Eagle Rock EntertainmentThis year marks the 50th anniversary of the release of The Beach Boys‘ Pet Sounds, regarded by many music fans and critics as one of the greatest albums of all time. Now, a new documentary delving into the creation of the inventive 1966 song cycle will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on September 23.
Classic Albums — Pet Sounds, part of the ongoing Classic Albums series, features new interviews with Beach Boys mastermind Brian Wilson, as well as with his surviving band mates Mike Love, Al Jardine and Bruce Johnston, and other musicians involved with making the album.
In a preview trailer for the documentary that can be viewed on The Beach Boys’ VEVO YouTube channel, Wilson says, “We experimented on Pet Sounds. I tried to write something better than the surf song and cars songs.”
Pet Sounds was the first album the band made after Wilson decided to retire from touring to concentrate on composing and recording new music for the group. While his band mates were on the road, Brian enlisted a variety of session musicians to create the record’s basic tracks, which incorporated orchestration, sound effects and unusual instruments. He eventually brought the other Beach Boys members into the studio to record the album’s multilayered, complex vocal harmonies.
Pet Sounds features the hits “Sloop John B,” “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” and “God Only Knows,” and peaked at #10 on the Billboard 200 chart, although it wasn’t considered a commercial success at the time of its release. However, the album has gone on to sell more than 1 million copies and has been cited as a major influence by many groups, including The Beatles. It landed at #2 on Rolling Stone‘s 2012 list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
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