The Smiley Smile Message Board

And let's also say you end up with a pretty high position in Capitol Record's PR department. What sort of things would you have your PR department do and would would you suggest The Beach Boys themselves do to give Pet Sounds a much higher chance of being the #1 seller it should have been in '66?

While I'm at it: What efforts do you think you, your PR department and The Beach Boys would need to make to virtually ensure Heroes & Villains as a #1 single?

All within legal non-shady as possible bounds, please.  :lol

kidnap the beatles

I would probably suggest not publicizing well in the US and let fellow musicians and respected critics rave about it. This hopefully would lead to ongoing sales for many years and who knows, maybe even have the album toured live someday. In other words...Brilliant PR!

Seriously though. Have any names ever been associated to the decision not to promote?

Just a few thoughts:

The PR effort should be focused on establishing a "Cool" factor.  Hindsight being 20/20, in less than two years from our time travel arrival in 1965, the Boys would become ostracized and wind up on the outside looking in as a new group of hipsters takes over (i.e., "You'll Never Hear Surf Music Again.")

There are some photos of Brian hanging out on the Sunset Strip during this burgeoning hip scene in 1965.  ALL of the Boys need to get in on that scene, shed the striped shirts, and start hanging out with the cool people.  Bring in Derek Taylor earlier, and do not adopt the "Brian is everything and the Boys are his followers" attitude.  Get the whole band in on the PR machine. 

A concerted effort should be made to expand the touring group to include extra musicians so that the more complicated and multi-instrumental songs can be played on stage, and prevent the unfortunate limitations of the group playing their older work in an age where the music was expanding along with everyone's consciousness.

Maybe change the title of the album and the album cover.

Fire Mike Love Put on a non stop assault of magazine adverts declaring the album to be the greatest piece of music since Rhapsody In Blue.

As a Capitol suit, I'd tell Brian:
a. to go easy on the hard stuff.
b. to not make a future trip to the zoo for some pictures... but rather to use my avatar photo (not yet taken) for the album cover (although I'm not sure when it was taken), because it's a much cooler photo.
c. I'd tell my fellow Capitol suits that in 50 years, many people are going to be proclaiming Pet Sounds as the best album ever... so lets's promote it like there's no tomorrow, to give the Beach Boys a tomorrow.
d. that him and this guy named Van Dyke Parks were going to write this amazing album together called SMiLE and that it was really, really, really important that he finish it in the spring of 1967, and to not worry and obsess so much over Heroes and Villains, etc. I'd plead with him to not listen to the naysayers. I would also bring with me some modern editing software and computers, etc., to assist him with this future project.

When I came back to the present, I would then check the music charts, and see that both Pet Sounds and SMiLE were number 1 albums, and the Beach Boys, not the Beatles, are heralded as the greatest band ever. I would also issue an in-person apology to Lewis Shiner... who would look at me funny and walk away.

No offense, but that photo would be a much worse cover photo than what they used.

No offense, but I completely disagree.

I still think it's a neat photo, just wouldn't work for the album.

Perhaps not undermine Pet Sounds by releasing a Best of compilation just for starters.

The best idea yet.

This topic reminds me a lot of the book "Glimpses" by Lewis Shiner, where the protagonist travels back in time to help Brian help finish SMiLE. Unfortunately, the album is a commercial failure, the group ditches Brian, Marilyn leaves him, and then he just fall into his pool and dies. So, I'd obviously try to prevent, you know, that.

While I'm in 1965, can I take some money and put it in stocks for IBM or Apple?  Or even just a high interest savings account?

On the BB front, have them on Sullivan and any TV show promoting the songs from PS. 

But, I wouldn't want to tamper too much and risk myself not being born. 

 :o

Two things:

1. Tell the Capitol suits to give the album time. It's not going to be an out-of-the-box smash like their other releases. Keep promoting it and do NOT put out a best-of to undercut things (as Ang Jones mentioned).

2. Closely related to No. 1: Don't put God Only Knows as a B-side to Wouldn't It Be Nice. In the theme of  the album being a "grower" and not a smash, let Wouldn't It Be Nice have its run on the charts, pushing the album up, then put God Only Knows out on its own (with heavy promotion) to keep the album sales going.

Absolutely.

I might've pushed Here Today a little more. 

With the exception of Wouldn't It Be Nice, Here Today probably sounds more like the "Beach Boys Sound" that US record buyers were going for in 1966. 

Can I also have somebody from Capital tell John Lennon to stay home on Dec 8, 1980?  Or would that rip a hole in the fabric of time? 

Maybe tell Carl to lay off the cigarettes. 

Yes, please do both of the latter two.

Done.  Bring me my DeLorean.

It'll be there in the morning. Give Dennis a good talking-to while you're at it.

Good idea. 

While I'm in the mid 60s, I'm going to be buying a lot of records and selling them for a premium in 2016. 

Sneak Ahmet Ertegun into the audio while it was being recorded. Get him to work his magic to move the band to Atlantic.

Good idea. 

Would it be wrong to try to get a date with Jane Asher while in the 60s?  She might be looking for a rebound after Paul.   ;D

Whoa, out of the blue you show that you can pick out the awesomest woman in a crowd. They haven't broken up yet, but you can probably spare her some stress by hurrying that along.

NO! Don't cross that out!! If only they had.

Yep.  Loved her in Masque of the Red Death.  Quite the looker. 

I'll just tell her that Paul's writing songs like You Won't See Me and For No One, so the writing's on the wall. 

 ;D

Love is here, today then he's gone, tomorrow he's back, then gone at last!

 :lol :lol :lol

Not sure about what to do about Heroes & Villians.  I'd recommend to Brian that he collaborate with the Beach Boys only for the album following Pet Sounds, following the template set by Good Vibrations - experimental music, mildly psychedelic, but relatable, with Mike Love lyrics.  Backing tracks a mix of BB plus session folk.  A growth for the whole band.

I think a lot of what is accepted about PS and BotBB is wrong.

Pet Sounds was just reaching its peak when BotBB was released and was still on the rise as far as Capitol could have known, so Capitol couldn't have released BotBB in reaction to poor PS sales it seems.

Pet Sounds had already rounded over at #10 almost a month before BotBB even broke into the Top 100 and when BotBB broke above #10  PS actually took a bump up of 7 points over the next 3 weeks, so it does not seem to have hurt PS's sales. BotBB might have even been what kept PS in the Top 40 until November 5 when even BotBB had fallen to #27.

I also think our thinking about Capitol's intentions with BotBB is also wrong. How could BotBB be Capitol's show of no confidence in a career that had a current album rising up to #10 preceded by previous albums at #6, #2, #4, and a current #3 single preceded by several Top 10 singles including a #2 and their second #1? Nik Venet told Gaines "You've got to understand that Brian was so impulsive, compulsive, you never knew what was coming next." "The 'Best of' package was put together while Brian was working on PS. There was a great love at the time of Beach Boys product. ... There were [salesmen] out there that could sell Beach Boys product and the [customers] were asking for it. The Pet Sounds album was supposed to be ready a long time before, and it wasn't going to be ready. The whole company was geared up to the 'best of' package. Everything had been locked in, magazine advertising, the separations for the cover had been printed and stacked in a warehouse."

PS had 4 singles in rotation and on the charts. It had 4 page ads in the trades. It seems to have gotten plenty of promotion; maybe as much, possibly more, as any other BB's album.

I've seen you mention this before, Cam, but I appreciate you explaining it in full here. I've never seen full evidence of Capitol intentionally neglecting Pet Sounds, promotionally.  You make a good case that they didn't.

Thanks.

Not be so greedy for an extra dollar and restrain ourselves from releasing Pet Sounds in Duophonic.