(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Still)
Tue 11 November 2025 22:15, UK
If you want to feel insecure about your achievements in life, just remember that Brian Wilson was only 23 years old when he created one of the greatest albums of all time in Pet Sounds.
Such was the intensity of his musical talent that he managed to revolutionise pop without the aid of a fully developed frontal lobe. Yet, in spite of it all, he wasn’t deemed good enough for Phil Spector.
If anyone was singularly responsible for the iconic sounds of the 1960s, Spector was the prime candidate. With the dense, unforgettable atmosphere of his ‘Wall of Sound’ productions, he carved out a litany of the hit parade’s all-time greatest pop smashes, and Brian Wilson soaked up every ounce of inspiration from those records.
The Beach Boys songwriter, throughout his life, was unwavering in his declaration that The Ronettes’ ‘Be My Baby’ was the greatest song of all time, and it simply would not have existed without Spector and his Wall of Sound.
By the time that ‘Be My Baby’ hit the airwaves in 1963, though, The Beach Boys were already in full swing, having released the masterful Surfin’ USA months prior. As one of the hottest, freshest new bands on the American pop market, it was inevitable that the band would cross paths with Spector at some point – the producer had a knack for seeking out the greatest talents to mould. However, it is fair to say that the first collaboration between Spector and Brian Wilson didn’t exactly go to plan.
Brian Wilson in the studio in 2016. (Credits: Far Out / YouTube Still)
“I went to a few Spector sessions,” the songwriter recalled to Record Collector back in 2007. The very first one, though, involved Wilson embracing his festive side. “I played piano on a song on his Christmas album [1963’s A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector], that song [‘Santa Claus Is Coming To Town].”
Although that track was always bound to be recorded by New York girl group The Crystals, Spector wanted Wilson to add some piano to the sessions. “He had me play a piano,” the Beach Boy shared. “But I couldn’t keep the rhythm right so he had to take me off the piano. I couldn’t hack it.”
There is no doubt that Wilson was pretty crushed by that dismissal, given his ultimate adoration for Spector – along with the colossal success of that Christmas album upon its release – but the producer’s standards weren’t going to drop just for Wilson’s benefit.
Seemingly, the failure of Brian Wilson’s attempted Spector collaboration didn’t blacklist the songwriter indefinitely. A few years later, in fact, Spector wrote a song alongside Harry Nilsson, ‘This Could Be The Night’, as something of a folk-rock tribute to Wilson. “Phil called me down to the session because he wanted me to learn something about that,” Wilson said of the 1965 recording sessions. “Then I did Pet Sounds.”
That album, of course, altered the course of Wilson’s existence forever, as well as showing the extent of his own production skills. Nevertheless, it would never have existed – at least not in the same form – without the inspiration provided to the songwriter by Phil Spector, whose work The Beach Boys were always determined to emulate.
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