The Beach Boys’ discography holds many all-time greats, but veteran musician Brian Wilson had a love-hate relationship with one song.
The Pet Sounds mastermind made his thoughts on the song unclear in an interview, and a subsequent compilation album which featured the song. The Beach Boys member, who was kicked out of the band in 1982, noted Sail On, Sailor as his least favourite composition by the band. He said: “It’s the only song that we did that I absolutely do not like at all. I never liked Sail On, Sailor.” Despite his dislike for the song, Wilson went on to include it on a compilation album he had been working on, Classics Selected by Brian Wilson.
A full tracklist for Classics Selected by Brian Wilson, which released in 2002, can be found below.
- Surfer Girl
- The Warmth of the Sun
- I Get Around
- Don’t Worry, Baby
- In My Room
- California Girls
- God Only Knows
- Caroline, No
- Good Vibrations
- Wonderful
- Heroes and Villains
- Surf’s Up
- Busy Doin’ Nothin’
- We’re Together Again
- Time to Get Alone
- This Whole World
- Marcella
- Sail On, Sailor
- Til I Die
- California Feelin’
Speaking of Sail On, Sailor at the time, Wilson said: “Van Dyke [Parks] really inspired this one. We worked on it originally; then, the other collaborators contributed some different lyrics. By the time the Beach Boys recorded it, the lyrics were all over the place. But I love how this song rocks.”
It marks a far cry from it being Wilson’s least favourite song from The Beach Boys’ discography, but other rogue choices feature on the Classics Selected by Brian Wilson album. The inclusion of Marcella prompted Wilson to draw a comparison between The Beach Boys and The Rolling Stones.
He said: “It represents one of the first times we tried to emulate The Rolling Stones. In my mind, it was dedicated to the Stones, but I never told them that. It’s one of the rockingest songs I ever wrote.”
California Feelin’ had been intended for a Beach Boys record but was re-recorded by Wilson twice, once in the 1970s and again for the compilation album. He said: “California Feelin’ is a special song written in the early ’70s, originally for the Beach Boys; although never officially recorded or released by the Boys, it has always been a favourite of mine.
“So a few months ago, I took my new band into the studio, and I think we accomplished what we set out to do, that being putting a lot of love into this song with our voices. I hope you like it as much as I liked recording it for you.”
Wilson’s original performance of the song in November 1974 had been so disliked by the songwriter that he instructed the tape to be destroyed. This request was not honoured, and both the ’74 and ’78 versions of California Feelin’ were released in 2013.
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