The Most Beautiful Song of The RnR era?

Sometimes we old timers tend to embrace everything from the past as the BEST.But you mention God Only Knows,There was a recording by this name done in 1955 by a R&B group from Philadelphia named the Capri's.If you ever heard it you would agree with your father-in-law.
Have a fun week

Now for your consideration: There are some awesome songs from the mid-70s singer-songwriters:

"Winterlong" by Neil Young;
"Urge" or "Coyote" by Joni Mitchell;
"Seven Bridges Road" by the Eagles,
"Fountain of Sorrow" by Jackson Browne.

From the 50s, I would nominate also Sam Cooke, especially songs like "Rome Was Not Built in a Day".

"Waterloo Sunset" by the Kinks is an under-rated classic from the 1960s.

Too many classic Motown, Hi and Stax recordings:
Al Green's "Call Me",
Stevie Wonder's "Ribbon in the Sky" and
Marvin Gaye's "Mercy Mercy Me."

Concur with "Sandy"; hard to imagine that Bruce wrote that at age 22.

I also like "Time after Time" by Cindi and "Alison" by Elvis from the New Wave period.

You may not have heard these but they are as beautiful as anything ever written in the RnR era-
Grant Lee Buffalo - Honey Don't Think
Jeff Buckley - Lover You Should Have Come Over
Over The Rhine - Latter Days, Snow Angels, or practically everything they've done
Cousteau - She's Not Coming Back
Adam Again - River On Fire
Now that I think about it almost everything everyone has mentioned is pretty amazing. Great thing about music it is powerful in so many forms.

Peter Gabriel - In Your Eyes

Nazareth-Love Hurts