Brian Wilson Celebrates 50th Anniversary of Landmark Album Pet Sounds at Strathmore, September 20

From our friends at Strathmore...

Strathmore Presents Brian Wilson Presents Pet Sounds

One of music's most revered figures celebrates the 50th anniversary of his masterpiece, Pet Sounds

The driving creative force behind some of rock’s most cherished recordings, Brian Wilson, co-founder of The Beach Boys, brings his landmark album Pet Sounds to the Music Center at Strathmore on Tuesday, September 20, 2016 at 8 PM. The performance commemorates the album’s 50th anniversary - praised as a transformative recording and heralded as one of the most significant artistic outputs in modern music. Brian Wilson co-wrote, arranged, produced, and performed on more than two dozen Top 40 hits with The Beach Boys. One of the most influential composers of the last century, he is behind such classics as “Surfer Girl,” “In My Room,” “I Get Around,” “Don’t Worry Baby,” “Fun, Fun, Fun,” “Help Me Rhonda,” and “California Girls.” For more information or to purchase tickets, call (301) 581-5100 or visit www.strathmore.org.

Growing up in a musical household in which his mom and dad both played piano, as a young “boy soprano,” Wilson’s vocal gift was immediately evident. As a teen in the 1950s, he became obsessed with the harmonic blend of groups like the Four Freshmen, and then, in the early 1960s, became inspired to combine multi-part vocal harmony with the rock rhythms of Chuck Berry. He was barely out of his teens when he began to create some of the most beloved records ever - nine consecutive “gold” albums and more than two dozen Top 40 hits.

The first album released during this time was Pet Sounds, an emotional autobiography of its 23-year-old “auteur” that is considered by many to be one of the greatest albums ever made. On the charts in America, the album reached #10 and featured four hit singles, including two Top 10 hits (a reworking of the folk standard “Sloop John B” and “Wouldn’t It Be Nice”) as well as two others that cracked the Top 40 (“God Only Knows” and “Caroline No.”) 

Fall 1966 marked the release of Wilson’s timeless “Good Vibrations” as a single, initially an outtake from Pet Sounds that he continued to refine.

Wilson planned to follow this release with the album Smile, but the project went unfinished and unreleased due to a confluence of personal issues, group dynamics, technological limitations, and record industry pressure - becoming the most anticipated unfinished album of its day.

Wilson stopped recording and making music until the 1990s, but eventually revealed that long-lost album to the world in 2004 with a week of dramatic, standing room only concerts at London’s Royal Festival Hall, where it was met with ecstatic response from fans and peers in music. The live performances preceded Wilson’s all-new studio version of Smile, titled Brian Wilson Presents Smile, released in September 2004. 

Additional solo albums include Orange Crate Art, Imagination, Getting’ in Over My Head, and That Lucky Old Sun. 

Wilson's life is chronicled in the Bill Pohland biopic Love & Mercy, released in 2014 and starring actor Paul Dano.

Strathmore Presents
Brian Wilson Presents Pet Sounds
Celebrating the 50th Anniversary
with Special Guests Al Jardine and Blondie Chaplin
Tuesday, September 20, 2016
8:00 PM

Tickets $45-$165 (This performance is SOLD OUT.)

Music Center at Strathmore

5301 Tuckerman Lane

North Bethesda, MD 20852

For additional information or to purchase tickets, visit www.strathmore.org or call (301) 581-5100.

About Strathmore:

Strathmore presents and produces exemplary visual and performing arts programs for diverse audiences; creates dynamic arts education experiences; and nurtures creative ideas and conversations that advance the future of the arts. The organization’s hallmark is the Music Center at Strathmore, with a 1,976-seat concert hall and education complex. Its core campus also includes the historic Mansion at Strathmore, which features an intimate Music Room and art galleries. Most recently, Strathmore opened AMP, a 250-seat cabaret-style venue located just up Rockville Pike from the core campus in the burgeoning Pike District of Montgomery County. Strathmore’s signature education, mission-driven programs include the Strathmore Student Concerts, the Artist in Residence and Strathmore Summer Intensive programs, and its Spring Break @ Strathmore camp.