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Haven't read that before. Is it true?

From the Rock Radio online.

Flashback: The Beach Boys release Pet Sounds
It was 41 years ago today (May 16th, 1966), that the Beach Boys released their legendary Pet Sounds album. The album, which included the group's classic hits "Wouldn't It Be Nice," "Sloop John B.," and "God Only Knows," was like most of the group's early work the brainchild of their leader and producer Brian Wilson. Wilson had retired from the road in 1964 to write and produce material while the other members -- brothers Dennis and Carl Wilson, cousin Mike Love, Al Jardine and Bruce Johnston -- spent up to 150 days a year on the road. Pet Sounds is the first complete Beach Boys album to mainly feature session backing musicians, and is considered rock's first symphonic album.

Although the album was considered something of a chart failure in the U.S., where it peaked at Number Ten, in Britain the album was hailed an instant classic, inspiring major works from rock's greatest songwriters, including John Lennon and Paul McCartney and the Who's Pete Townshend.

Wilson sketched out his ideas thematically with lyricist Tony Asher, and together they created a romantic, coming-of-age concept album, which dealt with such adult themes as pre-marital sex, leaving home, and coping with emotional and romantic limitations.

Al Jardine says that the group was amazed by the progress that Wilson had made both musically and lyrically while they were away on tour: "We were just in a touring mode almost constantly up to that point. We'd just come back from Japan and it was a total revelation to us. I mean, we hadn't heard anything like that, other than like, you know, like 'Let Him Run Wild' was kind of in that vain, in that vernacular. If you remember that one, I loved that one. And when I heard these other songs I went 'Well, that's an exponential leap'(laughs)."

Jardine recalled the workmanlike atmosphere while recording the album's intricate harmonies: "We'd be all alone, just the four (sic) of us in this gigantic cavern of a recording studio called Columbia -- Columbia Studios on Sunset Boulevard. I mean... It was like being inside of a giant space station (laughs) and you're trying to sing these tender and beautiful and moving harmonies and stuff. And we did it. Somehow we pulled it off. But it was strange, like living in a vacuum."

Glen Campbell was one of many studio musicians who played on the album. He said that he often listens to the box set of Pet Sounds sessions to recall his time in the studio with Wilson: "He'd tell you all that stuff, where he wanted it, how he put it together. You can listen to the making of the records. I've sat and listened to that CD, I stick it in my car just so I can recall and it takes everything away, and I can listen to what we were doing in the studio, 30 something, 40 years ago."

Mike Love was asked whether it's true that he always had a problem with Brian Wilson changing the Beach Boys' musical formula: "Well, people have said the same thing about Pet Sounds, that I didn't like Pet Sounds. That's a bunch of crap, because I went with Brian to play Pet Sounds for the A&R guy at Capitol Records. We played it for him, I named the album (laughs). Because at the end of the record, he didn't know what to call the record. And at the end of the record you have this dog barking at the sound of this train going by. And I said, 'Well, why don't we call it Pet Sounds?' Double entendre, of course."

The album has often battled the Beatles' Revolver and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club albums on "Greatest Albums" lists. Over the years, Paul McCartney has called "God Only Knows" his favorite song of all time.

Due to record company red tape, Pet Sounds wasn't certified Gold -- marking 500,000 copies shipped to stores -- until February 2000. Two months later, it was certified Platinum for 1 million copies shipped.

That spring, Brian Wilson and his band performed the entire Pet Sounds album as part of his solo shows. A live album, titled Pet Sounds Live In London, was released in 2002.

Last fall and winter, Wilson and Al Jardine performed the Pet Sounds album in its entirety, for what Wilson promised was the last time.
The Rock Radio online

I've had it up to here with Mike Love

That's nothing new, Mike has made that claim regularly for 30 years or more.

Does anyone have reason to believe he didn't name Pet Sounds? He has consistently claimed it, and it's at least as believable as what I seem to recall as Brian saying it's named Pet Sounds because PS are Phil Spector's initials...

I know Mr. Love takes credit for just about everything, but that one is certainly plausible, anyway.

I certainly think its plausable, although Brian has stated that it was Carl who came up with the title. 

Brian Wilson in the August 19, 1966 New Music Express: “We waited until the very last minute on ‘Pet Sounds’ - all the tracks were done, the album cover was ready to go. We were just sitting around thinking, when all of a sudden Mike said: ‘Pet Sounds’. We said: ‘What?’ And  then, ‘Yeah, Pet Sounds!’ And we had a title.”

Thank you for that documented, published quote.

Case closed! Interesting that despite hundreds of articles and stories about the album over the last 40 years that this is not mentioned more.

I've never really doubted that it was Mike who came up with it, since Carl never seemed to make the claim.

There is one thing that does raise a red flag with me about that quote of Brian's, though.  If they had done the photo shoot at the zoo earlier in the year, why a photo shoot involving goats and animals if the title "Pet Sounds" weren't already thought of?

This has been mentioned in published BB's related journalism for decades, look around and you will find it.

A VERY lucid-sounding Brian mentioned it again in a 1988 radio interview with Timothy White.  He said some pretty negative things about Mike in that interview, but he gave him credit for that.  The ONLY place I ever saw ANYONE claim that it was Carl's idea was in the "Pet Sounds Box Set" booklet (Brian said it).  In the same booklet, Carl said he wasn't sure who thought up the title, but said "I think it was Brian".  So Brian said it was Mike in '66.  Mike said it was Mike in '78 (the Preiss book).  Brian said it was Mike again in '88.  Then, 30 years after the fact, Brian slipped up and accidentally said it was Carl.  The same time, Carl said he didn't know for sure who thought up the title, and Mike (in the Electronic Press Kit) said it was Mike.  I'd say pretty conclusively it was Mike, but some people don't want it to be Mike.  This is kind of like some folks refusing to believe Denny played organ on the bridge of "Good Vibrations", despite many quotes from many Beach Boys over the years (Dennis in '66, Bruce in '85, Carl in '96, and Brian in '97).  Plus the session tape and AFM sheet, of course.  :)

Now, if Mike tried to sue Brian for naming one of his albums "Brian Wilson Presents Pet Sounds Live"...then I WOULD have a problem with that!  :)

"The ONLY place I ever saw ANYONE claim that it was Carl's idea was in the "Pet Sounds Box Set" booklet (Brian said it)."

Thanks for reminding me, I knew I had read that somewhere!  I didn't recall the old '66 quote where Brian said it was Mike.  My bad.

I'll definitely take 1966 Brian's word over 1996 Brian's any day. 

I've always thought it was Mike, i've seen this come up quite a lot over the years. For all his shortcomings, he could coin a good phrase every now and then, a bit like Ringo coming up with lots of Beatles titles.
I've also always thought it was meant slightly derogatory in a jokey way, they were Brians 'Pet sounds' (f**king with the formula) , similar to the 'dog ear' comments.

Big deal... There are just two things about Pet Sounds that aren't brilliant: the title and the album cover.

It had to be said!

No way! The cover's the icing on the cake. I love the way Thurston Moore describes finding this creepy looking record in a record store and having to give it a spin. It's such an odd looking album - not only do you have The BBs feeding a bunch of goats on the front, but you have them dressed as samurai on the back. Clearly things did not have to make sense in the 60s!

I think P.J. Carlin said it was either "Mike or Carl (depending on whom you ask)" without going into any more detail. I guess that doesn't count as anyone else claiming it was Carl, just as someone else claiming someone else claims it is Carl.

Anyway...so Mike thought of it. Fine by me. This thread is non-news, to be sure.

I think since the Brian quote is sort of "ground zero" to Pet Sounds, thats the most credible quote to run with.

I had read for years that Mike had titled the album, and it is a fitting title for the magical music written and produced on those 2 sides. Now I can't imagine it being called anything else. I am surprised he hasn't sued Brian for using the title for his tour a few years ago..but there's still time, and obviously plenty of lawyers and attorney's fees to go around.

I like the title and it was Mikes best IMO. Sure beats the "Looking Back With Love" and "Make Love Not War" genre.

When I was a little kid I thought Pet Sounds was literly made up of zoo animals mixed into the music. Shows you how powerful the cover is.

Ok, so Mike had the idea to call the album Pet Sounds. Genius! Just for the record: On March 3, 1966, Capitol issued an update of the album trackslist: "Run James Run", now renamed to "Pet Sounds" took the place of "Good Good Vibrations".

Do we know what date the photo shoot at the San Diego Zoo took place?  I always assumed they included the animals because of the title "Pet Sounds", but that 1966 quote from Brian indicates that they had the photo first, THEN the title...

That's amazing, because when "Here Today" was cut a week later (March 11th), IT was given the working title "Pet Sounds".  So "Run James Run" was retitled "Pet Sounds", then a new track was cut with the title "Pet Sounds" (and presumably "Pet Sounds" was then retitled either "Run James Run" or something else), then lyrics were written for the NEW "Pet Sounds" and IT was renamed "Here Today" while "Run James Run" was retitled "Pet Sounds" yet AGAIN.  :)

According to the zoo's photo services, it was on Feb. 15, 1966.

I thought Here Today was Good, Good,Good vibrations...

yeah, its hard to believe some of these things came from the same person.

Nope...Brad Elliott once speculated on that because the master # used for the first "Good Vibes" sesson (February 17-18) was 55680.  That master # was later reassigned to "Here Today" and "Good Vibes" was ultimately given a new master # (55949) at its next session (in April).

Didn't Mike also come up with the title for Endless Summer?

Nope Endless Summer was the title of a Surf movie by the film's writer and director, Bruce Brown.

No Mike did give Capitol the title which he probably borrowed from the movie.

Yes, as MBE said, its been documented for decades(again) that Mike suggested Endless Summer to Capitol as the title for that LP. That is like one of the oldest constantly noted BB's factoids around....the oldies DJs pull that out every other week along with Dean Torrence sang on Barbara Ann and the striped shirts came from the Kingston Trio, oh yeah and that pesky 'theramin" being the sound from "spooky Movies" . Any other factoid faves?

Oh, and someone asks a question about the title of Pet Sounds, a few people nicely answer it, and then a guy comes on the board and says "so what? Mike came up with that title...big deal!" ...Nice.

So if the photo session took place Feb. 15, we have to assume Mike had already come up with the title, probably only a day or two before.  The March memo about RJR being renamed Pet Sounds would come next, as Brian would see the attraction of having a track with the same name as the album, then Here Today is recorded March 11th . . . and maybe because there was no title yet, the album it was intended for was used as a stopgap title?

How confusing. Was the working title at the time of the photo shoot "Remember The Zoo?"

But did he have permission your honor? :police:

Thats basically what I was getting at.  :P

The movie of course was THE Endless Summer, while the LP was just Endless Summer...wonder if that was part of Mike's evil plan?

One other thing on this Pet Sounds/goats theme...

I am aware that some youngsters who live on farms have goats as pets. They usually end up showing them at county fairs. But...

What made them/Mike associate "pet" with a bunch of goats? I could see if the guys were posing with cats, dogs, or even horses. But goats? As pets?

And why goats? When I think of going to a zoo, goats are not animals that come to mind. Of all the zoo animals they could've posed with? Do I sound like Andy Rooney? Did you ever wonder why.. :police:

I think it is a cool cover.  I always thought the Remember The Zoo title was only around for a very brief period, but that would make a little sense. Pet Sounds is a good title though it's clever and mysterious.

The date of the appearance of the title "Pet Sounds" seem sort of swimmy compared to Brian's claim the tracks were done but maybe he meant it in a way I'm not taking it or he just slipped his memory on how done the tracks were when Mike came up with the title when he gave the quote months later. Or maybe I'm confused.

"One other thing on this Pet Sounds/goats theme...

I am aware that some youngsters who live on farms have goats as pets. They usually end up showing them at county fairs. But...

What made them/Mike associate "pet" with a bunch of goats? I could see if the guys were posing with cats, dogs, or even horses. But goats? As pets?

And why goats? When I think of going to a zoo, goats are not animals that come to mind. Of all the zoo animals they could've posed with? Do I sound like Andy Rooney? Did you ever wonder why..  "

Petting zoo, maybe.

Brian (in 1966) said the cover was all done before the title was thought up by Mike, right?
Maybe the zoo photo shoot occurred when the title was still going to be "Remember The Zoo".
But it still worked once the title was changed to "Pet Sounds".

Just out of curiosity, where and when did this 'Remember the Zoo' title surface?  What's the story?  The only things I have heard is that this was either a working title for Pet Sounds, or that it was the rumored title for an unreleased album.  Thanks.

Didn't "Pet Sounds" also originate with Banana and Louie barking at the end of the album, per Mike?  They qualify as pets.  Maybe a combination of animal photos and the B & L barking?

Yeah, that's what I always thought. And that story about Mike calling Brian "dog ears" because of the sounds he (Brian) heard that only a dog could hear...

The earliest I could remember hearing that title was around 1994, in the pages of "Beach Boys Australia".  So I went back into the archives and found the April 1994 issue and an article therein by Dwight Cavanagh, titled "Remember The Zoo? The Pet Sounds Sessions and Anecdotes".  He doesn't say much about it other than that that was the title for the album while it was being recorded, but it finally emerged as "Pet Sounds".  I think there's an earlier reference in the pages of "BBA", so I'll keep looking, unless someone beats me to it or provides info that renders my looking null.

http://www.earcandymag.com/rrcase-rememberzoo.htm



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Rock 'N Roll Case Study: REMEMBER THE ZOO? – Rare Beach Boys album or hoax?
Whilst reading the book, SMiLE, SUN, SAND & PET SOUNDS for review in this issue, I came across two articles which mentioned a “rare” Beach Boys album which was never issued. No, I’m not talking about SMiLE, but rather REMEMBER THE ZOO? which supposedly evolved into the PET SOUNDS album. I was curious; why had I NEVER heard this title mentioned in any of the many Beach Boys biographies that adorn my shelf? Especially with the release of the Pet Sounds box set and the renewed interest in the album, REMEMBER THE ZOO? get NO mention. I searched the internet, only finding two references to this “album”. One was in the article MEMOIRS OF A 3-YEAR OLD ROCK AND ROLL WRITER-HOW I CAME TO MEET BRIAN WILSON AND WHAT HAPPENED by Robert S. Levinson. The other was in a description of the PET SOUNDS album at www.mountvernonandfairway.de, which pretty much rehashed everything in the SMiLE, SUN, SAND & PET SOUNDS article, but curiously added that an album cover was designed for REMEMBER THE ZOO? showing Brian’s two dogs Banana and Louie.

Stephen J. McParland graciously granted me permission to reprint the REMEMBER THE ZOO? article in its entirety. I’ve followed the original article by an analysis by me.




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THE CORRECT PERSPECTIVE REMEMBERS THE ZOO
An excerpt from the book "SMiLE, SUN, SAND & PET SOUNDS"
compiled by Stephen J. McParland © 1998

 

Right: NO, this is not the cover of the so-called "lost" REMEMBER THE ZOO? It is just a parody.

I must admit that I was very impressed by the treatise on the PET SOUNDS project by Dwight Cavanaugh. All those great musicians and friends. However, the use of the title REMEMBER THE ZOO caught me a little unawares because I understood that to be the title of another project of Brian’s that I was privy to.

The fact is, Brian actually recorded the basic backing tracks that surfaced on PET SOUNDS for an album that WAS to be called REMEMBER THE ZOO? Many of the songs scheduled for inclusion on this album did not appear on PET SOUNDS at all, and those that did were changed so drastically that they were hardly recognisable.

Before I go into details concerning some of the songs I remember, I must mention that Tony Asher had absolutely no involvement at all with REMEMBER THE ZOO?

What happened was that after Brian finished the tracks and vocals (all his), he became unhappy with the lyrics (all his). Therefore, he reworked the backing tracks, altering them constantly until he was satisfied and happy with the “adult” feel of the music. Then he called upon Tony to help him lyrically. Some of those altered songs resurfaced on PET SOUNDS, some were utilised in the lead up to Brian’s SMiLE project, and some remain to this day unused.

The concept that became REMEMBER THE ZOO? surfaced as early as late 1964 during the TODAY sessions; particularly the ballads that fleshed out side two. In fact, the song In The Back Of My Mind that found its way onto the TODAY album, was not intended to appear on that album at all. It was going to be shelved and utilised (in a very much altered form) for REMEMBER THE ZOO? Similarly, Let Him Run Wild (off SUMMER DAYS), The Little Girl I Once Knew, Trombone Dixie, Pet Sounds and I’m Waiting For The Day were all scheduled for inclusion on REMEMBER THE ZOO?

Actually, I’m Waiting For The Day was first conceived during the TODAY sessions and kept by Brian. It was then altered for REMEMBER THE ZOO? and changed again for PET SOUNDS.


 The same was true with the song In My Childhood that eventually became You Still Believe In Me. It was originally earmarked to appear on REMEMBER THE ZOO?, as was the tune I’m In Great Shape, which Brian also called Friday Night. An early version was recorded late in 1965 with Little Girl I Once Knew. Both songs were similarly uptempo and featured a carnival organ accompaniment. Neither recording has seen the light of day since, although part of I’m in Great Shape did finally evolve into an almost completely different song that was used as the B-side of Brian’s Love And Mercy solo single of some years ago. Lindsey Buckingham provided the new lyrics.

Another REMEMBER THE ZOO? song was a crazy thing called Teeter-Totter Love that Brian later re-recorded with some elderly gent called Jasper. I can’t remember his last name. I only met him once. I think he was a photographer.

The majority of the material for REMEMBER THE ZOO? was recorded during and just after the PARTY album sessions. For those of you who thought that PET SOUNDS was the “link” album to SMiLE; I’m sorry, because you have been mislead. To my knowledge, REMEMBER THE ZOO? was to be issued on the heels of the PARTY set, with the first single being The Little Girl I Once Knew. IT was really the link album to PET SOUNDS.

I still believe that if Brian had released REMEMBER THE ZOO? in between the PARTY album and PET SOUNDS, PET SOUNDS would have been accepted more readily by the public and fans alike as a natural musical progression.

Because REMEMBER THE ZOO? had a commercial feel to it halfway between SUMMER DAYS and PET SOUNDS, in my opinion (and Brian’s at the time) it would have been a high chart album. The Little Girl I Once Knew was a great example of the type of musical energy the album contained.

As I mentioned earlier, the reason Brian shelved the album was not so much musically, but he wanted a more “adult” theme woven lyrically throughout the songs. As a result, he re-worked many of the tracks, adding new songs, and deleting others. Then he called in Tony Asher to transfer his thoughts to music for the final visualisation of PET SOUNDS.

The track listing of songs (to the best of my recollection) for REMEMBER THE ZOO? included In the Back Of My Mind; Let Him Run Wild; Summer Means New Love (aka Heartbeat); The Little Girl I Once Knew; Trombone Dixie (complete with Brian’s lyrics); In My Childhood (aka You Still Believe In Me); Pet Sounds (complete with Brian’s lyrics); I’m waiting For The Day; I’m In Great Shape (aka Friday Night); Teeter-Totter Love; Tones (the only instrumental of the set) and Remember the Zoo?

Originally, the title track was envisioned as the odd/strange song to end the album, and it was extremely weird for its time in much the same way as Tomorrow Never Knows was the weird closer on the Beatles’ REVOLVER album.

As a song, Remember the Zoo? had a very melancholy feeling to it and featured many different animal noises in the backing track. These had been tape-looped and played backwards. There was a version without any animal noises.

If REMEMBER THE ZOO? as a concept had been released as hoped in early 1966, PET SOUNDS, I am sure, would have been more easily accepted, because REMEMBER THE ZOO? rolled the commercial productions of SUMMER DAYS, the fun of PARTY, and the advanced production found on PET SOUNDS, all together into one unusual, but commercially sounding album. So there you have it.





ANALYSIS

My belief that REMEMBER THE ZOO? is a hoax, results from three questions:

1. Why the anonymous author?
The first thing that set off the hoax-warning alarms was the author of this piece. It is simply credited to “The Correct Perspective”. I asked Stephen McParland (the compiler of the book SMiLE, SUN, SAND & PET SOUNDS) about the identity of the author of this piece. He told me that the “The Correct Perspective” was an individual who used to send in articles and that the letters were postmarked Los Angeles, but he never did find out who it was.

SMiLE fanatics who frequent the Smile Shop Message Board might remember an anonymous poster who went by the moniker the “Bellagio Insider”. The “insider” knew enough facts to pull the wool over everybody’s eyes for a brief period, claiming to have been part of Brian Wilson’s entourage during the recording of SMiLE. He was very convincing and spread bogus information about the SMiLE album.

2. Why is there NO mention of this “lost” album in any of the hardcopy books on the Beach Boys?
Sure, I found a couple of mentions of this album on the internet, but we all know how reliable the internet is?! However, other than a mention in SMiLE, SUN, SAND & PET SOUNDS, I found NO other mention of this title in any of the Brian Wilson/Beach Boys books in my collection. My personal opinion is that “The Correct Perspective” read about REMEMBER THE ZOO? in the article: MEMOIRS OF A 3-YEAR OLD ROCK AND ROLL WRITER-HOW I CAME TO MEET BRIAN WILSON AND WHAT HAPPENED by Robert S. Levinson. He/she then used an active imagination to “create” a “lost” album of the Beach Boys.

Rumors of this kind were once rampant in the Beatles bootleg circles. At one time the 1967 parody song, “The L.S. Bumblebee” was erroneously credited to John Lennon, the rumor went on to claim that it was a “lost” Sgt. Pepper out-take. Another rumor had the last song that the Beatles recorded as being the 1970 tune, “Have You Heard The Word?” with the Beatles and the Bee Gees (no less) collaborating on this song! Both of these show how a little rumor can spread to being a so-called “fact”.

3. Why do the recording dates of the songs not match up with the claims?
Although I’m a novice when it comes to Beach Boys session logs, it is not too hard to see that the claims of this article do not stand up to a simple timeline. It is a documented fact that Peter Asher joined the PET SOUNDS project in mid-autumn of 1965. However, the session logs say that basically only Sloop John B had been recorded (instrumentally in July of 1965) before Asher came on board. Trombone Dixie and Pet Sounds (aka Run James Run) were first recorded in November of 1965. In My Childhood (aka You Still Believe In Me) wasn’t recorded until January of 1966. Additionally, three of the songs in the so-called album lineup were SMiLE era recordings, dating from late 1966 to early 1967. [I’m In Great Shape (Oct 17, 1966); I’m In Great Shape/Friday Night (Nov 29, 1966); Teeter-Totter Love (Jan 25, 1967; Feb 12, 1967); Tones (Mar 13 & 15, 1967)] If these were all re-recordings, where are the session logs for the originals? The anonymous author simply states that Brian, “re-worked many of the tracks, adding new songs, and deleting others.” How convenient, but where are the facts? Also, what about the claimed song, Remember the Zoo? Again, there seems to be NO hard evidence to support any of these claims.

With these three questions in mind, this article about REMEMBER THE ZOO? can only be regarded as a fictional flight of fancy. Sure, it is interesting in a "fan-fiction" sort of way, but it should not be passed off as FACT!






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Credits and Sources:
A special thanks to Stephen McParland for granting us permission to reprint excerpts from his book, SMiLE, SUN, SAND & PET SOUNDS!


The article, MEMOIRS OF A 3-YEAR OLD ROCK AND ROLL WRITER-HOW I CAME TO MEET BRIAN WILSON AND WHAT HAPPENED, by Robert S. Levinson:






 

Remember the Zoo has been known as a hoax for years - there was no such animal (or animals)!

Found the Levinson article and my guess is that Brian had the title briefly, of course it was just a short lived working title for the Pet Sounds LP we know and love.

Brian recently said in an interview that there was never a "Remember The Zoo" working title.

Mike:
"We were standing in the hallway in one of the recording studios, either Western or Columbia, and we didn't have a title. We had taken pictures at the zoo and ... there were animal sounds on the record, and we were thinking, well, it's our favorite music of that time, so I said, 'Why don't we call it Pet Sounds.'"

Carl:
"The idea Brian had was that everybody has these sounds that they love, and this was a collection of [his] 'pet sounds.' It was hard to think of a name for the album, because you sure couldn't call it Shut Down Vol. 3."

Shut Down Vol. 3...! that's f**king hilarious.

so, what might have been a better album title?
I suppose they could have gone with a song title: Wouldn't It Be Nice seems like the best choice.

i don't know if i love or hate the name Pet Sounds...

Of course Mike came up with the idea.  Everybody thinks Mike is some dumbass who can't write anything when the truth is he wrote about half the lyrics of all of the great songs the Beach Boys had.  I thought this was all common sense.  If the man can write the Warmth of the Sun he can come up with the name Pet Sounds.  Just because someone's an asshole doesn't mean they don't have any talent, and just because somebody (Brian) is a musical genius with god only knows what kind of talent, doesn't mean they can't be an asshole sometimes.  I mean, lets be honest we've clearly seen over the years that you can't believe half of what Brian says about anything from what he ate today to who he owed money to, to who wrote what.  Somehow we all give him a pass though because he's so talented and made so much great music.  Mike is more of an asshole on the surface though, and because he doesn't have a mental disorder everybody feels free to shotgun him, lol.  They're both related genetically, they probably are a lot more similar than we realize. 

They *did* go with a song title, right? 

Gee, Ive never heard of this guy Peter Asher. ;) :lol

You have a good point Ron. The suckiness that we all know as Mike today started with bad decision making in the late 60's and was compounded by more bad decision making through the rest of his career.

As much as I tend to loathe Love (even his dancing in the early stuff is embarassingly bad) he seems to be a thoughtful guy. He was capable of a really beautiful blend with Brian's voice (Devoted To You) and even on his own he could sound sweet and pensive (Meant For You). He helped Brian write some of the BB biggest hits. So to make the assumption that Mike couldn't come up with the title Pet Sounds because he is some kind of ogre is naive at best.

As for the title, I love the context of Pet Sounds being "pet" as in something you adore. That makes it interesting and more fitting a title given the subject matter.

:D

Along these lines, I used to think the lyric from "That's Not Me" was "I miss my PET and the places I've known" instead of "I miss my PAD and the places I've known".  In this context, I was thinking "pet" in terms of a girlfriend.  Couples would sometimes refer to one another affectionately as "pet" in bygone days, y'know!  :)

I think "Hang onto your ego" would have been a great title, or "I Know There's an Answer." 

I think "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times" would have been the best title track, and sums up the feel of the LP the most.

The title "Pet Sounds" is much more commercial than any of those, though, lol!  That brings up the next topic of discussion, would the album have stood the test of time as well and became such a beloved album if it didn't have such a stylized title?  I guess if you hate the title though you'd probably think it would be more revered without it, but to me, I just can't imagine the album called anything else. 

I wonder if when the Bruce played the album for Lennon/McCartney if he knew at that time what the title was and the over and everything... How much did the Beatles know about the release specs?

My point is, assuming the Beatles had no idea what the album title was going to be or what the packaging consisted of, the they thought the album was great without all the baggage of album titles and record sleeves, etc...

I must say, in my pre-BBFan days, the cover to Pet Sounds was a turn off to me, though the album title always sparked my curiosity about what was inside.

so, what did Mike write in the intro to the Sessions box set from '97 that caused it to be held back for so long?  Wasn't it something simiiar to this?

Mike wanted his side told so him actually writing the notes (not anything in them) was what held it up.