Brian Wilson, the musical genius behind The Beach Boys whose death at age 82 was announced earlier today, once wrote perhaps the strangest, most sincere tribute to late night television ever pressed to vinyl: a 1977 synth-pop oddity simply titled “Johnny Carson.”
Released on The Beach Boys Love You—an album that sounded more like a circuit board’s fever dream than a sunny California surf soundtrack—“Johnny Carson” is a love letter to the Tonight Show host.
While the song’s lyrics are almost comical—“Who’s the man that we admire? / Johnny Carson is a real live wire” and “He sits behind his microphone / He speaks in such a manly tone”—the song itself has been hailed by (some) rock critics, making The New York Times’ list of 12 essential Brian Wilson songs today alongside the likes of “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” “God Only Knows,” and “Good Vibrations.”
When Johnny Carson himself was asked about the song in a 1979 interview with Rolling Stone, he answered, “Sure I heard it. Someone sent it over to the office. I don’t think it was a big seller. I think they just did it for the fun of it. It was not a work of art.”
Work of art or not, the song apparently came from the heart.
Upon its release, Wilson wrote of the track, “One morning I was on my way to the studio and I’d been thinking about how I’d seen Johnny on TV the night before and I said to myself, ‘Goddamn it! There’s gotta be some song about Johnny Carson!’ I mean, he’s been an idol of so many people for so many years and why not a song about Johnny Carson?! So I said, ‘Fer Chrissakes!’ When I got to the studio I sat down and goddamn cranked out a song about him. I’m definitely a fan.”
Though Wilson never performed “Johnny Carson” on Johnny Carson, the two did cross paths earlier in their careers, when The Beach Boys appeared on The Tonight Show in 1968 to perform “Their Hearts Were Full of Spring.” They returned to the show in 1984, with guest host Joan Rivers.
