Key ambiguity and motifs "God Only Knows" contains a weak
tonal center that is closest to
E major and, in other sections,
A major. Adding to this, almost all of the chords are
inverted. An E major triad with its bass note in the root position is never invoked, and instead, the position is favored. Of the tracks on
Pet Sounds, it is the only one that lacks a strongly established primary key center (others employ key ambiguity to a lesser degree), and the only one that modulates its key up a fourth interval (others descend by a third). In his book about
Pet Sounds, Charles Granata writes that some of the musical devices that "God Only Knows" employs are usually "rather ordinary" by themselves. However, in this case, they were executed in a manner that was "far more sophisticated than anything the Beach Boys—or any other modern pop vocal group—had done before." According to musicologist James Garratt, the "tonal plasticity" made the song innovative not just in pop music, but also for the
Baroque style it is emulating. He credits the sense of "expansiveness" evoked by the piece to this quality, emphasized by the disuse of
authentic cadences and root-position
tonics. Lambert states that "a clear sense of key" eludes the listener "for the entire experience—that in fact, the idea of 'key' has itself been challenged and subverted". The song contains a recurring melodic motif that is reinforced by the lead vocal and the line played on
French horn. Musician
Andy Gill identified the verse and chorus melodies as variations on the same line, and added that this type of melodic variation was "very" similar to the technique as it is used in
classical pieces such as
Delibes'
Lakmé. To Lambert, the song's use of vocal
counterpoints evoked the sacred traditions of a
cantata by
Bach or an
oratorio by
Handel. He likened the use of
sustained strings to those employed by Wilson on the
Pet Sounds tracks "
Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)" and "
I'm Waiting for the Day". While some commentators have characterized
Pet Sounds as a
baroque pop album, musicologist John Howland argues that "God Only Knows" is the album's only track that can be described as such. "Baroque pop" was not used in reviews or critical discussions on
Pet Sounds until rock critics in the 1990s began adopting the phrase in reference to artists that the album had influenced. Howland commented that some "classicistic gestures" are present in the orchestration for "God Only Knows", however, listeners must keep in mind that "orchestral instruments do not always signify baroque/classicistic textures".
Intro, verse, and refrain "God Only Knows" starts with an A major chord accompanied by the sounds of accordions, harpsichord, and French horn, which are soon joined by bass, tambourine, and
sleigh bells. At this point, the listener may hear the song as being in the key of A, although part of the line played on French horn includes a note (D) outside of that key. According to Lambert, "The ear wants to hear the music in the key of A, and is just starting to feel that it's okay to dismiss the horn note [until the proceeding verse section]." The verses begin with a D chord, weakening the impression of an A key center, and is followed by a B minor6 chord, which does not strongly suggest the
dominant (v) chord of E. As the verse develops, it gravitates closer to the key of E on the lines "you never need to doubt it / I'll make you so sure about it" before entering the hook line, "God only knows what I'd be without you", which begins with a return to an A major chord on the "God only" portion. The verse and refrain then repeats, this time with the addition of a string ensemble, before entering the next section of the composition. Music theorist
Daniel Harrison describes the progression as "highly
chromatic" and writes, "in the absence of a strong E tonic, A major seems to fill the vacuum at the tonal center, since it is the chord that begins the refrain, and since it receives a strong tonic charge upon the resolution of the chord preceding the refrain. In addition, the opening chords of the verse, while nondiatonic to the nominative E major tonic, diatonic to A." Lambert writes that the end of the refrain "recall[s] the chord progression of the introduction but... with an even slighter sense of tonal security." In a 2011 interview, Wilson commented that the melody of "I may not always love you" resembled the "I hear the sound of music" line from "
The Sound of Music".
Break and coda Like many of Wilson's compositions, "God Only Knows" subverted the then-standard 32-bar A-A-B-A pop song format. Following the second refrain, it segues into an instrumental linking passage, described by Dillon as an "avant-garde and unusually jarring transition for a tender love song". Lambert characterizes the passage as "a whirlwind of chord relations... based on wedging-together instrumental lines". The song proceeds to repeat the progression of the verse and refrain, however, transposed up by a fourth and with the addition of new vocals. Multiple vocal parts are sung in counterpoint, a technique that is distinguished from the "oos" and "ahhs" style of vocals for which the Beach Boys are known. Lambert identifies this section as a "choral fantasy" of wordless voices that "climax[es] on a dramatic
diminished chord". Music teacher Richard Battista, referring to this climax as a "sigh" from the singers, said that it is "totally unique in pop music. He didn't borrow that from
the Four Freshmen, or
the Everly Brothers, or
the Coasters. That sigh is pure Brian Wilson." It concludes once again with the hook line, after which there is a repetition of the second verse. According to Harrison, "The competition between E and A for tonic control is made clear during the break between verse 2 and the recapitulation of verse 1 lyrics.... the allusion to the harmonic structure of the verse is made subtle both by the transposition and by different melodic activity. Only when the music of the now A-major refrain is encountered do the voices return to their familiar words." Garratt writes, "While the idea of presenting the verse harmonies in the subdominant in the bridge was not new, what is striking here is the smoothness with which the song drops back into the original key – a moment rendered even more arresting by the truncated three-measure phrase that precedes it." Fusilli remarked that Wilson nearly "wr[ote] himself into a dead end", elaborating that "when the song returns to D Major, it must do so from B minor, which is kind of a static change, particularly when the next chord is a B minor with only a slight variation in the bass." The song ends with a final
coda that features repeating vocal
rounds—a centuries-old technique that was highly unusual for pop music of the era— with
triplet fills played on a drum kit. Wilson's
2016 memoir states, "I liked all those old songs that used rounds, like '
Row, Row, Row Your Boat'... and '
Frère Jacques'... I liked rounds because they made it seem like a song was something eternal." At its conclusion, Lambert writes, "we hear A major chords that want to provide harmonic stability, but as before, the chords and vocal lines surrounding them make us want to think otherwise." ==Recording==