Elton John was always looking for new ways to reinvent the pop world.
Although his heart would forever be in the world of singer-songwriters like Laura Nyro and Cat Stevens, each one of his studio albums felt like a chance for him to twist the narrative on what people thought of him as whenever he performed. And while Bernie Taupin could always write the perfect lyric for every one of his songs, John was always going to be a sucker for tunes that had a great melody rather than a complicated lyric sheet.
After all, no great song is going to get on the radio simply by people listening to the words. A track like ‘American Pie’ by Don McLean might have a spectacular story that goes through rock and roll’s past, but even at its crushing seven-minute runtime, the reason why it works is because of how great that chorus melody is.
And for John, that ear for melody always came from listening to whatever music he could get his hands on. He never stopped being a fan once he got famous, and while he could always rely on his favourite classical compositions and his favourite Elvis Presley and Beatles records, it wasn’t hard to see him collaborating with the new school of rock acts and seeing where the music would take him half the time.
But while the Fab Four will forever be the gold standard for melodies, The Beach Boys weren’t that far behind most of the time. Brian Wilson wanted to create the kind of music that made people want to sing along every time they turned on the radio, but by the time that he hit Pet Sounds, everything had turned a corner. He was now writing music outside the realm of surfing and cars, but Surf’s Up was the most natural progression they could have made after making a masterpiece.
Although we’ll never know what a version of Smile would have sounded like had it been released in the 1960s, Surf’s Up might be the closest thing to Pet Sounds that they ever made afterwards. There are a few lulls like ‘Student Demonstration Time’, but songs like ‘Feel Flows’ and the title track are so beautiful that they could give ‘God Only Knows’ and ‘Wouldn’t It Be Nice’ a run for their money.
John always loved the raw sound they were able to get, but Surf’s Up would always hold a special place in his heart, saying, “The most perfect sounding album ever was Surf’s Up by the Beach Boys. You can hear the Beach Boys’ influence on songs like ‘Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me’, ‘Someone Saved My Life Tonight’, ‘Chameleon’, ‘God Invented Girls’. The bass notes and the piano on ‘Someone Saved My Life Tonight.’”
And when listening to how Wilson crafts a backing track, it’s easy to hear where John got some of his ideas. Wilson was always able to keep a pedal tone in the bass going on their early tracks to add a bit of tension, and when listening to how John frames his melodies, he seems to do the exact same thing when looking at the intro to ‘Your Song’ or ‘Tiny Dancer’.
While John would readily admit that he might not have the same immaculate ear that Wilson did, he certainly took all the mechanics of The Beach Boys’ sound and channelled into his own brand of musical magic. And given that Wilson once said that he would happily trade place with John, that’s practically the musical version of getting knighted in some respects.
