Brian Wilson, Stevie Wonder, Lorde, Pharrell, Chris Martin, Dave Grohl, More Do the Beach Boys’ "God Only Knows"

BBC Music has released an all-star cover of the Beach Boys‘ “God Only Knows” (which Pitchfork has named as the best song of the 1960s), as The Guardian reports.

It features the following artists: the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson, Stevie Wonder, Pharrell, Lorde, Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Sam Smith, Dave Grohl, Kylie Minogue, Florence Welch, Chrissie Hynde, Queen’s Brian May, Elton John, One Direction, Jake Bugg, Emeli Sandé, Paloma Faith, Alison Balsom, Martin James Bartlett, Danielle de Niese, Nicola Benedetti, Eliza Carthy, Baaba Maal, Jamie Cullum, and Jaz Dhami. BBC personalities Zane Lowe, Lauren Laverne, Katie Derham, Gareth Malone and Jools Holland also participate. They were joined by the Tees Valley Youth Choir and the BBC Concert Orchestra. (Whew!)

Below, watch the surreal video for the song, featuring all of the stars.

The cover was commissioned to celebrate the launch of BBC Music, which is described by the BBC as “an ambitious wave of new programmes, innovative partnerships and ground-breaking music initiatives that amount to the BBC’s strongest commitment to music in 30 years,” according to The Guardian. It will be released as a charity single to benefit the BBC’s Children in Need program. 

Wilson released a statement about the cover, The Guardian reports. “All of the artists did such a beautiful job I can’t thank them enough,” he said. “I’m just honoured that ‘God Only Knows’ was chosen. ‘God Only Knows’ is a very special song. An extremely spiritual song and one of the best I’ve ever written.” 

Back in 1997, the BBC released did a similar thing, releasing an all-star cover of Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day”.

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