The Beach Boys – Pet Sounds

It's worth buying this just to not have mike love's name credited on every track

I just picked this up, but mine has "9" on the back right near the RIAA label. Matrix
Side A: T-1-2458-G-26 *
Side B: T-2-2458-F-25 *.

Looking for a cover only. Is anyone selling just the record cover?

I think i have this pressing in NM-... but it's too good to be true. How can I tell if it's a repress?? All of the sleeves and etching line up with the description above

Seriously, it’s just Pet Sounds, what are you talking about. Yes, that’s the statement I’ve wanted to make for nearly fifty years now, though I don’t, as I fear the pitchforked mob that would storm my castle late into the night, smash my rather expensive stereo and distribute my precious record collection among themselves.

Pet Sounds has taken on mythical attributes that it cannot possibly live up to, yet anyone who dares criticize the release is seen to be without intelligence, without a soul, without the decency to respect what Brian Wilson in the midst of his drugged out haze and mental breakdown had done. I’ll admit, I’ve championed this record many times, cited its credentials, discussed the music, the lyrics and the current of emancipation that supposedly flowed through it. Without a doubt, the influences of this record and the impact it has had on so many listeners, yet alone artists is staggering. Considering that, I never want for an endless grouping of individuals who profess their love for this record, yet when I put them on the spot, I’ve found very few who can name more than two tracks from the record, and surprisingly, most can name none, standing their shuffling their feet, lost in the religious fervor of something they can’t see, can’t touch, and may or may not have ever actually sat down and listened to.

Pet Sounds is not complicated, it doesn’t require a master’s degree in music to comprehend, it’s simply more of what Brian Wilson does so well, creating pop songs. The album was disappointing to me when it came out and it still is today … it was disappointing to most people, it didn’t chart well at all. Matter of fact, for all the zealots, Wilson didn’t even write the lyrics, they were penned by TonyAsher (the guy who penned jingles for Barbie dolls, Max Factor cosmetics and Gallo wine), freeing Brian to concentrate on the music, so please, explain how well crafted this record was as a contextual whole. Of course praise and adulation should be expressed for the harmonic arrangements, as well as the vocal arrangements, to those I can find no fault. But … and there’s always a but, I doubt that anyone considering this record has listened to it in its original mono version, after all, mono is how Brian Wilson heard, so the technical advancements of stereo, reprocessing, remastering, surround sound and spacial distribution are all tricks of the speaker trade and have nothing at all to do with this record. So, if you wanna talk to me about Pet Sounds, you better be holding a weathered mono copy in your hand, and don’t try to pull a fast on me, only one of those new mono recordings were taken from the original master tapes.

You want me to heap praise? Here goes … Both recorded and released in 1966, this record evolves endlessly with each listen, perhaps the first record to be considered a concept, from beginning to end listeners are immersed in an intense linear personal vision arranged around the vagaries of love affairs, the painful introverted anxieties that are the gut wrenching precipitates of the unstable chemistry for most all emotional relationships, where this trenchant ebbing cycle of love songs blisters forth infused with the impact of a shatteringly evocative novel. What, you didn’t know all that? Or perhaps in knowing such details, the record would take on a much darker form.

No one was already for this album, an album that was both soulful and lovely, yet sitting on an undercurrent of despair, which of course gave listeners back in 1966 something profound to consider. As to the album’s sound, it was breathtaking, coming across as if Brian Wilson was no longer walking among us, and for the most part, locked in his room, he wasn’t.

This is not a lecture, I simply wanted more Beach Boy singles, and while the album certainly delivered those, “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” “Sloop John B” and “God Only Knows” the rest of the album was like so many other Beach Boy albums, filled with songs, concepts, desires and visions that I wasn’t interested in, forever leaving me feeling that I wasn’t smart enough, didn’t get it, or just wouldn’t give myself over. But I am smart, I know what I like, and I refuse to be looked down on by those who claim they dig this album, by those who collect first pressings of Frank Zappa, not first editions mind you, but first pressings. So if you want to impress me with facts about this Beach Boy album that isn’t, ‘less of course you’re smart enough to know that Brian Wilson was the Beach Boys, you’ll certainly know that Dennis was the only member to play on any song, and that was “That’s Not Me,” Carl Wilson’s guitar work on “That’s Not Me” and “God Only Knows” were both overdubbed. And of course everyone knows that that weird chatter in the background of “Here Today” was not a mystical message, it was Bruce Johnston having a conversation about cameras. Not counting members of The Beach Boys, in one form or another, there were no less than 62 musicians who had major roles in the production of Pet Sounds, so if in any stretch of the imagination, you can seriously look me in the eye and claim without a sly smile inching across your face that this is a Beach Boy album, then I’ll tell you that I own the stained glass featured on the jacket of Wild Honey, and I’m willing to let you have it at a bargain price.

Yes, it’s a good record, but it’s not the Holy Grail or some missing link, nor does it deserve the reverence that surrounds it. If it did, Wilson would have created an endless string of them, but he didn’t, because it just was what it was at that moment in time back in1966, competing with those four lads from Liverpool.

Review by Jenell Kesler

Hey all, I'm having trouble figuring out which pressing I have, hoping someone might have some insight. It's Duophonic stereo, catalog number DT 2458, has a "3" next to the RIAA logo on the lower right corner of back cover. But here's the thing: I can't find the matrix/runouts in the listings here. Side A is DT-1-2458 A11 and side B is DT-1-2458 A11. The A11 thing makes had me looking somewhere in between the LA pressings but I could find the A11 thing anywhere else. Any help is appreciated, thanks!

Question: I've got an original 1966 dutch press in a 1966 made in u.s.a. sleeve. Was it originally released like this?
catalog number on both sleeve and label is: T 2458

The Japanese 4 X SHM (2016) isnt listed ( UICY-77778) Could someone list please ?

Mine has:

the IAM Triangle

Side One (stamped)
T1-2458-F19 (followed by a very small #2)

Side Two (stamped)
T2-2458-F19

On Side 1 label the titles are not vertically aligned while on Side 2 the titles are vertically aligned. In both cases starting from under the spindle hole.

Just picked up my first time ever true STEREO 50th anniversary vinyl copy and it is flawless!!!

100% worth the 50 year wait Mark has done an amazing mix rich crisp deep and alive
The press done by Sony/Artone Holland is also 100% flawless a joy to play and own HQ polyliner thick card sleeve with thick spine. the vinyl is to die for and rainbow labels and text excellent.

Only a couple of disappointments!
1. Bar Code on the sleeve (a removable sticker would have been better) at least it's small and out the way on the bottom
2. The 50th Sticker attached to the cling wrap does NOT peel off.
3. An inner booklet with recording notes etc would not have gone a miss

The big no no is the limited edition repro Holland EMI-Capitol 7" of God Only Knows/Wouldn't It Be Nice in yellow vinyl that has come out as a tie in/teaser 45 and is discounted when bought with the vinyl album.

1. It's in it's drab lacklustre mono mixes why? The Stereo album just puts this sleeve stated "Juke Box" 45 to shame (weren't Seeburg and Wurlitzer Juke Boxes available in Hi-Fi Stereo from 1959!!!!)
2. It has a crazy dated and needless LH (Large Hole) 1 1/2" die-cut finish, what's wrong with a 4 prong OC (optional Centre) Dinked Centre ( Didn't EMI-Bovema finally realise the needless USA Large Hole die-cuts and go with Dinked OC centres!)
come on UMG do the actual homework, totally give the buyer something new, the tie in single is a massive let down in mono and a pointless waste of £6!!!