#6 Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys

The 100 Greatest Albums of All Time

Album Rank

6

Total Points

1878

Year Released

1966

Billboard 200 Chart Peak

10

Weeks at #1

N/A

RIAA Sales Certification

1,000,000 (Platinum)

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Pet Sounds Album Details

Released in 1966, Brian Wilson was inspired to make Pet Sounds after he heard Rubber Soul by The Beatles. Pet Sounds, in turn, inspired Paul McCartney and The Beatles to make the Sgt. Pepper album. With its mix of different sounds and instrumentation, it is considered one of the first psychedelic albums.

Interesting Facts About Pet Sounds

• Pet Sounds is the highest ranking album on this chart not to make it to number one on the Billboard Top 200 chart as it stalled at number 10. It is also the only album in the top ten not to have sold at least five million copies, it is currently certified by the RIAA for sales of one million.
• The song "Caroline, No" was originally released as a solo Brian Wilson single, not as a Beach Boys recording, before the Pet Sounds album was released. Brian is the only band member to appear on the song.
• The instrumental song “Pet Sounds” was originally titled “Run James Run” and was intended by Brian to be used as a theme in a James Bond movie.
• “Sloop John B” is a cover version of “The John B. Sails”, a folk song that first appeared in the 1917 novel by Richard Le Gallienne called Pieces of Eight. The Beach Boys version has some minor lyric changes. It was also a top 100 hit for Jimmie Rodgers in 1960 wit the title “The Wreck of the John B.”
• Paul McCartney has called the song “God Only Knows” his all time favorite song.

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