Pete Yorn Covers the Beach Boys (and Nails It)

I love the Beach Boys, I make no bones about it. While it is seemingly very hip to claim the high water mark Pet Sounds or the ill fated Smile and pan the rest of the lot, I’ll take it much further than that. From the early 60′s harmony rich barber shop ditties to the 70′s hippied out Sunflower & Surfs Up these guys were great at what they did, turning in their fare share of classic tunes along the way.

I wanted to be excited by the band’s reunion at this years’ Grammy awards, I really did. Maybe it was the lack of Carl and Dennis, maybe it was the uber-lame collaborators, or maybe it was just that these guys just seem like a nostalgia act in it’s purest form. Either way, it didn’t do it for me.

One positive of the situation is that it did shine a light on one of my favorite American vocal groups, inspiring me and hopefully a lot of others to dig back into the vaults and spin some old Beach Boy Records. One such inspiree was Pete Yorn who inspired by the Grammy performance “wanted to share with you”, what he describes as “one of my all time favorite songs I recorded a few months ago as part of a cover song record I’m putting together.”

I wouldn’t be posting this if Pete didn’t nail the take. So old school Beach Boy fans and lovers of pretty harmonies in general, check out this take of the Beach Boy classic,”Surfer Girl” below.