"God Only Knows" by the Beach Boys

The g33ks will probably complain because this is the alternate take with Brian singing lead instead of Carl. Fuck off, I'm using YouTube.

I may not always love you/But as long as there are stars above you/You never need to doubt it/I'll make you so sure about it/God only knows what I'd be without you.

MEGA example, here. He's dropping chronology in the opening lines and gives precedence to Him, the One, to the constant. In touch with the knowledge and with his honey. The way it ought to be. This is the voice of a mature character and like these other songs you get hope and tragedy intermingled, as love can only be. Tears of joy, erotic pain. You get that contradiction because you can never quite escape time, though you want to. The knowledge always exists and becomes an obsession when the love is lost. I also really get pleasure from his use of the sailor's map, the stars, in his telling his love to just hang onto something besides himself. An obvious pick, but for obvious reasons. I could probably choose "Don't Worry Baby" or "The Warmth of the Sun," but who cares--they had so many amazing love songs. Brian Wilson is entirely about love. That's what happens when your dad beats the shit out of you and you can write better songs than him. The music alone is pretty tear-worthy.