Pet Sounds

"Sloop John B" and the beginning of Pet Sounds

The track "Sloop John B" predated the recording of the rest of the LP by some months, but it proved to be a pivotal point in the album's development. It was a traditional West Indian folk song that had been suggested to Brian by group member Al Jardine. Wilson recorded a backing track on July 12, 1965, but after laying down a rough lead vocal, he set the song aside for some time, concentrating on the recording of what became their next LP, the 'live in the studio' album Beach Boys' Party!.

Related Topics:
West Indian - Al Jardine - July 12 - 1965

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The real catalyst for Pet Sounds was The Beatles' new LP Rubber Soul, which was released in December 1965. Wilson later recalled his first impressions of the groundbreaking album:

Related Topics:
The Beatles - Rubber Soul

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:I really wasn't quite ready for the unity. It felt like it all belonged together. Rubber Soul was a collection of songs ... that somehow went together like no album ever made before, and I was very impressed. I said, 'That's it. I really am challenged to do a great album.'

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It is worth noting that The Beatles album Brian Wilson heard was the US version of Rubber Soul, which contained 12 tracks instead of the 14 on the UK version, of which 2 were tracks from the UK version of Help ("I've Just Seen A Face" and "It's Only Love") and 10 from the original 14 tracks on the British Rubber Soul.

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In early January Wilson contacted Tony Asher, a young lyricist and copywriter who had been working on advertising jingles, whom Brian had met in a Hollywood recording studio months earlier. Within ten days they were writing together. Wilson played him some of the music he had been recording, and gave him a cassette of the finished backing track for a piece with the working title "In My Childhood"; it had lyrics, but Wilson refused to show them to Asher, who took the music away and wrote new lyrics. The result was eventually retitled "You Still Believe In Me" and the success of the piece convinced Brian that Asher was the collaborator he was looking for.

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"The general tenor of the lyrics was always his," Asher later recalled, "and the actual choice of words was usually mine. I was really just his interpreter."

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