Wouldn't It Be Nice...

Today in rock history, the Pet Sounds “masterpiece” by The Beach Boys was released in 1966. It contained “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” “Sloop John B.,” “God Only Knows,” “Here Today,” “Caroline No” and other songs. A box set of the recording sessions of Pet Sounds was released by Capitol Records in the 1990s. How many times have we heard that Paul McCartney picked it as one of the best albums of all time? It is doubtful that without McCartney’s endorsement, the album would have received as much attention as it did. I don’t remember paying too much attention to it at the time: I had dismissed the Beach Boys as a washed -up surf band past their prime by 1966. How wrong I was! Well, with or without McCartney’s nod, it is by anyone’s definition a great album; as a matter of fact, it has been ranked the #1 best album of all time by the New Musical Express, The Times, Mojo Magazine, and Pure Pop; and #2 in the best albums of all time by Rolling Stone magazine. “God Only Knows” received notice as the first pop song with “God” in the title. Brian Wilson (who had stopped touring with the group by late 1965) actually recorded the majority of the backing tracks with the help of studio musicians Barney Kessel, Carol Kaye and the ubiquitous Hal Blaine, among others (part of LA’s infamous “Wrecking Crew” of studio musicians, who showed up on hundreds of pop songs, jingles, and commercials), while the rest of the band was on a three-week tour of Hawaii and Japan. He also pioneered multi-track recording, using one of the first available 8-track recorders of the time. The majority of the music-buying public in those days probably never realized that it wasn’t their faves playing the backing tracks on their favorite recordings; it was this group of veteran studio musicians cranking them out. That explains why the drum sound was often the same on a lot of these recordings; it was usually Hal Blaine poundin’ the skins! At any rate, let’s relive the genius of Brian Wilson with this track from “Pet Sounds.” Thanks to www.garylessard.com and www.wikipedia.org for the info, and keep on rockin’!