Beach Boys co-founder Brian Wilson declared a vintage folk song "the greatest ever," and it's a pick that stops music fans in their tracks.
Beloved 70s shock rocker Alice Cooper recalled that Wilson once invited him to his home, sat down at the piano, and played one of his favorite songs. Cooper told Music News that he was stunned by Wilson’s selection.
"It was about 1978 or something like that. Iggy [Pop] and I were sitting there waiting," Cooper began.
"You know it was Brian Wilson, one of the great writers of all time, and he sat down at the piano and started playing 'Mama's little baby loves shortnin' shortnin'. Mama's little baby loves shortnin' bread.'"
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The entertainer continued, "[Brian] goes, 'No, this is the greatest song ever written', dead seriously. We were two little kids, we go, 'Umm OK'. Why is that the best song?' 'I don't know, it's just the best song ever written,' he replied."
Cooper concluded, "That's like [Paul] McCartney telling you that because you go, OK. I guess you're right."
RELATED: Brian Wilson’s Least Favorite Beach Boys Song Came From the Band’s Most Acclaimed Album
"Shortnin’ Bread" started as a fun poem by James Whitcomb Riley, written in the late 1890s, and eventually became a cheerful folk tune loved by kids and adults alike. Over the decades, everyone from The Andrews Sisters to Etta James and The Wiggles put their own spin on it, keeping the song alive for new generations.
The Beach Boys would ultimately cover “Shortnin’ Bread” on their 1979 album L.A. (Light Album). Reportedly, Wilson's fascination with the song came after writing "Ding Dang," with The Byrds' Roger McGuinn, a song which appeared on the band's LP The Beach Boys Love You.
The iHeartRadio podcast A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs focused on specific Beach Boys songs, analyzing the history behind each one. The episode that mentions Wilson's fascination with "Shortnin' Bread" is the fourth installment of a deep dive into the 1968 song, "Never Learned Not to Love."
The podcast explained that Wilson was "a man who, when he likes a song, really likes it. We've talked in recent episodes about how he became obsessed with The Ronettes 'Be My Baby' for a long time. And how he spent a period intensely reworking Steven Foster's 'Old Folks at Home.' But there was one song, more than any other, that obsessed Brian Wilson in the 1970s and for decades after, 'Shortnin' Bread.'"
Brian Wilson died on June 11, 2025. He was 82.
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