This one hits ALL of the right notes coming out of the GATE, and stays there for its full 3 minutes and 23 seconds. The Beach Boys thing is a tough one to pull off successfully. There are nuances that make it or break it, and the nuances are all here on glorious display. It begins with the jangly guitar figure, then the “aaaaaahhhhs,” but the chord change…blink and you’ll miss it…right after the line “Baby, it’s so hard”…is the first sweet spot, a signature Brian Wilson move which owes more to Sir Paul’s influence on his compositions than Brian’s own resources, but it’s a moment…a couple of fleeting seconds that let you know THESE boys in their red Mustang on the sand have done their homework. The vocal delivery is from the Mike Love school of BB hits, with a hint of Jan Berry, and t the story is pure Hawthorne California. “When I pull into forward motion, I think about only you…” There’s a perfectly executed and thoroughly appropriate guitar solo, and a beautiful ride down the PCH in the middle of summer during the final 40 seconds, “Ridin’ in my car…still think about you while I’m ridin’ in my car…” This is what “perfect” sounds like, so heartfelt, so magic.

Given the Macca touchstone referenced above, it’s only fitting that Sir Paul surfaces on the flip side. “Daytime Nighttime Suffering” struck me as a unique choice at first, but it is, after all, another not-so-silly love song from Paul’s catalog that gets new life in a joyous cover here, and it sounds a LOT like Paul. A LOT. A fun complement to the A side, and a reminder of the many gems that lie in the McCartney catalog once you’re past the “greatest hits.”