"Sloop John B" was recorded and made quite famous by the Kingston Trio long before the Beach Boys covered it. I realize that not all of us are old enough to remember that, of course.

If you're too young to know about the Kingston Trio, they were one of the first 1960s folk groups to achieve wide popular exposure and acclaim, and their emergence was a major feature of the early "folk revival." Soon enough, as more and more people became aware of more traditional and "authentic" folk music, the Kingstons were scorned by many as being too "pop," but when they released "Sloop John B," their involvement pretty much defined the song as a "folksong" ~ certainly to those many of us who were not aware of Carl Sandburg's earlier performances.

Another Beach Boys recording that should not be regarded as a "Beach Boys song" is "Barbara Ann." That was by no means a folk song, but it was a top-40 recording by some long-forgotten doo-wop-pop group long before the BBs recorded their cover version. I'm very sure of this because I bought the original 45rpm record. That record is long-gone by now, so I can't refer to the label to tell you the name of the group.

John McCain, who very enthusiastically if rather atonally sings "Bomb Bomb Iran" on a You Tube video, IS old enough to know better, but he erroneously refers to the song being parodied as "the old Beach Boys song."