Release
By mid-April Pet Sounds was finished and had been submitted to Capitol. "Caroline, No," released as a solo single; it was credited to Brian Wilson alone, leading to speculation that he was considering leaving the band. The single reached No. 32 in the United States.
"Sloop John B" was extremely successful, scoring a No. 3 hit in the U.S. and No. 2 in Great Britain. "Wouldn't It Be Nice" reached No. 8 in the U.S. Its flip side, "God Only Knows," was another No. 2 single in Britain, but reached only No. 39 in the States. The LP broke into the Top Ten in the U.S., belying its reputation as a commercial failure there. In Australia, the album was only released under the title The Fabulous Beach Boys on the Music for Pleasure label.
Pet Sounds' greatest success was in the UK, where it reached No. 2 in the LP charts. Its success there was aided by considerable support from the British music industry, who embraced the record warmly; Paul McCartney spoke often about the album's influence on The Beatles. Bruce Johnston has often stated that he flew to London in May 1966 and played the album for John Lennon and Paul McCartney. But although it's been claimed that the Rolling Stones manager Andrew Oldham helped Derek Taylor publicize unsolicited advertisements lauding the album in British music papers, a search of the UK pop press for 1966 fails to uncover any such advert.
However, like Beach Boys' Party!, Pet Sounds failed to reach gold status on its initial release in the U.S., where it reached No. 10, which deeply disappointed Wilson. Much of the blame for its lukewarm commercial fortunes has been laid with Capitol Records, which did not promote the album as heavily as the band's earlier releases. Pet Sounds eventually went gold and platinum in 2000.
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