01	Wouldn't It Be Nice						02:24
	02	You Still Believe In Me						02:31
	03	That's Not Me						02:27
	04	Don't Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder)						02:52
	05	I'm Waiting For The Day						03:04
	06	Let's Go Away For A While						02:18
	07	Sloop John B						02:58
	08	God Only Knows						02:51
	09	I Know There's An Answer						03:08
	10	Here Today						02:54
	11	I Just Wasn't Made For These Times						03:12
	12	Pet Sounds						02:22
	13	Caroline, No						02:50

Capitol Records (1996) C2-8-37662-2. This disc is the original* mono-mix version of the album, digitally re-mastered in 1996.


Pet Sounds
Date of Release May 16, 1966
Styles Pop, Pop/Rock, Baroque Pop, Sunshine Pop

The best Beach Boys album, and one of the best of the 1960s. The group here reached a whole new level in terms of both composition and production, layering tracks upon tracks of vocals and instruments to create a richly symphonic sound. Conventional keyboards and guitars were combined with exotic touches of orchestrated strings, bicycle bells, buzzing organs, harpsichords, flutes, the theremin, Hawaiian-sounding string instruments, Coca-Cola cans, barking dogs, and more. It wouldn't have been a classic without great songs, and this has some of the group's most stunning melodies, as well as lyrical themes that evoke both the intensity of newly born love affairs and the disappointment of failed romance (add in some general statements about loss of innocence and modern-day confusion as well). The spiritual quality of the material is enhanced by some of the most gorgeous upper-register male vocals (especially by Brian and Carl Wilson) ever heard on a rock record. "Wouldn't It Be Nice," "God Only Knows," "Caroline No," and "Sloop John B" are the well-known hits, but equally worthy are such cuts as "You Still Believe in Me," "Don't Talk," "I Know There's an Answer," and "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times." It's often said that this is more of a Brian Wilson album than a Beach Boys recording (session musicians played most of the parts), but it should be noted that the harmonies are pure Beach Boys (and some of their best). Massively influential upon its release (although it was a relatively low seller compared to their previous LPs), it immediately vaunted the band into the top level of rock innovators among the intelligentsia. The 1990 CD reissue added a few interesting but inessential outtakes, and a 1999 reissue added a new stereo version of the entire album to the original mono program. - Richie Unterberger

1. Wouldn't It Be Nice (Asher/Wilson)
2. You Still Believe in Me (Asher/Wilson)
3. That's Not Me (Asher/Wilson)
4. Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder) (Asher/Wilson)
5. I'm Waiting for the Day (Love/Wilson)
6. Let's Go Away for Awhile (Wilson)
7. Sloop John B. (Traditional/Wilson)
8. God Only Knows (Asher/Wilson)
9. I Know There's an Answer (Love/Sachen/Wilson)
10. Here Today (Asher/Wilson)
11. I Just Wasn't Made for These Times (Asher/Wilson)
12. Pet Sounds (Wilson)
13. Caroline, No (Asher/Wilson)
14. Hang on to Your Ego [*] (Asher/Wilson)


Glen Campbell - Guitar (12 String)
Paul Horn - Sax (Tenor)
Brian Wilson - Organ, Guitar, Piano, Arranger, Keyboards, Vocals, Vocals (bckgr), Producer, Liner Notes, Supervisor
Frank Capp - Percussion, Glockenspiel, Bells, Tympani [Timpani], Vibraphone
Plas Johnson - Percussion, Saxophone, Sax (Tenor)
Barney Kessel - Guitar, Mandolin
Don Randi - Piano
Jerry Cole - Guitar, Guitar (Electric)
Frank Marocco - Accordion
Lyle Ritz - Ukulele, String Bass
Julius Wechter - Tympani [Timpani], Vibraphone, Latin Percussion
Mike Deasy Sr. - Guitar
Bruce Johnston - Vocals
Mike Love - Vocals, Vocals (bckgr)
Terry Melcher - Tambourine, Vocals
Carl Wilson - Guitar, Vocals
Billy Strange - Guitar, Guitar (Electric), Guitar (12 String)
Jim Gordon - Percussion, Drums
Hal Blaine - Bongos, Drums, Tympani [Timpani]
Arnold Belnick - Violin
Chuck Berghofer - String Bass
Bruce Botnick - Engineer
Norman Botnick - Viola
Chuck Britz - Engineer
Roy Caton - Trumpet
Gary Coleman - Bongos, Tympani [Timpani]
Al DeLory - Organ, Piano, Tack Piano
Dennis Diken
Jesse Erlich - Cello
Carl Fortina - Accordion
Ron Furmanek
James Getzoff - Violin
Bill Green - Flute, Percussion, Saxophone, Sax (Tenor)
Jim Horn - Flute, Saxophone, Sax (Baritone), Sax (Tenor)
Harry Hyams - Viola
Jules Jacob - Flute
Alan Jardine - Vocals
Carol Kaye - Bass, Bass (Electric)
Larry Knechtel - Organ
William Kurasch - Violin
Larry Levine - Engineer
Mark Linett - Engineer, Liner Notes, Coordination, Compilation, Mixing, Digital Remastering, Stereo Mix Producer
Nick Martinis - Drums
Ron McMaster - Remixing
Mike Melvoin - Harpsichord
Jay Migliori - Clarinet, Flute, Clarinet (Bass), Saxophone, Sax (Baritone)
Tommy Morgan - Harmonica
Jack Nimitz - Sax (Baritone)
Cheryl Pawelski - Reissue Producer
Bill Pitman - Guitar
Ray Pohlman - Guitar, Mandolin, Bass (Electric)
Jerome Reisler - Violin
Alan Robinson - French Horn
Andrew Sandoval - Transfers, Mastering Supervisor
Ralph Schaeffer - Violin
Sid Sharp - Violin
Ernie Tack - Trombone (Bass)
Paul Tanner - Theremin
Tommy Tedesco - Guitar (Acoustic)
Darrel Terwilliger - Viola
Dennis Wilson - Drums, Vocals
Tibor Zelig - Violin
Brad Benedict - Photo Research
Joseph DiFiore - Viola
Joseph Saxon - Cello
Gail Martin - Trombone
Larry Walsh - Mixing, Digital Remastering
Justin DiTullio - Cello
David Leaf - Liner Notes
Tommy Steele - Art Direction
Leonard Hartman - Clarinet, Clarinet (Bass), Horn (English)
Sam Gay - Art Supervisor
George Jerman - Photography
Darren Wong - Art Supervisor
Lisa Reddick - Producer
Jim Elliott - Producer
Bobby Klein - Sax (Tenor)
Ralph Balantin - Engineer
Brad Elliott - Liner Notes
Michael Etchart - Executive Producer
Tammy Kizer - Producer
Al Casey - Guitar
Richard Evans - Design
Steve Douglas - Clarinet, Flute, Saxophone, Sax (Tenor)
Jerry Williams - Percussion

1990 CD Capitol C2-48421
1966 LP Capitol DT-2458
1972 LP Brother 2083
1966 DCC GZS-1035
CD DCC 1035
1993 CD DCC 1035
1995 LP DCC 2006
1994 LP Capitol 48421
1990 CS Capitol C4-48421
1992 Capitol 48421
1998 CD Import 60074


Wouldn't It Be Nice
Composed By Tony Asher/Tony Asher/Mike Love/Brian Wilson/Brian Wilson

AMG REVIEW: This song, the opening track from the much-lauded Pet Sounds album, found the Beach Boys carrying their up-tempo pop into a baroque dimension light years beyond "Surfer Girl" or "Fun, Fun, Fun." "Wouldn't It Be Nice" is lyrically unique in that it threw aside the group's usual sun-and-fun themes for a narrative that portrays the idea of falling in love and settling down as the ultimate achievement in cool. Wilson lives up to the deep-dish romanticism of the lyrics by crafting music that combines a radiantly sweet melodicism with a forceful, surging pace to forge a melody that is gorgeous and powerful all at once. This unique blend of sweetness and strength shines through on the Beach Boys recording, which leaps out of the speakers thanks to a robust, drum-driven instrumental wall of sound (everything from strings to accordions to saxophones) and a rousing vocal arrangement that allows all the group to sing their hearts out. The end result is almost overwhelming in the best possible way and "Wouldn't It Be Nice" worked its magic on listeners, making it into the Top Ten in 1966. Today, it remains a special favorite to many Beach Boys fans thanks to its timeless combination of idealistic sentiment and still-breathtaking music. - Donald A. Guarisco



You Still Believe in Me
Composed By Tony Asher/Brian Wilson

AMG REVIEW: "You Still Believe in Me", heralded a new level of songwriting maturity for Brian Wilson and signalled to listeners of Pet Sounds that something new and wonderful was happening to pop music. Cueing off the troubled, self-reflective lyric - "I know perfectly well I'm not where I should be" - Wilson's honey sweet vocal adroitly surfs along the challenging melody, rising in a tide of painful confession: "everytime we break up you bring back your love to me / and after all I've done to you how can it be? / you still believe in me" It's a mature lyric, the melody spiritual and graceful, but the singer is having a mighty hard time of it bearing up under the pressure of his own shortcomings. You feel him cracking as he desires to fulfill his lover's expectations: "I try hard to be more what you want me to be / but I can't help how I act when you're not here with me / I try hard to be strong but sometimes I fail myself / and after all I've promised you so faithfully."

The stress, sadness and instability is most fragile and reflected not only in Wilson's achingly beautiful performance but in the quirky ensemble accompaniment suffused with breathy saxophones and bright, plucky piano and guitars. (The oddball appearance of a bicycle horn and bell is a remnant of an early version of the piece, titled "In My Childhood".) The song closes with a memorable coda: Wilson repeats the refrain "you still believe in me" and then breaks out into a glorious falsetto "I wanna cry" - holding the last syllable and soaring up an octave, then taking down the melody in stepwise fashion. It is the same eerily sweet melody the song started with (the intro part is played on plucked piano strings doubled by Wilson's falsetto). Mike Love echoes the same melody an octave lower, then the whole group chimes in with a baroque choir style harmony part overwhelming in its lush intricacy. It is at this moment that you realize that something in pop music has irrevocably crossed the line and merged with a classical sensibility. "You Still Believe in Me" develops a theme inaugurated and suggested by "Wouldn't It Be Nice": fragile lovers buckling under the pressure of external forces they can't control, self-imposed romantic expectations and personal limitations, while simultaneously trying to maintain faith in one other. It is a theme that keeps reverberating sweetly, and hauntingly, throughout Pet Sounds. - Jim Esch



Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)
Composed By Tony Asher/Brian Wilson

AMG REVIEW: One of Brian Wilson's lushest romantic compositions, "Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)" acts as a quiet intermezzo on the first half of Pet Sounds, resting between the angst-ridden fear and regret of "That's Not Me," whose narrator "packed up and split for the city," and the up-tempo and turbulent "I'm Waiting for the Day," where the singer vies with a challenger to win back a lover. "Don't Talk" cuts in between as a shimmering, achingly beautiful love song with more than a hint of desperation. Wilson's lead vocals sing of a man who identifies with his lover's non-verbal cues ("I can hear so much in your sighs, and I can see so much in your eyes"). Instead of talking about the problem, he implores her to "put your head on my shoulder" (a clear borrowing from the 1959 Paul Anka tune of the same name) and close her eyes, so he can listen to her heart beat. It is a simple plea for intimacy at a moment in a relationship where words fail and lovers crave nothing else but living in the moment. "We could live forever tonight," Wilson sings in the second verse. "Let's not talk about tomorrow." The second time through the chorus, he tells her to "listen to my heartbeat." The bodily communion is reciprocated and the song resolves with a direct echo of the heartbeat motif, played on kettle drums. The song is a continuation of the themes established in "Wouldn't It Be Nice" (and arguably the entire album) - the longing for a never-ending love coupled with the real awareness that relationships are fragile and prone to ending incredibly quickly.
The moody instrumentation provides an ironic counterpoint to the lyric. A melancholic, almost spooky organ cues the first verse, which begins immediately without an introductory section. A sad string bass line coupled with electric Fender bass provides the underpinning, and distant guitars can be heard tickling far off in the background. The relatively simple arrangement is enriched by the harmonic complexity of the chords and Wilson's trademark soaring vocal melody. A six-piece string section sweetens the sound and provides a remarkably touching romantic interlude between the second and third choruses. The blend is sweet but sad, calm but pensive, sleepy but aching. It is quite clear that as special as this moment is, it's probably not going to last. A second irony plays through the song. Essentially, the lyric is about non-verbal communication, a situation where (in words) he says how much can be said without saying a thing. It's a hymn to love's tactile sensibility - a gorgeous love song by any standard, and a triumph of Wilson's mature arranging powers. - Jim Esch




God Only Knows
Composed By Tony Asher/Brian Wilson

AMG REVIEW: The Beach Boys recorded many a gorgeous pop tune over the years but few were ever quite as transcendentally lovely as "God Only Knows." The song's clever lyrics form a first-person narrative where the narrator assures his beloved of his good intentions, climaxing with the phrase "God only knows what I'd be without you." The simple but direct and heartfelt sentiments make the lyric intoxicatingly romantic (and its mention of God raised a few eyebrows at the time). However, it's the music that really makes "God Only Knows" something special. It avoids the typical verse-chorus pop song structure to create something more personalized: It starts with two verses that weave a lovely melody higher with each stanza but maintain tension by bringing it down before it peaks, then gives way to a soaring and wordless vocal bridge, then goes through a final verse before climaxing with a gorgeous circular chorus that ends the song on a sunny note. The Beach Boys recording of "God Only Knows" brings the song's warmth out thanks to a clever Brian Wilson vocal arrangement that contrasts Carl Wilson's mellow solo vocal on the verses with multi-textured group harmonies on the bridge and chorus. Wilson adds additional ear candy with an orchestral pop backing track that layers warm horn arrangements and creamy strings over insistent percussion designed to give the song a dramatic pulse. The end result is a song that has the orchestral loveliness of a ballad but all the power and forward drive of a good pop tune. Surprisingly, "God Only Knows" wasn't a big hit and barely made it into the Top 40. However, it has grown in stature over the years: Many critics point it out as the highlight of Pet Sounds, and Paul McCartney has gone on record saying it is his all-time favorite song. It has also inspired covers by artists as diverse as David Bowie, Neil Diamond, Glen Campbell, and Olivia Newton-John. However, the Beach Boys remains the favorite of listeners everywhere, thanks to its unbeatable mixture of orchestral grandeur and open-hearted emotional purity. - Donald A. Guarisco



Here Today
Composed By Tony Asher/Brian Wilson

AMG REVIEW: This densely produced Beach Boys track, a highlight of Pet Sounds, was not a single or a regular feature of their stage show but has become a cult favorite with the group's fans over the years, thanks to its ambitious nature. The lyrics of "Here Today" put forward an interesting take on the subject of romance - instead of focusing on its joys, the lyrics contrast the giddy highs of starting a relationship with the potential for heartbreak that never lies too far away: "A brand new love affair is such a beautiful thing/But if you're not careful, think about the pain it can bring." The music that backs these thoughts up is appropriately dramatic: short verses built on staccato notes lead to dramatic bridges that escalate with each phrase to enhance the tension before bursting into a chorus that is beautiful and foreboding all at once. The Beach Boys' recording of "Here Today" features one of Brian Wilson's most ambitious arrangements: swooping harmonies duel and soar in and around a wall-of-sound backing track full of blaring saxophones and percolating keyboards as complex, jazzy drumming drives the whole thing along. As a result, "Here Today" perfectly blends the complexity of an orchestral piece with the immediacy of a good pop tune, and this duality has made it popular with fans of Brian Wilson's work. Beach Boys enthusiasts may also want to check the version on Stack-O-Tracks, which wipes away the vocal tracks so that the densely layered instrumentation can be appreciated in all its glory. - Donald A. Guarisco



I Just Wasn't Made for These Times
Composed By Tony Asher/Brian Wilson

AMG REVIEW: Pet Sounds stands out from the rest of the Beach Boys' catalog, thanks to the intensely personal style of the lyrics that Brian Wilson crafted with Tony Asher: These ruminations on romance and the loss of innocence involved in growing up are truly in a different class from fun-time lyrics like "Surfin' U.S.A." and "The Girls on the Beach." The highlight of the Pet Sounds' introspective lyrical style is "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times," a song that anyone who has ever felt "lost in the crowd" can relate to. The lyrics are a first-person chronicle of disillusionment from a narrator who, despite being intelligent, can't find a place where he can comfortably feel like a part of the world. The music brings the despair of the lyrics to life with a melody that is lovely and pained all at once: The verses rise and fall in a way that accentuates the yearning tone of the lyrics, and the chorus rapidly accelerates to soaring melodic heights before crashing back down to perfectly capture the song's churning emotions. The Beach Boys' recording brings this extremity of feeling to life with a stunning Brian Wilson vocal arrangement: Wilson's pained lead vocal is contrasted with layers of anguished harmonies on the chorus. Its instrumentation is similarly powerful, weaving harpsichord and theremin into a spooky orchestral tapestry, and powerful drumming wrings the maximum dramatic punch from each chorus. The resulting blend of overwhelming emotion and lush musical textures makes "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times" one of the most moving and powerful tracks in the Beach Boys catalog. - Donald A. Guarisco



Caroline, No
Composed By Tony Asher/Brian Wilson

AMG REVIEW: The ultimate song on Pet Sounds, "Caroline, No" was also Brian Wilson's first (and only) single to be released under his own name on the Capitol label. The moody ballad epitomizes the spirit of Pet Sounds: an unwillingly world-wise lover bemoans the changes undergone in his love affair. The song evokes this mood with the simple image of a girl cutting her hair: "Where did your long hair go / where is the girl I used to know / how could you lose that happy glow / oh Caroline, no."The second verse continues the tragic appraisal of a love gone wrong. The girl's look isn't the same; she promised him she'd never change, but she did. It's a lie. The melody soars into a lovely, heartbreaking chorus where Wilson sings "it's so sad to watch a sweet thing die / oh Caroline, why?" No smug answers, just open ended questions. The final verse reconsiders the possibility of reconciliation. Maybe he can find the things that made him love her in the first place: "could we ever bring 'em back once they have gone?" With a crushing cathartic wail, Wilson's falsetto refrain decidedly weighs in: "Oh Caroline, No!" There is no going back on a nostalgia trip. Change is here to stay. Like the other tracks on Pet Sounds, "Caroline, No" is arranged with a deft, idiosyncratic touch. Opening with looming, echo filled percussion knocks, the song features a sparse harpsichord accompaniment spiced with saxes, guitar and flutes that lend a jazz flavor to the song's baroque pop thrust. At the tail end of the fade out, Wilson recorded his pet dogs barking wildly as a passing train thunders down the tracks. Wilson has been quoted saying that "Caroline, No"is one of his favorite ballads and had compared its harmonic arrangement to Glenn Miller. Wilson revisited the song on I Just Wasn't Made for These Times. The cover accentuated the song's light jazz elements with vibes, guitar, piano and an extended flute solo on the fade. - Jim Esch



Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com essential recording
If you need some pointy-headed pundit to sell you on the merits of Pet Sounds, your money might be better spent on an ear specialist. Brian Wilson's gift to 20th-century music elevated this pop album into a beguiling musical and emotional cogency that still operates outside pop culture's fickle space-time continuum--and limited critical lexicon. There's never been another record to compare (Rubber Soul, its inspiration, is close; Sgt. Pepper's, its response, misses the point), and certainly no album has been as dissected, overanalyzed, and predigested for public consumption. In 1997 Capitol Records devoted an entire four-disc box set, The Pet Sounds Sessions, to its thorough deconstruction. The techno-marvel centerpiece of that project--the album's first true stereo mix, painstakingly conjured out of multitape session sources by producer-engineer Mark Linett (under Wilson's supervision)--was at once heresy and revelation. Now the label has gratifyingly seen fit to offer both mixes on a single disc (along with alternate versions of "Hang On to Your Ego," the original title of "I Know There's An Answer"), an idea that should please the orthodox and heretics alike. And while the album has always clearly been The Brian Wilson Show featuring the Beach Boys, David Leaf's concise new notes attempt to be more inclusive of a wider band perspective. The result (three of the five band members claim credit for the album title) sometimes resembles Rashomon. If Pet Sounds forever crystallized the band's various creative (in)differences, it also became Wilson's grand karmic joke on his band mates; its burgeoning reputation (Mojo magazine's panel of pop experts once elected it greatest album of all time) guaranteed they would sing its songs--and praises--until the end. And if putting two different versions of the same album on one disc seems like overkill, look at the bright side: it's a perfect excuse to listen to the glorious Pet Sounds twice. --Jerry McCulley

Album Details
2000 Hdcd Remaster of the Original Mono Mixes. Does Not Include the Bonus Tracks that were on Previous Issues. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.



The Beach Boys
Formed 1961 in Hawthorne, CA
Disbanded 1996

Group Members Brian Wilson Blondie Chaplin Bruce Johnston Mike Love Carl Wilson Ricky Fataar Alan Jardine David Marks Dennis Wilson

Performed As Pendletones Kenny & The Cadets

by John Bush

Beginning their career as the most popular surf band in the nation, the Beach Boys finally emerged by 1966 as America's preeminent pop group, the only act able to challenge (for a brief time) the over-arching success of the Beatles with both mainstream listeners and the critical community. From their 1961 debut with the regional hit "Surfin," the three Wilson brothers - Brian, Dennis, and Carl - plus cousin Mike Love and friend Al Jardine constructed the most intricate, gorgeous harmonies ever heard from a pop band. With Brian's studio proficiency growing by leaps and bounds during the mid-'60s, the Beach Boys also proved to be one of the best-produced groups of the '60s, exemplified by their 1966 peak with the Pet Sounds LP and the number one single, "Good Vibrations." Though Brian Wilson's escalating drug use and obsessive desire to trump the Beatles (by recording the perfect LP statement) eventually led to a nervous breakdown after he heard Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, the group soldiered on long into the 1970s and '80s, with Brian only an inconsistent participant. The band's post-1966 material is often maligned (if it's recognized at all), but the truth is the Beach Boys continued to make great music well into the '70s. Displayed best on 1970's Sunflower, each member revealed individual talents never fully developed during the mid-'60s - Carl Wilson became a solid, distinctive producer and Brian's replacement as nominal band-leader, Mike continued to provide a visual focus as the frontman for live shows, and Dennis developed his own notable songwriting talents. Though legal wranglings and marginal oldies tours during the '90s often obscured what made the Beach Boys great, the band's unerring ability to surf the waves of commercial success and artistic development during the '60s made them America's first, best rock band.
The origins of the group lie in Hawthorne, California, a southern suburb of Los Angeles situated close to the Pacific coast. The three sons of a part-time song-plugger and occasionally abusive father, Brian, Dennis and Carl grew up a just few miles from the ocean - though only Dennis Wilson had any interest in surfing itself. The three often harmonized together as youths, spurred on by Brian's fascination with '50s vocal acts like the Four Freshmen and the Hi-Lo's. Their cousin Mike Love often joined in on the impromptu sessions, and the group gained a fifth with the addition of Brian's high-school football teammate, Al Jardine. His parents helped rent instruments (with Brian on bass, Carl on guitar, Dennis on drums) and studio time to record "Surfin'," a novelty number written by Brian and Mike Love. The single, initially released in 1961 on Candix and billed to the Pendletones (a musical paraphrase of the popular Pendleton shirt), prompted a little national chart action and gained the renamed Beach Boys a contract with Capitol. The group's negotiator with the label, the Wilsons' father Murray, also took over as manager for the band. Before the release of any material for Capitol, however, Jardine left the band to attend college in the Midwest. A friend of the Wilsons, David Marks, replaced him.

Finally, in mid-1962 the Beach Boys released their major-label debut, Surfin' Safari. The title track, a more accomplished novelty single than its predecessor, hit the Top 20 and helped launch the surf-rock craze just beginning to blossom around Southern California (thanks to artists like Dick Dale, Jan & Dean, the Chantays, and dozens more). A similarly themed follow-up, Surfin' U.S.A., hit the Top Ten in early 1963 before Jardine returned from school and resumed his place in the group. By that time, the Beach Boys had recorded their first two albums, a pair of 12-track collections that added a few novelty songs to the hits they were packaged around. Though Capitol policy required the group to work with a studio producer, Brian quickly took over the sessions and began expanding the group's range beyond simple surf rock.

By the end of 1963, the Beach Boys had recorded three full LPs, hit the Top Ten as many times, and toured incessantly. Also, Brian began to grow as a producer, best documented on the third Beach Boys LP, Surfer Girl. Though surf songs still dominated the album, "Catch a Wave," the title track, and especially "In My Room" presented a giant leap in songwriting, production, and group harmony - especially astonishing considering the band had been recording for barely two years. Brian's intense scrutiny of Phil Spector's famous Wall of Sound productions were paying quick dividends, and revealed his intuitive, unerring depths of musical knowledge.

The following year, "I Get Around" became the first number one hit for the Beach Boys. Riding a crest of popularity, the late 1964 LP Beach Boys Concert spent four weeks at the top of the album charts, just one of five Beach Boys LPs simultaneously on the charts. The group also undertook promotional tours of Europe, but the pressures and time-constraints proved too much for Brian. At the end of the year, he decided to quit the touring band and concentrate on studio productions. (Glen Campbell toured with the group briefly, then friend and colleague Bruce Johnston became Brian's permanent replacement.)

With the Beach Boys as his musical messengers to the world, Brian began working full-time in the studio, writing songs and enlisting the cream of Los Angeles session players to record instrumental backing tracks before Carl, Dennis, Mike and Al returned to add vocals. The single "Help Me, Rhonda" became the Beach Boys' second chart-topper in early 1965. On the group's seventh studio LP, The Beach Boys Today!, Brian's production skills hit another level entirely. In the rock era's first flirtation with an extended album-length statement, side two of the record presented a series of downtempo ballads, arranged into a suite that stretched the group's lyrical concerns beyond youthful infatuation and into more adult notions of love.

Two more LPs followed in 1965, Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!) and Beach Boys' Party. The first featured "California Girls," one of the best fusions of Brian's production mastery, infectious melodies, and gorgeous close harmonies (it's still his personal favorite song). However, dragging down those few moments of brilliance were novelty tracks like "Amusement Parks USA," "Salt Lake City" and "I'm Bugged at My Old Man" that appeared a step back from Today. When Capitol asked for a Beach Boys' record to sell at Christmas, the live-in-the-studio vocal jam-session Beach Boys' Party resulted, and sold incredibly well after the single "Barbara Ann" became a surprise hit. In a larger sense though, both of these LPs were stopgaps, as Brian prepared for production on what he hoped would be the Beach Boys' most effective musical statement yet.

In late 1965, the Beatles released Rubber Soul. Amazed at the high song quality and overall cohesiveness of the album, Brian began writing songs - with help from lyricist Tony Asher - and producing sessions for a song suite charting a young man's growth to emotional maturity. Though Capitol was resistant to an album with few obvious hits, the group spent more time working on the vocals and harmonies than any other previous project. The result, released in May 1966 as Pet Sounds, more than justified the effort. It's still one of the best-produced and most influential rock LPs ever released, culminating years of Brian's perfectionist productions and songwriting. Critics praised Pet Sounds, but the new direction failed to impress American audiences. Though it reached the Top Ten, Pet Sounds missed a gold certificate (the first to do so since the group's debut LP). Conversely, worldwide reaction was not just positive but jubilant. In England, the album hit number two and earned the Beach Boys honors for best group in year-end polls by NME - above even the Beatles, hardly slouches themselves with the releases of "Paperback Writer"/"Rain" and Revolver.

The Beach Boys' next single, "Good Vibrations," had originally been written for the Pet Sounds sessions, though Brian removed it from the songlist to give himself more time for production. He resumed working on it after the completion of Pet Sounds, eventually devoting up to six months (and three different studios) on the single. Released in October 1966, "Good Vibrations" capped off the year as the group's third number one single and still stands as one of the best singles of all time. Throughout late 1966 and early 1967, Brian worked feverishly on the next Beach Boys' LP - a project named Dumb Angel, but later titled Smile - that promised to be as great an artistic leap beyond Pet Sounds than that album was from Today. He drafted Van Dyke Parks, an eccentric lyricist and session man, as his songwriting partner, and recorded reams of tape containing increasingly fragmented tracks that grew ever more speculative as the months wore on. Already wary of Brian's increasingly artistic leanings and drug experimentation, the other Beach Boys grew hostile when called in to the studio to add vocals for Parks lyrics like, "A blind class aristocracy / Back through the opera glass you see / The pit and the pendulum drawn / Columnaded ruins domino / Canvas the town and brush the backdrop" (from "Surf's Up"). A rift soon formed between the band and Brian; they felt his intake of marijuana and LSD had clouded his judgment, while he felt they were holding him back from the coming psychedelic era.

As recording for Smile dragged on into spring 1967, Brian began working fewer hours. For the first time in the Beach Boys' career, he appeared unsure of his direction. If Smile ever appeared salveagable, those hopes were dashed in May, when Brian officially cancelled the project - just a few weeks before the release of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. In August, the group finally released a new single, "Heroes and Villains." Very similar to the fragmentary style of "Good Vibrations," though a distinctly inferior follow-up, it missed the Top Ten. That fall, the group convened at Brian's Bel Air mansion-turned-studio and recorded new versions of several Smile songs plus a few new recordings and re-emerged with Smiley Smile. Carl summed up the LP as "a bunt instead of a grand slam," and its near-complete lack of cohesiveness all but destroyed the group's reputation for forward-thinking pop.

As the Beatles were ushering in the psychedelic age, the Beach Boys stalled with the all-important teen crowd, who quickly began to see the group as conservative, establishment throwbacks. The perfect chance to stem the tide, a headlining spot at the pioneering Monterey Pop Festival in summer 1967, was squandered. Though the Beach Boys regrouped quickly - the back-to-basics Wild Honey LP appeared before the end of 1967 - their hopes of becoming the world's preeminent pop group with both hippies and critics had fizzled in a matter of months.

All this incredible promise wasted made fans, critics, and radio programmers undeniably bitter toward future product. Predictably, both Wild Honey and 1968's Friends suffered with all three audiences. They survive as interesting records nevertheless; deliberately under-produced, including song fragments and recording-session detritus often left in the mix, the skeletal blue-eyed soul of Wild Honey and the laidback orchestral pop of Friends made them favorites only after fans realized the Beach Boys were a radically different group in 1968 than in 1966. Sparked by the Top 20 hit "Do It Again" - a song that saw the first shades of the group as an oldies act - 1969's 20/20 did marginally better. Still, Capitol dropped the band soon after. One year later, the Beach Boys signed to Reprise.

The first LP for Brother/Reprise was 1970's Sunflower, a surprisingly strong album featuring a return to the gorgeous harmonies of the mid-'60s and many songs written by different members of the band. Surf's Up, titled after a reworked song originally intended for Smile, followed in 1971. Though frequently loveable, the wide range of material on Surf's Up displayed not a band but a conglomeration of individual interests. During sessions for the album, Dennis put his hand through a plate glass window and was unable to play drums. Early in 1972, the band hired drummer Ricky Fataar and guitarist Blondie Chaplin, two members of a South African rock band named the Flame (Carl had produced their self-titled debut for Brother Records the previous year).

Carl and the Passions - So Tough, the first album released with Fataar and Chaplin in the band, descended into lame early-'70s AOR-rock. For the first time, a Beach Boys album retained nothing from their classic sound. Brian's mental stability wavered from year to year, and he spent much time in his mansion with no wish to even contact the outside world. He occasionally contributed to the songwriting and session load, but was by no means a member of the band anymore (he rarely even appeared on album covers or promotional shots). Though it's unclear why Reprise felt ready to take such a big risk, the label authorized a large recording budget for the next Beach Boys album. After shipping most of the group's family and entourage (plus an entire studio) over to Amsterdam, the Beach Boys re-emerged in 1973 with Holland. The LP scraped the bottom rungs of the Top 40, and the single "Sail On, Sailor" (with vocals by Chaplin) did receive some FM radio airplay. Still, Holland's muddy sound did nothing for the aging band, and it earned scathing reviews.

Perhaps a bit gun-shy, the Beach Boys essentially retired from recording during the mid-'70s. Instead, the band concentrated on grooming their live act, which quickly grew to become an incredible experience. It was a good move, considering the Beach Boys could lay claim to more hits than any other '60s rock act on the road. The Beach Boys in Concert, their third live album in total, appeared in 1973.

Then, in mid-1974, Capitol Records went to the vaults and issued a repackaged hits collection, Endless Summer. Both band and label watched, dumbfounded, as the double-LP hit number one, spent almost three years on the charts, and went gold. Endless Summer capitalized on a growing fascination with oldies rock that had made Sha Na Na, American Graffiti, and Happy Days big hits. Rolling Stone, never the most friendly magazine to the group, named the Beach Boys their Band of the Year at the end of the year. Another collection, Spirit of America, hit the Top Ten in 1974, and the Beach Boys were hustled into the studio to begin new recordings.

Trumpeted by the barely true marketing campaign "Brian's Back!," 1976's 15 Big Ones balanced a couple of '50s oldies with some justifiably exciting Brian Wilson oddities like "Had to Phone Ya." It also hit the Top Ten and went gold, despite many critical misgivings. Brian took a much more involved position for the following year's The Beach Boys Love You (it was almost titled Brian Loves You and released as a solo album). In marked contrast to the fatalistic early-'70s pop of "Til I Die" and others, Brian sounded positively jubilant on gruff proto-synth-pop numbers like "Let Us Go on This Way" and "Mona." However idiosyncratic compared to what oldies fans expected of the Beach Boys, Love You was the group's best album in years. (A suite of beautiful, tender ballads on side two was quite reminiscent of 1965's Today.)

After 1979's M.I.U. Album, the group signed a large contract with CBS that stipulated Brian's involvement on each album. However, his brief return to the spotlight ended with two dismal efforts, L.A. (Light Album) and Keepin' the Summer Alive. The Beach Boys began splintering by the end of the decade, with financial mismanagement by Mike Love's brothers Stan and Steve fostering tension between him and the Wilsons. By 1980, both Dennis and Carl had left the Beach Boys for solo careers. (Dennis had already released his first album, Pacific Ocean Blue, in 1977, and Carl released his eponymous debut in 1981.) Brian was removed from the group in 1982 after his weight ballooned to over 300 pounds, though the tragic drowning death of Dennis in 1983 helped bring the group back together. In 1985, the Beach Boys released a self-titled album which returned them to the Top 40 with "Getcha Back." It would be the last proper Beach Boys album of the '80s, however.

Brian had been steadily improving in both mind and body during the mid-'80s, though the rest of the group grew suspicious of his mentor, Dr. Eugene Landy. Landy was a dodgy psychiatrist who reportedly worked wonders with the easily impressionable Brian but also practically took over his life. He collaborated with Brian on the autobiography Wouldn't It Be Nice and wrote lyrics for Brian's first solo album, 1988's Brian Wilson. Critics and fans enjoyed Wilson's return to the studio, but the charts were unforgiving, especially with attention focused on the Beach Boys once more. The single "Kokomo," from the soundtrack to Cocktail, hit number one in the US late that year, prompting a haphazard collection named Still Cruisin'. The group also sued Brian, more to force Landy out of the picture than anything, and Mike Love later sued Brian for songwriting royalties (Brian had frequently admitted Love's involvement on most of them).

Despite the many quarrels, the Beach Boys kept touring during the early '90s, and Mike Love and Brian Wilson actually began writing songs together in 1995. Instead of a new album though, the Beach Boys returned with Stars and Stripes, Vol. 1, a collection of remade hits with country stars singing lead and the group adding backing vocals. Also, a Brian Wilson documentary titled I Just Wasn't Made for These Times aired on the Disney Channel, with an accompanying soundtrack featuring spare renditions of Beach Boys classics by Brian himself. Just as the band appeared to be pulling together for a proper studio album though, Carl died of cancer in 1998.

Ten years after his first solo album, Brian became aware of his immense influence on the alternative-rock community; he worked with biggest-fans Sean O'Hagan (of the High Llamas) and Andy Paley on a series of recordings. Again, good intentions failed to carry through, as the recordings were ditched in favor of another overly produced, mainstream-slanted work, Imagination. By early 1999, no less than three Beach Boys-connected units were touring the country - a Brian Wilson solo tour, the "official" Beach Boys led by Mike Love, and the "Beach Boys Family" led by Al Jardine. In 2000, Capitol instituted a long-promised reissue campaign, focusing on the group's long out-of-print '70s LPs.


1962 Surfin' Safari Capitol
1963 Surfin' U.S.A. Capitol
1963 Shut Down Capitol
1963 Surfer Girl Capitol
1963 Little Deuce Coupe Capitol
1964 Shut Down, Vol. 2 Capitol
1964 All Summer Long Capitol
1964 Beach Boys Concert [live] Capitol
1964 The Beach Boys' Christmas Album [Capitol] Capitol
1964 The Beach Boys Christmas Special Capitol
1965 The Beach Boys Today! Capitol
1965 Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!) Capitol
1965 Beach Boys Party! [live] Capitol
1966 Pet Sounds [Mono + Stereo] Capitol
1966 Pet Sounds Capitol
1967 Smile [Not Released] Capitol
1967 Smiley Smile Capitol
1967 Wild Honey Capitol
1968 Friends Capitol
1968 Stack-O-Tracks Capitol
1969 20/20 Capitol
1970 Live in London MFP
1970 Sunflower Caribou
1971 Surf's Up Caribou
1972 Carl and the Passions-So Tough Brother
1973 Holland Caribou
1973 The Beach Boys in Concert [live] Caribou
1976 15 Big Ones Caribou
1976 Beach Boys '69 (Beach Boys Live in London) Caribou
1977 Love You Caribou
1978 M.I.U. Album Caribou
1979 L.A. (Light Album) Caribou
1980 Keepin' the Summer Alive Caribou
1985 The Beach Boys Sessions
1989 Still Cruisin' Capitol
1992 Summer in Paradise Brother
1996 Stars & Stripes, Vol. 1 River North
2001 Smiley Smile [France Bonus Tracks] EMI
2002 Pet Sounds [Japan] Japanese
2002 Good Timin: Live at Knebworth, England 1980 Eagle
2002 Christmas Album [EMI Gold]
2003 Pet Sounds [2003 DVD Audio Bonus Tracks] Capitol