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TL;DR:

  • The Beach Boys’ songs from the album Pet Sounds were different from the band’s previous work.
  • Mike Love revealed one of the songs from the album took nearly 30 tries to get right.
  • Love said the song proved Brian Wilson had ears as sensitive as a dog’s.
The Beach Boy's Brian Wilson next to a dog
The Beach Boy’s Brian Wilson | Michael Ochs Archives / Stringer

According to rumor, Mike Love did not like The Beach Boys‘ songs from the album Pet Sounds. Love debunked this notion. Subsequently, he said one of the songs from Pet Sounds proved Brian Wilson was sensitive to sounds only dogs can hear.

Mike Love revealed what caused a schism between different members of his band

While it wasn’t one of their biggest hits, Pet Sounds is probably The Beach Boys’ most acclaimed album. According to a 2013 article from Rock Cellar Magazine, there was a rumor that Love was upset the album strayed from The Beach Boys’ formula. Love debunked the rumor.

“That’s not true,” he said. “There was a ‘them and us’ kind of situation that evolved because of the drugs and I think that gave rise [to] that. Alan Jardine, myself, and Bruce Johnston did not do drugs and the Wilson brothers got into all kinds of things.”

Love elaborated on his difference from the Wilsons. “At one time on tour we had a smoker’s jet, which was a euphemism for who was smoking hash and pot — and a non-smokers jet,” Love added. “We were still a group but there was definitely a schism there.”

1 of The Beach Boys’ songs took nearly 30 takes to complete

Love revealed what he thought of Pet Sounds. “I didn’t dislike the Pet Sounds material at all,” he said. “I thought it was brilliant. We all worked on it very assiduously.” Love said it was Capitol Records’ A&R record executive Karl Engemann who disliked the album for straying from The Beach Boys’ previous songs.

“Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” one of the most famous songs from Pet Sounds, was particularly difficult to finish. “We did close to 30 takes on one section of ‘Wouldn’t It Be Nice’ and that’s when I started calling Brian ‘Dog Ears’ because he heard things most humans couldn’t hear,” Love recalled.

Related

Brian Wilson Said Three Dog Night Rejected a Song That Became a Hit for The Beach Boys

How The Beach Boys’ ‘Wouldn’t It Be Nice’ and “Pet Sounds’ performed on the chart in the United States

“Wouldn’t It Be Nice” became a modest hit in the United States. The song reached No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100. “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” lasted on the chart for 11 weeks.

The Beach Boys released “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” on the album Pet Sounds. The album reached No. 10 on the Billboard 200. Pet Sounds remained on the chart for 47 weeks.

“Wouldn’t It Be Nice” is a classic Beach Boys song even if it took many tries to get it right.

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