God only knows how, but the hoarse voiced photojock really pulls it off, slowing down the song to a funereal pace, intoning over bare piano, with only a trace of strings and some George Harrisony slide. OK, arguably Brian Wilson’s meisterwork, it’s a song hard to destroy, but this lily he has gilded to the wall, and may surprise his many detractors, of which I am usually one.
When Bryan Adams decided the Beach Boys’ 1966 song “God Only Knows”, he thought he’d approach it like one of Tony Bennett and Bill Evans’ classic voice-and-piano duets. “There was no way I would ever want to duplicate a Beach Boys song,” says the Canadian rocker, who included the song on his forthcoming album “Tracks of My Years”.
“I wanted to have the vocal featured up front, with no echo and no reverb. I wanted people to hear the nuances of the voice, without any color on it. There’s nothing more beautiful than piano and voice together — other than maybe voice and guitar.
The Fat Angel Sings 