The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds: The Greatest Album of the Twentieth Century [Paperback]

Kingsley Abbott (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2001

Released in May 1966, Pet Sounds was the album that saw The Beach Boys graduate from perfectly crafted lightweight pop like "Surfin’ USA" into a vehicle for the mature compositional genius of Brian Wilson. It also inspired The Beatles to make Sgt Pepper.

Kingsley Abbott draws on hours of new interviewers to tell the full story of the album; from its composition and recording, through to its long-term legacy, as the greatest album popular music has yet produced.

Brian Wilson tours the US in Fall 2001, performing Pet Sounds in its entirety with a full orchestra.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Kingsley Abbott is a freelance music writer who regularly contributes to Record Collector, Mojo and other publications. He is also an acclaimed author of several other music books.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Helter Skelter Publishing (October 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1900924307
• ISBN-13: 978-1900924306
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,267,715 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Been Here, Read This, February 11, 2002

By 

Mary C (Bay Area, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds: The Greatest Album of the Twentieth Century (Paperback)

I was really so looking forward to this book about my favorite album of all time, "Pet Sounds." I was very disappointed when I received it and read it in less than an hour and a half. Everything here has been written before; there's not a lot new, other than some rather superficial interviews with Brian Wilson (not a lot new to say, as usual) and others. The meat of the book is taken from other sources, including the "Pet Sounds" boxed set booklets and the various Beach Boys/Brian Wilson bios. In fact, it even quotes Brian's autobiography, "Wouldn't It Be Nice," directly in a couple of places. Now, we all know how accurate that book is (Brian didn't write it, Eugene Landy had a big hand in it). There are also factual errors here and there and some rather uninspiring analysis. The only interesting part is the bit at the end about Brian's 2002 Pet Sounds tour, which at least has a few newish photos and a little bit of insight about Brian today from his band members. But you can find the same kind of thing on archived interviews of that period on the Internet. Save your pennies and save your dimes and buy the music instead. There's nothing new here, not even many photos (and they've all been printed elsewhere).

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Poor writing - anyone with the info. could do it., June 13, 2002

By 

Simon Turner "lambchopnixon" (Amsterdam, Holland Netherlands) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds: The Greatest Album of the Twentieth Century (Paperback)

So unfortuante that this is poorly written, Pet Sounds may very well be the greatest album of all time. Even agreeing with the premise though doesn't stop me regretting paying for this. I love the album but haven't bothered finishing the book, finding myself too disappointed - after reading most of it - to go on.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars This book was a joke, April 26, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds: The Greatest Album of the Twentieth Century (Paperback)

This book just isn't credible. You can't trust what it writes. It quotes from Brian Wilson's auto-biography which, with just a small amount of research, the author would have learned that book was ghost written, and Brian Wilson barely checked the book. This also frequently makes absurd statements. It also gets off track. Too many of this thin book's pages are wasted on Brian Wilson's life and growing up. There are plenty of books on that, it didn't buy this looking for a Brian Wilson Bio, or a history of the Beach Boys. I just wanted to learn more about the making of that album. Do I really need to know how Surfin' USA was made in order to understand this album???
I don't read a lot of books, and it really makes me mad that when I finely get around to reading something, it turns out to just be a bunch of [hooey].