Pet Sounds - Title and Cover Art

Title and Cover Art

Both the origin and meaning of the album title Pet Sounds are uncertain. Brian Wilson has claimed at one point that the title was "a tribute" to Phil Spector by naming the album using his initials. Carl Wilson later spoke about the album title: "The idea he 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."

Mike Love also has laid claim to coming up with the title. "We were standing in the hallway in one of the recording studios, either Western or Columbia, and we didn't have a title," he recounted. "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?'"

On February 15, the group traveled to the San Diego Zoo to shoot the photographs for the cover of the new album, which had already been titled Pet Sounds. George Jerman has been credited for taking the cover photo. According to the Pet Sounds' liner notes, "The photos of The Beach Boys feeding an assortment of goats was a play on the album's chosen title, Pet Sounds."

Read more about this topic:  Pet Sounds

Famous quotes containing the words title, cover and/or art:

    Men don’t and can’t live by exchanging articles, but by producing them. They don’t live by trade, but by work. Give up that foolish and vain title of Trades Unions; and take that of Labourers’ Unions.
    John Ruskin (1819–1900)

    Many count on their disadvantages to cover for them.
    Mason Cooley (b. 1927)

    The artistic temperament is a disease that affects amateurs.... Artists of a large and wholesome vitality get rid of their art easily, as they breathe easily or perspire easily. But in artists of less force, the thing becomes a pressure, and produces a definite pain, which is called the artistic temperament.
    Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)