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."
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Famous quotes containing the words title, cover and/or art:
“Now that the steam engine rules the world, a title is an absurdity, still I am all dressed up in this title. It will crush me if I do not support it. The title attracts attention to myself.”
—Stendhal [Marie Henri Beyle] (1783–1842)
“Between us, we cover all knowledge; he knows all that can be known and I know the rest.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“In contrast to the flux and muddle of life, art is clarity and enduring presence. In the stream of life, few things are perceived clearly because few things stay put. Every mood or emotion is mixed or diluted by contrary and extraneous elements. The clarity of art—the precise evocation of mood in the novel, or of summer twilight in a painting—is like waking to a bright landscape after a long fitful slumber, or the fragrance of chicken soup after a week of head cold.”
—Yi-Fu Tuan (b. 1930)