This Day in Music – 16th May

On this day in 1966, The Beach Boys released the album Pet Sounds. The album is now regarded as the masterpiece of composer-producer Brian Wilson, and is often hailed as one of the best and most influential albums in pop music.
The album was created several months after Brian Wilson had quit touring with the band in order to focus his attention on writing and recording. In it, he wove elaborate layers of vocal harmonies, and unconventional instruments such as bicycle bells, dog whistles, buzzing organs, harpsichords, flutes, Electro-Theremin, Hawaiian-sounding string instruments, Coca-Cola cans and barking dogs, (Wilson’s own dog Banana is featured), along with the more usual keyboards and guitars. Wilson essentially made Pet Sounds without the rest of the band, using them only to flesh out the vocal arrangements.
Pet Sounds has been widely ranked as one of the most influential records ever released and has been ranked at #1 in several music magazines lists of greatest albums of all time, including New Musical Express, The Times and Mojo Magazine. In 2003, it was ranked #2 in Rolling Stones 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list, (Sgt. Pepper’s came first).