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This may have been a thread topic before but what other Beach Boys songs do you think would’ve fit on Pet Sounds? What songs by other artists sound influenced by Pet Sounds or Brian in general? I’ve always found Dennis’ Be With Me had a lot of Brian’s influence with the lush orchestration, production and overall style and vibe.

Guess I'm Dumb

Let Him Run Wild- that one's a definite Pet Sounds precursor
She Knows Me Too Well  could have also worked

Well said, guys. All great pre Pet Sounds gems. In The Back Of My Mind also has that Pet Sounds level of maturity and sophistication.

Great idea for a thread, Banana! I'd submit that Time To Get Alone and The exquisite Whatever Happened are worth of a place on Pet Sounds. And I agree that In The Back Of My Mind would also easily qualify.

Good Vibrations and The Little Girl I Once Knew.

In The Back Of My Mind

Arguably more Pets Sounds-ish than several of the songs on the album

  If "The Little Girl I Once Knew" had been a big hit it may have become the closing track on side 1.

Please Let Me Wonder for the win :)

In my humble opinion, this song is just about the most perfect BBs song EVER created.

As much as I love Pet Sounds very, very dearly, I might say I like PLMW better than any song off Pet Sounds. 
That said, I think it'd fit in perfectly with the album. Cut from a very similar cloth.

Lonely Sea

Interesting choice. What makes you pick it? Just curious. :)

It would be interesting for us to go through all of the pre Pet Sounds songs, and compile an "album"  that thematically and lyrically would be an approximation of the Pet Sounds album.

It is interesting to think about what it means to be a “Pet Sounds” type of song. I often think of the Summer Days album as having that Pet Sounds level of Production quality, but with lyrical content more in line with the Beach, Surf, Girls of the early albums. I would wholeheartedly agree with Let Him Run Wild, Please Let Me Wonder and the Little Girl I Once Knew. Personally, I would add The Night Was So Young into the mix. It has a Don’t Talk quality about it.

I have to agree with CD; easy call for me.  My immediate thought was also "Please Let Me Wonder." :hat

Funny, but being that it was borne of the time, I'd have expected more votes for "Good Vibrations."  That's cool, though.  I've never been one to think of GV as a very 'Pet Sounds-y' piece.  If I had to put GV along with any album, it feels to me that it would've been more at home with whatever majesty my mind thinks that a completed Smile would've ended up as.

As it played out, though, 'Vibes' stands alone as a perfect single release.  And PLMW gets my vote, here.

Death Cab for Cute - You Can Do Better Than Me (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtAAikJNboY (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtAAikJNboY)). I get such a huge Pet Sounds vibe from this song, probably the most PS influenced song I've heard.

Weezer - Beach Boys (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsG37JcEQNw (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsG37JcEQNw)). They even mimic Murry Wilson on this track, it doesn't really sound like the Beach Boys, but theres huge influence here.

Weezer - Mexican Fender (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKvx5RlmsaQ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKvx5RlmsaQ)). Again, doesn't sound like the Beach Boys, but the influence is huge during the middle-eight.

There are so many more that I don't have the time to list right now. But I will add some when I get the time. Great topic!

I was going for a Brian song pre-Pet Sounds that would have fit...and for a change, I didn't consider production or arrangement in this choice. I went mostly with the theme, the tone of the lyrics, and the delivery of the vocal.

Consider Lonely Sea was *early* BW and Usher, and yet this is a young guy singing about his lost love being like the ocean, as he's seeing how the waves roll in and out for eternity without stopping, like having and losing the love(s) of your life. It's that contemplative aspect of the lyrics, the self-reflection and realization that all which comes and goes in someone's life really is a fleeting concept versus the realities that every day the waves will roll in and out and the sun will rise and set. Just like another lyric soon to come, "still I have the warmth of the sun..." that will be there even after a devastating loss of love.

It's pretty heavy emotional and self-reflective material to be sung by a guy who's 20-21 years old, right? It's the same kind of self-reflection and realization which would come to full fruition on Pet Sounds, which had tracks included and sequenced in such a way that you hear the narrator singing the songs progressing from the joy and wonder of young love and infatuation on the first track...ultimately to reveal by the final tracks on the album that he wasn't made for these times, he hasn't found a place to fit in or people to fit with, and the former ideal of young love and beauty has now cut her hair, grown older and more mature, and the ideal from track one has in fact changed...in reality versus images in his mind.

With that background, Lonely Sea stands as one of the most melancholy and ethereal songs in Brian's canon, and though it's simple lyrically, the message is a powerful one...so to my ears, it fits or would fit near the end of side 2 on Pet Sounds, bookending both I Just Wasn't Made For These Times and Caroline No, and it's sonic imagery of the ocean and waves perpetually rolling in and out fits as a similar compliment to the train speeding by. They're both versions of the same idea expressed in sound and visual imagery created by those sounds.


Again, avoiding focusing on the production elements in favor of the lyrical and emotional theme, Brian's vocal delivery is perfect in its longing and dramatic via his sustained notes floating over the chords. The chords themselves are quirky enough and non-standard enough to have fit alongside anything on Pet Sounds...this was *not* a song built on cliche doo-wop and "Blue Moon" chord progressions. If you replace the full drum kit (especially the constant ride cymbal) on Lonely Sea with more sparse percussion, replace the strummed 50's-style guitar with Hammond organ pads and add some woodwinds or strings...it would fit right in on Pet Sounds.

All the more amazing to consider this was very *early* BW, and yet there he was already hitting those same themes as he would later do and receive massive praise for on Pet Sounds.

She knows me too well
Kiss me baby
Let him run wild
In the back of my mind
Guess I'm Dumb
The Little Girl I once knew

With a different vibe and production.... Girl Don't Tell Me.

Lonely Sea is *such* a brilliantly beautiful song that gives me the Pet Sounds feels, and it's even more mindblowing considering just how young Brian was when he recorded it.
Lonely Sea was recorded on June 13, 1962, meaning Brian was *19* years old (exactly 1 week before he turned 20 on June 20, 1962!) when he sang the lead vocal.

Perhaps Brian was feeling a big change about to happen being right on the edge of ending his teen years, and entering "adulthood" of his 20s (even though Brian had to deal with adult drama beyond his years due to so much family dysfunction prior to this). I know that whenever I hit a decade milestone, it always seems to bring on some life reflection and emotions in general. I would imagine Brian was going through that too when he wrote/sang this song riiiight before he turned 20.

And maybe even more surprising to realize: God Only Knows - arguably Brian's most famous/beloved song - which was cut very much from similar cloth as Lonely Sea, was also recorded with a Wilson lead vocalist who was a teenager. 19 year old Carl Wilson sang that song in 1966. I'll bet that very, very few people who have ever listened to GOK would ever imagine it was sung by a teenager.

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Interesting, I know I've heard that before too.

Did Gary ever do a demo? Do we know what melody parts specifically Brian refined?

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I wonder how many times Brian has ever been asked about Lonely Sea, either by fans or interviewers. I'm guessing *very* few, which is a shame.

Off topic, but I feel like I've read a similar story about All I Wanna Do, in that it was a melody that Mike had, which Brian then tweaked/developed. Or maybe it was just the vocal melody/lyrics as opposed to the song's melody. I dunno. Curious what the source is for that, and any other details.

Our Sweet Love with it's gorgeous string arrangement would fit well.

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Let Him Run Wild
The Little Girl I Once Knew

Brian performed it at a show I saw in 2015 and I was struck by these thoughts too.
It was the highlight of the night, a gorgeous song and absolutely perfect for his *current* voice.
It has all the introspection and vulnerability of the Pet Sounds songs. I'm surprised he doesn't do it more often.

"Child is Father of the Man" with Tony Asher-penned verse lyrics would have fit nicely on Pet Sounds.

I think In My Room would fit well especially with a bit more percussion and some found sounds added in.

Summer Means New Love with some added percussion!