But those are both terrible songs. Kokomo was Mike Love's trash fire with no writing involvement whatsoever from a Wilson and We Built This City was so desperate to appeal to everyone it couldn't decide whether it was Cincinnati, San Francisco or New York.
Kokomo especially because Brian Wilson was far, far, far, far, far, more talented than Mike Love and Mike Love knew it.
This is a god damn art form.
I love the Beach Boys, legit like my favorite band growing up, but I never got the hate for Kokomo, especially when the retort is "but it's Mike Love not Brian."
What Mike did to Brian and the rest of them was terrible, but that doesn't automatically mean his songs are trash. Kokomo is a great song, it's catchy and it puts you right into the atmosphere of being on a tropical getaway. Is it as nuanced and deep as some of Brian's hits? No, but that doesn't discredit it from being a good song.
I mean Mike did write the lyrics for Good Vibrations, which was one of their best songs.
As far as We Built this City, the entire point was that it wasn't any specific city or town, it was just a simple catchy as hell tune that anyone could get into, and that led to it being a gigantic hit.