Brian Wilson, songwriting machine.

Somebody once remarked that Brian Wilson's burst of creativity early in his career was unprecedented. There's this famous story of him writing "Surfer Girl". He wrote it out of the blue, and apparently that is the first song he wrote. That is incredible. I have my "Surfer Girl" story too but this is not the place to tell it. I'll say that if you have to write music in front of a piano, you probably aren't good enough to write music. You have to be able to hear the rough idea, a sketch of the completed music in your head. The piano is only there for you to figure out the exact notes of certain chords you may want to use.

Anyway, I read an article saying that there was a period of 2-3 years between 1963 and 1965 that Brian Wilson wrote an incredible shitload of good songs. Here is a selection of songs he released before 1965. It is a remarkable achievement for any musician.

Surfer Girl
Catch a Wave
Little Deuce Coupe
In My Room
Be True to Your School
Surfin USA
Shut Down
Fun Fun Fun
Don’t Worry Baby
Warmth of the Sun
I Get Around
All Summer Long
Little Honda
Wendy
When I Grow Up to be a Man
Help Me Rhonda
Dance Dance Dance
Please Let Me Wonder
Kiss Me Baby
She Knows Me Too Well
California Girls
Let Him Run Wild
You’re So Good to Me
All of Pet Sounds (13 tracks)

 Now THAT is real songwriting. No wonder he went mad soon after that.