I just picked up last year's re-release of Pet Sounds and found something interesting in the liner notes (written by Brian Wilson biographer David Leaf):
…Well, Brian hadn't quite yet formulated his ambitious plans when, in the late summer of 1965, Capitol Records predictably demanded that he come up with more Beach Boys "product" in time for the crucial Christmas buying season. Acquiescing to the company for the last time, Brian was forced to temporarily abandon his musical laboratory and maturing point-of-view to squeeze out one last record in the Beach Boys style, a formula he was just about to completely abandon.
That September, going into the studio for a "live" jam session, the group recorded Beach Boys Party!, their 11th album in four years and a "throwaway" record which yielded the #2 smash Barbara Ann, ironically a more successful single than anything from Pet Sounds…
Eleven albums in four years? That's about one every four months. And we moan and groan about how the music industry exploits artists in this era! Just as Trent Lott showed us, little has changed in the past 40 years.
Enjoy your "crucial" season.
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>a "throwaway" record which yielded the #2 smash Barbara Ann, ironically a more successful single than anything from Pet Sounds...
Further evidence that a band's popular songs are rarely their best (despite my once "proving" the contrary). "Ba, ba, ba," indeed.
And let's face it, Jeff: The work ethic today just isn't what it used to be.