Lennon and McCartney are fantastic. They turn out so much good material. They're very melodic – they rely on melody and harmony rather than beat. They will simplify to it's skeletal form and arrangement where I would be impelled to make it more complex. Like Norwegian Wood, with it's one voice and a sitar. I would have orchestrated it – put in background voices – done a thousand thing. But the fact that the Beatles can do things with such simplicity is what makes them so good.
We recognised that the Beatles had cut Rubber Soul, and I really wasn't quite ready for it's unity – it felt like it all belonged together. [The American version of] Rubber Soul was like a folk album by the Beatles that somehow went together like no album ever made before, and I was very impressed. I had to go [into the studio] and experiment with sounds. I really felt challenged to do it – and I followed through with it [on Pet Sounds].
Brian Wilson in Charles L. Granata: I Just Wasn't Made For These Times (p. 71-2)
The Beach Boys covered I Should Have Known Better, Tell Me Why and You've Got To Hide Your Love Away on the 'Beach Boy's Party' album.
Why wasn't Brian Wilson as successful as Lennon & McCartney?
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