{"id":790432,"date":"2026-10-03T06:54:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T06:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/790432\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T06:54:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T06:54:12","slug":"the-album-that-set-the-beach-boys-on-course-for-pet-sounds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/790432\/","title":{"rendered":"The album that set the Beach Boys on course for &#8216;Pet Sounds&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <img width=\"1140\" height=\"855\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Brian-Wilson-2-Musician-The-Beatch-Boys-1960s-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855.jpg\" class=\"attachment-single-feature size-single-feature wp-post-image\" alt=\"Brian Wilson 2 - Musician - The Beach Boys - 1960's\" layout=\"fill\"  style=\"object-position: 50% 20%\" loading=\"eager\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Credit: Far Out \/ YouTube Still<\/p>\n<p> Sat 3 October 2026 0:30, UK <\/p>\n<p>The idea that <a href=\"https:\/\/faroutmagazine.co.uk\/tags\/brian-wilson\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"\">Brian Wilson<\/a> woke up one day and decided to create Pet Sounds is a bizarrely enduring misconception within the realm of pop music. In reality, the seeds of that transcendental masterpiece were planted long before The Beach Boys ditched their striped shirts and surfer tunes.<\/p>\n<p>In fairness to that misconception, no other band \u2013 particularly within the pop-rock scene of early 1960s America \u2013 made as substantial a leap in their output as The Beach Boys did from their surf-centric early days to the studio experimentation of Pet Sounds. If you contrast that LP with any of the group\u2019s earlier hit records, you could be forgiven for mistaking them as two entirely different groups. <\/p>\n<p>It was, in truth, a concoction of influences, ranging from Wilson\u2019s ill-fated experiences with LSD to <a href=\"https:\/\/faroutmagazine.co.uk\/brian-wilsons-favourite-phil-spector-album\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"\">his infatuation with Phil Spector\u2019s \u2018Wall of Sound\u2019<\/a> that sparked the beginnings of Pet Sounds. Even so, the album would never have come to fruition were it not for its predecessors, such as 1963\u2019s Surfin\u2019 USA \u2013 an album which, while successful, hasn\u2019t been the subject of quite as much intense and unending praise as Pet Sounds.<\/p>\n<p>Surfin\u2019 USA was far from being a failure. On its release in March 1963, in the months just before the British invasion began to take root in the States, the record managed to climb to number two on the US album chart, and peak at a still-impressive 17 in the UK. As if that wasn\u2019t enough, it also contained a few hits and future Beach Boys classics, its title track being the prime example.<\/p>\n<p>In a creative sense, though, <a href=\"https:\/\/faroutmagazine.co.uk\/the-beach-boys-surfin-usa-album-review\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"\">the LP wasn\u2019t reinventing the wheel<\/a>. While it did show some degree of innovation and progression in comparison to the band\u2019s earlier albums, it was still very much a commercial-forward, pop-centric album, the prevailing aim of which seemed to be to sell a multitude of copies and continue to build the band\u2019s ever-increasing reputation within the pop-rock world.<\/p>\n<p>Crucially, though, the album marked one of the first instances of Wilson stepping into the production seat, even if it was Capitol Records\u2019 Nick Venet who took the primary production credit on the record. \u201cBy the time I got to the album, Surfin\u2019 USA,\u201d Wilson wrote in the liner notes that accompanied its first CD issue, \u201cI was more experienced at producing.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>He added that the album\u2019s predecessor, Surfin\u2019 Safari, was \u201cpractice for me\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Further reading: From The Vault<\/p>\n<p>It was also on the 1963 album that Wilson\u2019s perfectionist tendencies came to the forefront. \u201cI didn\u2019t like second-rate vocals,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was either the best or nothin\u2019, in my opinion. The boys picked up. We had a good understanding between us and I was their leader.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>The musical mastermind went on to affirm, \u201cProduction-wise, this album was an early Brian Wilson production.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Without those experiences creating Surfin\u2019 USA, then, you could certainly argue that Wilson might never have had the confidence or the expertise to <a href=\"https:\/\/faroutmagazine.co.uk\/pet-sounds-1966-britain-reaction-destroyed-brian-wilson\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"\u2018Pet Sounds\u2019, 1966, and how Britain\u2019s reaction \u201cdestroyed\u201d Brian Wilson\">produce the intricate and ambitious Pet Sounds<\/a> barely three years later. <\/p>\n<p>That album might have taken the musical realm by surprise, but its creation certainly didn\u2019t come entirely out of the blue, if you pay attention to Wilson\u2019s earlier output with The Beach Boys.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>  <a class=\"fw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/faroutmagazine.co.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" style=\"\"> ADD AS A PREFERRED SOURCE ON GOOGLE <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"28\" height=\"28\" src=\"https:\/\/faroutmagazine.co.uk\/wp-content\/themes\/far-out-magazine\/img\/google-discover.svg\" alt=\"\"\/> <\/a>   <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: Far Out \/ YouTube Still Sat 3 October 2026 0:30, UK The idea that Brian Wilson woke&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":790433,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[19405,218621,29764,96,128,131986,11654,15745,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-790432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-1960s","tag-218621","tag-brian-wilson","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-pet-sounds","tag-rock-music","tag-the-beach-boys","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=790432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/790433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=790432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=790432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=790432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}