"God Only Knows" is often praised as one of the greatest songs ever written. Wilson reflected: "I think Tony had a musical influence on me somehow. After about ten years, I started thinking about it deeper ... because I had never written that kind of song. And I remember him talking about 'Stella by Starlight' and he had a certain love for classic songs." Asher said that he and Wilson had "lengthy conversations" about the invocation of God in the title and lyric, "because unless you were Kate Smith and you were singing 'God Bless America', no one thought you could say "'God' in a song. ... He said, 'We'll just never get any air play."