Kirsty MacColl was a lifelong Beach Boys fan who covered a few of her idols' songs during her career (most notably "You Still Believe In Me" on a 1981 single and "Don't Go Near the Water" a decade later), but "Please Go To Sleep" was her own tribute to Brian Wilson's vocal arrangements. The flip of 1985's "He's On The Beach" single, the song sounds as if it was intended as a lullaby for MacColl's infant son with producer Steve Lillywhite, who provides a swirling violin line and a few simple synths as a bed for an unadorned showcase of what made Kirsty MacColl so special: she was a one-woman Beach Boys, by some distance the greatest harmony singer in rock and roll history. Famously capable of creating overdubbed self-harmonies on the fly in the studio simply by standing in slightly different spots in front of the microphone, she had an intrinsic, intuitive gift that remains unmatched. Kirsty MacColl died off the shore of Cozumel, Mexico on December 18, 2000, hit by a speedboat whose driver still has not been charged with a crime. (Details at www.justiceforkirsty.org)

-Stewart Mason