These days, The Beatles are remembered as such a hugely influential band that it’s difficult to imagine that they had inspirations of their own. But we might not have gotten Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band without The Beach Boys.
In 1966, The Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson had retired from touring. With the rest of the band on the road, he got to work on Pet Sounds. It’s now remembered as the band’s masterpiece. He drew inspiration from The Beatles’ Rubber Soul.
Wilson was also interested in producer Phil Spector’s recording technique, known as the Wall of Sound. He used a similar approach with Pet Sounds. One of the musical elements that makes it stand out is the variety of instrumentation, from sleigh bells and bongos to unconventional items like empty Coke cans and bottles of orange juice, as well as the combination of genres.
The Beatles’ Inspiration
This creativity inspired the Beatles, specifically Paul McCartney. He still often cites Pet Sounds as his favorite album and has praised “God Only Knows” especially. He said, “’God Only Knows’ is one of the few songs that reduces me to tears every time I hear it.” McCartney has also said the album was “the single biggest influence on Sgt. Pepper.”
Conceptually, Sgt. Pepper began while McCartney was on a flight and had the idea for an Edwardian-era military band. That ultimately led to the fictional Lonely Hearts Club Band. This also allowed the band to move on from what they felt was their boy-like image into something more mature.
“I thought it would be nice to lose our identities, to submerge ourselves in the persona of a fake group,” McCartney later said.
This, along with the fact that the band had decided to retire from touring, allowed The Beatles more musical freedom. They spent over 400 hours in the studio creating Sgt. Pepper, and although they were limited by the technology at EMI at the time, engineer Geoff Emerick and producer George Martin used a variety of innovative techniques to achieve the sounds they wanted, with a layered effect similar to that of Pet Sounds.
“Without Pet Sounds, Sgt. Pepper never would have happened,” Martin wrote in a 1997 Pet Sounds box set. “Pepper was an attempt to equal Pet Sounds.”
Sgt. Pepper was released on June 1, 1967, just in time for the Summer of Love, and was a huge success for The Beatles. In the UK, it spent 27 weeks at the top of the charts, while in the US. It also sold over 11 million copies. It was also hugely influential, from its impact on music history to its influence on pop culture, and is often considered one of rock’s first concept albums. It’s still regarded as one of the greatest albums of all time.
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