Brian Wilson was born on this day in 1942. Here’s the Beach Boys performing “God Only Knows” in 1966.

YouTube video

UPDATE: Well, Brian did uncontrovertibly write the song, but I’ll try to make sure he’s actually in the next video touting his work.

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Ed Kilgore is a political columnist for New York and managing editor at the Democratic Strategist website. He was a contributing writer at the Washington Monthly from January 2012 until November 2015, and was the principal contributor to the Political Animal blog.