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MLT God Only Knows Beach Boys covers surpasses 1 Million view, yay!!
This was one of the first covers I came across when I discovered Mona and Lisa on Youtube, and another one that just blew me away, and a song by my favorite band growing up. So I am so thrilled to see this cover of theirs hit this 1,000,000 view milestone. Love all those zeroes!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdqMB1GEQAM
I’ve heard God Only Knows for many decades, but MLT interpretation gave it new life for me when I first heard it.
This was my initial reaction I left in Youtube comments 2 years ago when I discovered MLT and saw this video for the first time, and my sentiment remain unchanged:
I’m a big Beach Boys fan, and I’ve never heard this song done as beautifully as this! The great vocal harmony Mona and Lisa are capable of truly shine here. I think Brian Wilson would have been proud to hear his song so beautifully done.
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37 Replies
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Here is Paul McCartney and Rolling Stones Ronnie Wood on this song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0F7AlIHyeCk
I like what Paul says about music and it’s healing power. “…little vibrations reaching your heart”
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Agreed, Jung. If I could have asked them to cover only one Beach Boys song, this one certainly would have been at or near the top of my list. It’s a pure pop symphony, and this version is just as moving as the original.
The Beach Boys are probably my second-favorite 60’s group after the Beatles, although I’m embarrassed to admit that I first became aware of them through Shaun Cassidy’s cover of “Surfin’ USA” and a commercial jingle for Sunkist orange soda set to the tune of “Good Vibrations”.
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David, well I was aware of a Leif Garrett cover of Surfin USA, but yeah even Shaun Cassidy did it. I guess there was a time when they were cool! 🙂 Well those were the days I had crush on Kristy McNichol and now I am really embarrassed.
I think I liked Dave Lee Roth’s cover of California Girls the best.
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Hey, you could do a lot worse than Kristy. Seemingly every girl I knew in junior high school copied her hairstyle.
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Those high school days bring a lot of fond memories. ?
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Want to relive those memories for 60 seconds, Jung? Check out this stunningly accurate time capsule. I could swear I knew these kids.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsKq6dYyBcI
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Thanks for that David! Yes it looks so familiar from a distant time, what nostalgic feelings that brings back! 1978, I would have been 15.
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David, I heard this Beach Boys gem that I haven’t heard in ages, and it transported me right back to high school. This was a Beach Boys remake of a Crystals song written by Phil Specter. It was very popular in 1967 everywhere except in the US, reaching #4 in the charts in the UK and all over Europe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geHQ3eEpMDs
Reminds me whey I liked the Beach Boys so much. Along the lines of Dont Worry Baby, In my Room, and Surfer Girl. Some of those old 60 tunes by the Beatles and Beach Boys like this one were very short, but very powerful and impactful I think.
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Very nice! I actually hadn’t heard that cover. But given Brian Wilson’s obsession with Phil Spector, it doesn’t surprise me that they did it. And of course, when you mentioned the Crystals, I immediately thought of Shaun Cassidy’s cover of “Da Do Ron Ron”.
You hit on some of my favorite Beach Boys songs there. “In My Room” makes me tear up every time I hear it. Introspective songs like that and “When I Grow Up to Be a Man” provide a perfect complement to their girls/cars/surfing persona and really round out their appeal.
My next offering in this music exchange is a Beach Boys cover by Harmony Grass, under their older name of Tony Rivers and the Castaways. The original was vocally very sparse, but HG filled it out beautifully and even gave a nod to Frankie Valli at the very end. The description of the video, written by Tony Rivers himself, is worth a read as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxEWvxQGiXU
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David, that is a great version of that song they did, and I see they met the Beach Boys (Bruce Johnson) in the day too, as well as Brian Wilson later.
Harmony Grass also reminds me a little of the Kinks as well in the vocals and style. When I listened to their “This is Us” album last night, the Kinks kept popping into mind as well. Perhaps the Beach Boys harmonies with the looks and vocals of the Kinks? Have a listen to the Kinks “Tired of Waiting For You”. What do you think? Thanks for sharing that, enjoyed listening to it.
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Yes, now that you mention it, they are kinda Kinky. Good observation!
“Tired of Waiting For You” is my favorite Kinks song. It’s also the unofficial theme song of my marriage. (Ba-dump, bump. Ching!)
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That’s my fave Kinks song too. Awesome and special song indeed! I liken it to MLT “Close To You” in emotion/feel/mood which is one of my faves on Orange.
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God Only Knows is in the top 5 of my playlist. Mona and Lisa do such an incredible, beautiful version. The Beatles and Beach Boys have some great harmonies, but their great songs are better as far as I’m concerned with the beautiful voices and harmony of the twins. Songs that I overlooked or forgot have become new classics. One of the best concerts I have ever been to was the Beach Boys in an outdoor venue. Went up on my Goldwing and drove right by an hour plus traffic jam then hooked up with some friends that had actually camped out overnight. A great show to be on the first row. Still I’d trade if for a show at the Cavern Club with MLT a few years ago.
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I couldn’t agree with you more John. I’ve seen the Beach Boys live 3 times in my life and they put on an incredibly exciting show. In the 70s Elton John made the mistake of having the Beach Boys perform before his show at Wembly as the back up band. The Beach Boys put on such a great show getting the audience super excited, poor Elton John had trouble keeping the pace the Beach Boys created, his show paled in comparison.
If I had a choice between seeing a Beatles reunion or back stage passes to meet the Beach Boys in person after the show versus seeing MLT perform live, I would choose the MLT in a heartbeat.
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Jung, are you familiar with a British group from the 60’s called Harmony Grass (a.k.a. Tony Rivers and the Castaways before the 60’s got all groovy)? They wrote, arranged, and recorded a lot of songs in the Beach Boys style, many of which would have seemed perfectly at home on Pet Sounds or Smile. Check out their album “This Is Us” on YouTube.
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Thanks David for letting me know about Harmony Grass. Just listened to the whole album, This is Us, and boy they certainly have that Beach Boys sound, and many songs would be right at home in Pet Sounds and Smile as you said. The orchestral parts in “I’ve Seen to Dream” draw a lot of parallels from God Only Knows I think. I liked “What a Groovy Day” the best. In some of the parts if someone said it was the Beach Boys, I might believe them with their harmonies and vocals. Very nice.
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Glad you enjoyed it! “I’ve Seen to Dream” strikes me as the Beach-Boysiest track on the album, and I think you’ve hit upon why. I hadn’t explicitly recognized the similarity to “God Only Knows”.
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The Beach Boys cover of “Then I Kissed Her” was also a hit single in Australia in 1967 and I remember it well as it was a favourite Beach Boys number of mine, along with their cover of “Sloop John ‘B’”. As for the Kinks, they have always been a favourite, just after the Rolling Stones and the Beatles. Favourites at the time were “Dedicated Follower of Fashion”, “A Well Respected Man” and “Sunny Afternoon”, but my all time favourite Kinks song is “Waterloo Sunset” and I live in hope that Mona and Lisa will one day cover it!
While Beatles poetry indicates friendship is everything, ‘Waterloo Sunset’ indicates loneliness is nothing to worry about.
Beatles: I get by with a little help from my friends.
Kinks: But I don’t, need no friends.
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Waterloo Sunset is nice, I like it. Liked tyou explanation of the meaning of that song. Will have to pay close attention to the lyrics. I think MLT may like that song too as I recall seeing it on one of their Facebook postings a little while ago.
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Agreed; this is a lovely song that I had never heard before. At the risk of resuscitating the plagiarism discussion, I think this tune might have “inspired” Neil Sedaka’s “Laughter in the Rain”.
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Well I must admit David, my immediate reaction was ‘what planet are you on’! However, having a new listen to the song I can see where you are coming from. Sedaka’s tune is fairly similar in parts. You can see there could be some inspiration there. Good call!
However, as far as plagiarism goes, I think it would be a very long bow for any plagiarism claims. Inspiration is a very tricky thing for music writers and has created issues for groups like Led Zeppelin. It’s amazing how the MLT are able to use various inspirations in their original work while making them totally all theirs!
As for another planet, Cody (‘Laughter in the Rain’ lyricist), reports writing the lyrics in about five minutes after smoking marijuana and falling asleep under a tree for a couple of hours.” Say no more!
One big difference between both songs is Sedaka’s tends to be on the uplifting side while Davies’ is more on the melancholic side! I’m sure Mona’s and Lisa’s ‘Waterloo Sunset’ cover would be on the uplifting side, in their inimitable, and unique ‘Bus Stop’ and ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’ style (and without the substance influence),
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Ahttps://www.jimcutler.com/three-song-clips-is-this-the-same-riff/
https://www.jimcutler.com/three-song-clips-is-this-the-same-riff/
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Nice find, Howard! I knew I couldn’t be the only person to have noticed the similarity. But honestly, ten seconds into “Waterloo Sunset” I was CERTAIN I was hearing “Laughter in the Rain” and wondering how I had never learned that Sedaka had just written new lyrics to an old song. But eventually the tunes diverged and I saw I was wrong.
I understand that the bar for plagiarism is very high, but it still bugs me. And I’m the type of person who will listen to a song a hundred times and never pay attention to the lyrics, so I’m laser-focused on the tune.
Just a few months ago I heard (well, to be clear, OVERheard) a song by Justin Bieber called “Love Yourself”, and after the first two lines I was internally screaming, “This is the Bee Gees’ ‘How Deep Is Your Love'”! But then it corrected course and became more original.
I agree that MLT could really do something with “Waterloo Sunset”!
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Well, you’re not alone there David. I also often find myself listening to music and thinking how much it reminds me of another song. As for Sedaka’s song, he only wrote the music. The lyrics were penned by Phil Cody.
Ray Davies’s song was written about seven years earlier. The following are the first verses of each song.
“Dirty old river, must you keep rolling, rolling into the night
People so busy, make me feel dizzy, taxi light shines so bright
But I don’t, need no friends
As long as I gaze on Waterloo Sunset, I am in paradise
Every day I look at the world from my window
Chilly chilly is the evening time, Waterloo sunset’s fine”“Strolling along country roads with my baby
It starts to rain, it begins to pour
Without an umbrella we’re soaked to the skin
I feel a shiver run up my spine
I feel the warmth of her hand in mine” -
God Only Knows?????? Still can’t listen to it all the way through without getting choked up. It was the song played during the father-daughter dance at my oldest daughter’s wedding. She believed the words expressed what she thought. Sooooooo……..it may be some time before I can listen to it again. But, I really like the song and MLTs cover. Mike.
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I couldn’t be happier to celebrate MLT’s cover of the Beach Boys’ “God Only Knows” hitting the 1 million mark as it it one of my very favorite MLT covers. The Beach Boys and the Beatles were my top two bands growing up in California during the 60’s. Actually though I still cannot understand why ALL of MLT’s work doesn’t have at least 10, no; 100 times as many hits as it does. As far as obvious musical plagiarism goes, how about The Beach Boys’ “Surfing USA” vs Chuck Berry’s “Sweet Little Sixteen”? It doesn’t get any more obvious than that!
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Oh, by the way, it was the BB who ripped off Mr. Berry in case you didn’t know. But, I love both.
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I have to say that there’s a part of me that says ‘don’t do it’ but my darker side says ‘why not’! So, at the risk of outraging the many Beach Boys fanatics in this club and offending our favourite twins, here goes!
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Wow! I was expecting some sort of abomination based on your intro, Howard, but this is fantastic!
I read up about them on Wikipedia: Camille and Kennerly Kitt, a.k.a. The Harp Twins. The article states that “they are best known for their duet arrangements of contemporary songs from artists including Iron Maiden, The Rolling Stones, Metallica, Lady Gaga, Blue Oyster Cult, AC/DC, Pink Floyd, Bon Jovi, Aerosmith, Rihanna, Guns N’ Roses, U2, Coldplay, Enya and Journey, as well as music scored for video games, films, and television. The Harp Twins have posted over 100 music videos on YouTube”.
Unless Mona and Lisa have been holding out on us about their harp-playing skills, I smell a possible collaboration. I’m trademarking this name: The Monharp Lisharp Twin Twins.
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Hi Stephen. That is correct about BB and Mr Berry. The issue of plagiarism was raised in the Forum Topic: “60’s Sound-Alike Songs”. You can easily do a search to find it.
The following was extracted from the web:
“Surfin’ U.S.A.” music was based on Chuck Berry’s 1958 hit “Sweet Little Sixteen.” The Beach Boys did it as a tribute to Berry, but didn’t get his permission first – maybe because Berry was in jail for transporting a minor across state lines. When Berry threatened to sue, The Beach Boys agreed to give him most of the royalties and list him as the song’s composer. The song also helped build Berry’s legend while he served his time.
David Marks, who was a guitarist in The Beach Boys from 1961-1963, explains on the DVD Brian Wilson Songwriter 1962 – 1969, that he and Carl Wilson would play guitars every day after school, and one day Carl brought home the album Chuck Berry Is On Top. They loved the album and introduced Berry’s sound to Brian Wilson, who loved the rhythm parts and put together “Surfin’ U.S.A.” based on that sound. Brian changed the lyrics and added a hook, but it is basically a rewrite of Berry’s “Sweet Little Sixteen.”
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