Pet Sounds (2) is the 11th studio album by the American band the Beach Boys, released May 1966 on Capitol Records. It was initially met with a lukewarm critical and commercial response in the U.S., peaking at number 10 on the Billboard chart. In the UK, the album was lauded by critics and reached number 2 on the Top 40 Albums Chart, remaining in the top ten for six months. Promoted there as “the most progressive pop album ever”, Pet Sounds garnered recognition for its ambitious production, sophisticated music, and emotional lyrical content. It is considered to be among the greatest and most influential albums in music history.
The album was produced, arranged, and almost entirely composed by Brian Wilson with guest lyricist Tony Asher. It was recorded largely between January and April 1966, a year after Wilson quit touring with his bandmates. His goal was to create “the greatest rock album ever made”—a cohesive work with no filler tracks. It is sometimes considered a Wilson solo album that builds upon the advancements of The Beach Boys Today! (1965). Lead single “Caroline, No” was issued as his official solo debut. It was followed by two singles credited to the group: “Sloop John B” and “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” (backed with “God Only Knows”).I
ncorporating elements of pop, jazz. exotica, classical, and the avante-garde, Wilson’s Wall of Sound-based orchestrations mixed conventional rock set-ups with elaborate layers of vocal harmonies, found sounds, and instruments never before associated with rock, such as bicycle bells, French horn, flutes, Electro-Theremin, string sections, and beverage cans. The album could not be reproduced live and was the first time that any group departed from their usual small-ensemble electric rock band format for a whole LP. An early concept album, it consists mainly of introspective songs like “I Know There’s An Answer”, a critique of LSD users; and “I Just Wasn’t Made for These Times”, the first use of a theremin-like instrument on a rock record. The album’s unprecedented total production cost exceeded $70,000 (equivalent to $580,000 in 2021). An expanded edition, The Pet Sounds Sessions, was released in 1997 with isolated vocals and instrumental versions, session highlights, and the album’s first true stereo mix.
The front sleeve depicts a snapshot of the band – from left, they are Carl, Brian, and Dennis Wilson; Mike Love; and Al Jardine – feeding pieces of apples to seven goats at the San Diego Zoo while dressed in coats and sweaters. A green band header announces the titles of the artist, album, and each track on the LP, all written in the Cooper Black typeface. Bruce Johnston, who joined the band as an unofficial member one year earlier, does not appear on the cover due to contractual restraints from Columbia Records. On the reverse side, the sleeve contained a montage of monochrome photos depicting the touring band on-stage and posing in samurai outfits during their tour of Japan, as well as two photos of Brian. Jardine expressed disappointment with the cover and said he had “wanted a more sensitive and enlightening cover.” Johnston referred to it as the “worst cover in the history of the record business”, while Carlin opined that the backside of the LP was “perhaps an even worse design idea than the goat shot”. Author Peter Doggett writes that the design was at odds with the increasingly sophisticated cover portraits used on releases by artists such as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan over 1965–67. He highlights it as “a warning of what could happen when music and image parted company: songs of high romanticism, an album cover of stark banality.”
Pet Sounds revolutionized the field of music production and the role of producers within the music industry, introduced novel approaches to orchestration, chord voicings, and structural harmonies, and furthered the cultural legitimization of popular music, a greater public appreciation fro albums, the use of synthesizers, the recording studio as an instrument, and the development of psychedelic music and progressive/art rock. It has topped several critics’ and musicians’ polls for the best album of all time, including those published by NME, Mojo, Uncut, and The Times. In 2004, it was inducted into the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress. It has been certified platinum by the RIAA, indicating over one million units sold.
