits to pack venues with nostalgic boomers whenever they toured. This footage from 1995 shows a typical concert from the time, and it’s a rare glimpse of Al Jardine with a ponytail. Despite a lifetime of smoking cigarettes, Carl still has his voice.

Carl Wilson was diagnosed with lung cancer in early 1997, and everyone would have understood had he stepped away from the Beach Boys to focus on his treatment, but he decided to stick it out as long as possible. This Aug. 2, 1997, concert from the Concord Pavilion in Concord, California, was one of his final gigs and the last one that circulates as a recording. He had to sit on a stool most of the night, and he took oxygen between songs, but he always mustered the strength to stand for just one song: “God Only Knows.”

The death of Carl Wilson splintered the Beach Boys into bitterly warring factions. When the dust settled, Mike Love secured the right to the Beach Boys name for touring purposes, though he had to kick back a small portion of his nightly earnings to the other members. For the first time in history, they were touring without a single Wilson onstage. Mike retained Bruce Johnston, but he parted ways with Al Jardine at a time when they needed him more than ever. (Mike initially attempted to fill the void by bringing back original guitarist David Marks.) Al booked shows as Beach Boys Family and Friends, utilizing Brian Wilson’s daughters Carnie and Wendy, along with several alumni members of the Beach Boys touring band. It was a remarkable show, as you can see from this rendition of “God Only Knows,” where they all share lead vocals, but without the Beach Boys name, it was very hard for Jardine to book gigs. It was the start of a long wilderness period for him.

There was no easy way to handle “God Only Knows” in the Beach Boys’ live show once Carl Wilson died and Brian Wilson was long gone from the touring unit. The song simply isn’t designed for Mike Love’s voice. The best option was to throw it to Bruce Johnston, who was actually a key part of the harmony blend on the original recording. Nobody can compare to the original singer, but Johnston gave it his all for many, many years. It must have been a painful moment for everyone onstage in 1999, just one year after losing Carl.

Paul McCartney has claimed in countless interviews over the years that “God Only Knows” is his favorite song of all time. In 2002, he finally had the chance to sing the song with its author at the Adopt-A-Minefield Benefit Gala in Los Angeles. “We rehearsed it up, and while we were rehearsing I choked up,” McCartney said. “‘If you should ever leave me/The world could show nothing to me/What could living do to me?’ — the words of that, put with that melody and the harmonies, it was just the ultimate record for me. Very inspiring.”

When Brian Wilson announced his first solo tour in 1999, few fans imagined it was the start of a whole new chapter that would define much of his life for the next 23 years. In 2000, he began playing Pet Sounds straight through with local orchestras. These were magical nights that elevated Wilson into large theaters and outdoor amphitheaters all across the world. It was an ebb for the Beach Boys as a touring act and a peak for Wilson as an individual.

The Beach Boys circa 2010 weren’t in the habit of turning down a paying gig. That explains how they wound up in the parking lot of Atlanta’s Turner Field, performing in the blazing sun after a Braves game. Fan footage of the show makes the event look like a sweaty nightmare, but Bruce Johnston is a pro, and he sings a lovely “God Only Knows” as Mike Love shakes sleigh bells and wipes his brow. Christian Love is on rhythm guitar, but he’s also helping out on the high notes. In the years to come, he’d take on a much bigger role in the song. In the meantime, this was clearly a band in need of a major revitalization. They were just two years away.

There was so much bad blood in the Beach Boys throughout the first decade of the 2000s, and so many lawsuits and sharp barbs in the press, that a reunion tour of the surviving members felt very unlikely. But the impossible happened in 2012, when Mike Love, Brian Wilson, Al Jardine, Bruce Johnston, and David Marks put everything aside and came together one last time. Bruce Johnston and Brian Wilson were both very comfortable singing “God Only Knows” at this point, but they made the wise decision to isolate Carl’s vocals from the 1980 Knebworth concert and give him a posthumous spotlight moment.

Well, that didn’t last long. After touring the world for several months in 2012, the Beach Boys reunion tour fell apart in spectacularly messy and predictable fashion. Simply put, Brian Wilson and Al Jardine felt like they were fired, and Mike Love said he had no power to do such a thing. Whatever transpired, Mike Love and Bruce Johnston went back to their own incarnation of the Beach Boys by the end of the year. And Wilson wisely absorbed Jardine into his own band, invited early-1970s member Blondie Chaplin to join the fun, and hit the road. It meant they were back in venues like the Minnesota Zoo, as seen in this video, but at least Brian was once again in control of his own destiny. He was also once again singing “God Only Knows.”

Most rock biopics are atrociously bad, since it’s nearly impossible to find someone who can convincingly portray a music icon, and it’s equally difficult to cram the saga of an artist or band into a two-hour window of time. A very rare exception is the spectacular 2014 Brian Wilson biopic Love & Mercy, featuring Paul Dano as 1960s Brian and John Cusack as 1980s Brian. In this gut-wrenching scene, Dano’s Wilson sings “God Only Knows” to his dickhead father (Bill Camp), who of course dismisses it as “too wishy-washy” and then kicks him out of the house. This is a dramatization, but it reflects the difficulty Wilson had convincing his family and bandmates to push the group’s music past their initial surf hits.

By the summer of 2022, Brian Wilson was dealing with severe cognitive and physical issues that left him largely still and mute onstage. “Sometimes he’s really pumped and all there and ready to do a show,” longtime Brian Wilson bandmate Probyn Gregory told Rolling Stone in 2024. “At other times he’s scared and he’s heard voices or he’s just not feeling up to it. And I’m afraid to say that a lot of 2022 he wasn’t feeling up to it. So that was difficult.” One of the few leads he took that summer was “God Only Knows.” These are difficult videos to revisit, since Wilson was in such a fragile state, but it’s still moving to see him muster his remaining energy for this one song, much like his brother Carl did 25 years earlier.

Brian Wilson finally stepped off the road in late 2022, and Al Jardine had yet to reform the backing group with himself at the helm, so the Love/Johnston Beach Boys again had the circuit all to themselves. As you can see from this footage of a July 2, 2024, concert in Youngstown, Ohio, Johnston is still singing “God Only Knows,” and Mike Love is looking pretty spry for 83. Sadly, this wouldn’t be the case for much longer.

There’s simply no doubt that Al Jardine’s singing voice remained the most intact once the surviving members of the Beach Boys entered their seventh and eighth decades. And when Brian Wilson retired from touring in 2022, Jardine had little desire to exit the scene along with him. That’s why he reconvened Wilson’s backing band in 2025, redubbed them the Pet Sounds Band, and began booking shows. His son, Matt Jardine, became an essential part of Brian’s backing band near the end of their long run due to his soaring falsetto. He was an obvious choice to tackle “God Only Knows,” and he continues to nail it every single night.

In early 2025, Beach Boys fans noticed that Mike Love was rapidly losing weight, his singing voice was deteriorating down to a soft rasp, and he was beginning to sit down for portions of the live show. There was never any sort of announcement, though it was clear he was facing a health crisis. But the live shows continued, as they always have, even after Bruce Johnston left the band in February 2026. This once again left them without a lead singer for “God Only Knows,” but Christian Love took it on with ease. This meant that the two surviving original Beach Boys were now touring simultaneously, and both of their sons were singing “God Only Knows.”

Love’s Beach Boys canceled many shows throughout the summer and early fall of 2026 so that he could “recharge,” and when they reemerged in early October for gigs in Cincinnati and Nashville, Love was unable to walk without significant help, stand during the show, or even sing. Once again, Christian Love sang “God Only Knows.” It’s unclear what happens to the band once Mike is no longer able to tour. But we’re confident that Beach Boys shows will continue in one form or another, and someone with the last name of Love, Jardine, or Wilson will take the lead on “God Only Knows.” The song is simply too sublime to ever go away.