The instrumental section of the song was recorded at United Western Recorders, Hollywood, California, with the session engineered by Chuck Britz and produced
by Brian Wilson. The session took 20 takes to achieve the master take of the
song. The recording included Carl on twelve string guitar among other session
musicians collectively known as The Wrecking Crew. A strip of masking tape was
placed over the strings of a piano  while the bottoms of two plastic orange juice
bottles were used for percussion. The final vocal track of “God Only Knows” was completed on April 11, 1966. The song was voted 25 in Rolling Stone magazine’s
500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Some of the original handwritten lyrics to "God Only 
Knows"