5 essential Beach Boys songs to add to your playlist

The Beach Boys were, of course, an extremely successful musical group that blended rock and pop music with jazz and folk and included barbershop quartet concepts. But they might also be easily dismissed as pop artists from the 1960s who made fun songs. That would be far too simplistic of a view of who they were, though.

Led by Brian Wilson, the group could create some extremely complex music that did not sound that way. That was part of the brilliance. Their songs were easy to listen to but not easy to make.

What follows are five tracks that every music lover should have on their playlist. One can still like punk or metal more. But a real appreciation of music should also include the Beach Boys.

Five Beach Boys songs that need to be on every music lover's playlist

"Good Vibrations" (1966)

Without Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys just sound like an interesting experiment that might not have the lasting power that the group has had. The melodies might still be fine, though not as consistently great. The lyrics would likely be OK. But the secret ingredient to the best of the Beach Boys was Wilson's genius - true genius not some overused version of the term - for production. He can see concepts not only better than most musicians, but others never would have been able to see the same things.

With the brilliance that is "Good Vibrations," Wilson managed to mesh together recordings of the song completed at four different studios and turn them into a seamless pop song that sounds as if the group recording the track live. And "Good Vibrations" is not an easy song to form that way with its constantly shifting tones.

But besides how the sausage is made, the final product is ridiculously enjoyable and a staple of the seeming innocence of mid-'60s surf rock. This is a don't-try-this-at-home song because it is deceptively complex, just like much of Brian Wilson's music.