How the Beach Boys’ ‘Don’t Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)’ Influenced Fleet Foxes’ Robin Pecknold

Robin Pecknold had a newfound appreciation for outtakes thanks to the Beach Boys and their album Pet Sounds. Here’s what the Fleet Foxes songwriter said about the Beach Boys’ influence on the band — especially their 2020 release “Cradling Monther, Cradling Woman.”

Brian Wilson wrote several songs for the Beach Boys

As one of the most influential bands of the 1960s, the Beach Boys released songs like “Good Vibrations,” “God Only Knows,” and “Kokomo.” They earned praise from Nancy Sinatra and even inspired Fleet Foxes’ songwriter. 

Fleet Foxes’ Robin Pecknold names which Beach Boys song was ‘so important’ to him

One Beach Boys song was particularly impactful for Fleet Foxes songwriter Robin Pecknold. That was the Pet Sounds original, “Don’t Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder.)”

“That piece of music was so important to me, the demo of him stacking those harmonies that came out with the Pet Sounds box set in 1997,” Pecknold said during an interview with Wilson’s website, noting that he was “so lucky” to be “obsessed” with the album when the box set was already available. 

“For me, that a cappella track was my first ‘eureka’ moment with music, of just how much can be done with just a human voice and a multi-track recorder,” he continued. “It was also a big Rosetta Stone for me in terms of understanding how to stack harmonies, in terms of using contrary motion, chromaticism, oblique motion, and where to place a melody among voices.”

The artist even mentioned that “Don’t Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)” inspired a love of bootlegs, lost tracks, and outtakes. 

‘Cradling Mother, Cradling Woman’ features the voice of Brian Wilson from the Beach Boys 

There’s one unreleased outtake of “Don’t Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)” that features Wilson counting in the other Beach Boys. It was this counting that was utilized in Fleet Foxes’ 2020 release “Cradling Mother, Cradling Woman.”

“When we were working on ‘Cradling Mother, Cradling Woman,’ I wanted to announce at the beginning of the song that it was polyrhythmic,” Pecknold noted, “with one voice counting in three and another voice counting in four, and in thinking about how to do that in an interesting way, I remembered Brian [Wilson]’s iconic count-in to that outtake.” 

On a personal level, the musician noted, it was a “full circle journey” to be so inspired by Pet Sounds and to be counted in by “the voice that started it all.” However, it’s unclear if Wilson and Pecknold ever met before or after the sample. Since its debut, “Cradling Mother, Cradling Woman” has earned over 3 million Spotify plays. 

Fleet Foxes is the band behind “White Winter Hymnal,” “Blue Ridge Mountains,” and “Can I Believe You.” They earned Grammy nominations, with each song snagging millions of Spotify streams.