I was listening to the Mumford & Sons song "I Will Wait" on a cable TV Music Choice channel when a factoid graphic popped up on the screen.

It said one member of the band regarded a line from the Beach Boys' "God Only Knows" as his all-time favorite lyric.

The line is, "I may not always love you."

That got me thinking about a profile of Brian Wilson I read decades ago. It was in Rolling Stone, Esquire or some other publication. The writer alluded to Wilson being "born on the first day of summer."

His birthday is June 20, 1942, according to several sources.

I wondered. Was that really the date of the summer solstice that year?

I did a couple of quick searches and it was beginning to look as if summer actually started on June 21 in 1942. I quit looking before I really had that nailed down.

Oh, well. I had always liked that "born on the ..." thing.

But sometimes there is a reason things sound too perfect.

Then I looked to confirm that Wilson had written the lyrics to "God Only Knows."

And it appeared that those actually were penned by a songwriter named Tony Asher.

Sigh. Well, Wilson did write the music. And it's a pretty great song.

Happy birthday, Brian. Summer's right around the corner. 

---

---