Brian Wilson was no different than any other kid growing up in the late ’50s and early ’60s — at least, to an extent. Like thousands of other teenagers, he tuned in religiously to the pop music pumping out of the nation’s transistor radios and deuce coupes. But unlike the vast majority of radio listeners, he had the skills (and the fraternal harmonies) to discover gold among the dross and, by re-recording a few of them, transform kids’ music into miniature pop symphonies. Below the fold, check out samples of his best cover versions with the Beach Boys.

Granted, the Beach Boys recorded a lot of covers — they had at least one on virtually every album they released, from primitive stabs at their favorite rock & roll chestnuts (”Louie Louie,” “Summertime Blues”) on their first records to over-polished nostalgia exercises (”Blueberry Hill,” “A Casual Look”) later in the ’70s.

What’s clear in the following samples, though, is Wilson’s keen intelligence for spotting songs that could be improved (if not defined) with the full range of a professional studio and the Beach Boys’ incredible depth of feel. Listen to how the Beach Boys’ versions bring rather skeletal chart fodder like the Mystics’ “Hushabye” or Bobby Freeman’s “Do You Want to Dance” into the jet age, production-wise. Or, when they covered two of the maestro Phil Spector’s productions — the Crystals’ “Then He Kissed Me” and Veronica’s “So Young” — listen to the way that the Beach Boys could drip with pathos and find a level of emotion that flattened the Crystals’ or Veronica’s abilities.

The Mystics - Hushabye (sample)
The Beach Boys - Hushabye (sample)

Bobby Freeman - Do You Want to Dance (sample)
The Beach Boys - Do You Wanna Dance (sample)

The Crystals - Then He Kissed Me (sample)
The Beach Boys - Then I Kissed Her (sample)

Veronica - So Young (sample)
The Beach Boys - I’m So Young (sample)

Two more samples, one not a cover but an answer to the Ad Libs’ Top Ten hit from 1965, where instead of talking about a boy from New York City, the Beach Boys talk about a girl who came out to the West Coast from NYC. The second is not only the biggest hit the band had with a cover (the Regents’ “Barbara Ann”), but also, ironically, their most faithful cover version — a loose, “live in the studio” performance from their Beach Boys’ Party album that hit number two in late 1965 (just as Pet Sounds was beginning to unfold).

The Ad Libs - The Boy from New York City (sample)
The Beach Boys - The Girl from New York City (sample)

The Regents - Barbara Ann (sample)
The Beach Boys - Barbara Ann (sample)