Alice Cooper Reveals His Favorite Beach Boys Song

With his reputation as “The Godfather of Shock Rock,” Alice Cooper’s choice of music may come as a surprise to some. But Cooper’s affinity with the likes of the Beatles and the Beach Boys stems mostly from the fact that he came of age during the heyday of rock and roll’s dominance of the radio.

Yet, the California band the Beach Boys appears to linger in Cooper’s mind the most, and their songs are a prime example of how surf-rock may be reimagined for mainstream popularity. His favorite Beach Boys song, if you’d like to ask, is “I Get Around.”

“When the Beach Boys came along, I was living in Arizona,” Cooper told Louder Sound. “I was just at that age when everything they said in that song was what I wanted to do. Y’know, I wanted to hang out with my buddies, show off your car, try to pick up girls. Of course, you’re never gonna do any of that stuff until you’re, like, 17 or 18. But when you’re 14 years old, that sounds like the greatest time in the world. The Beach Boys had such a fresh sound. And every teenager totally got it. A lot of their records were very Chuck Berry-oriented. Y’know, you take Chuck Berry on the bottom and put the Beach Boys’ vocals on the top – and wow.”

In a separate interview with Rolling Stone, Cooper likened the brains behind every Beach Boy song, Brian Wilson, to the likes of “a genius.” “Of course, you had the same thing with Beethoven, and they were all a little off on a personality level. But Brian Wilson just kept doing song after song that would just make you go, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s so good.’ Pet Sounds is one of those albums that is flawless. It’s another flawless album,” he added.