Tony Asher

According to most sources, Asher met Brian Wilson while recording at United Western Recorders in 1965. Other sources state that the pair had met during a social gathering at mutual friend Loren Schwartz's house.[4] Asher said that Schwartz "had been a classmate of mine at Santa Monica College ... Occasionally I would see Brian [at Loren's house]—but he never stayed long."[5] Wilson biographer Peter Ames Carlin dates the initial meeting between Asher and Wilson to early 1963.[4] Asher, in 1965, was a 26 year old lyricist and copywriter who had been working on advertising jingles. He was also a Beach Boys fan who felt that the group was distinct from most artists, releasing a string of hits where "you wouldn't even know, necessarily, that it was gonna be a Beach Boys record from the first bar or something."[1] He also confessed: "I didn't own any of their albums. I had Bill Evans albums."[6]

Asher explained that while in the studio: "I think we were recording some music, or voice-overs for a commercial and I had heard that the Beach Boys were in another studio. During a break, we kind of hung out in the hallway and eventually, sort of snuck into the booth and Brian was in the studio [alone]. ... eventually, we met."[1] Looking for a clean break from the by-then-famous Beach Boys sound (associated with surfing and cars) and not wanting to collaborate with any of the songwriters with whom he had previously worked, Wilson called Asher in early December 1965, and within ten days they started to write the songs that formed the bulk of Pet Sounds.[1]

Wilson and Asher wrote together for about three weeks.[7] According to Asher, a typical writing session started either with Wilson's playing melody or chord patterns that he was working on, by discussing a recent record that Wilson liked the feel of, or by discussing a subject that Wilson had always wanted to write a song about. His contribution to the music itself was minimal, serving mainly as a source of second opinion for Wilson as he worked out possible melodies and chord progressions, although the two did trade ideas as the songs evolved.[1] He characterized the experience as "writing an autobiography", however, "I wouldn't limit it to Brian's autobiography."[1] On "God Only Knows", Wilson reflected, "I think Tony had a musical influence on me [through his] certain love for classic songs."[8]

Contrary to the popular conception that Wilson composed all of the music to Pet Sounds, Asher contended that he also made significant musical contributions to "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times", "Caroline, No", and "That's Not Me".[7] He said that he conceived the title and subject matter of three of their eight songs.[9] On the publishing royalties, Asher agreed to a 25% cut, an arrangement that he felt was not necessarily commensurate with his contributions. In his words, it was "a screw ... Until you consider that I was a nothing who had never done shit, and I had a chance to write with a guy who had something like nine million-selling records in a row. Well, then it doesn’t seem so bad."[10]

Asher's impression of Wilson was of "the single most irresponsible person" he had ever met, remembering that there were uncashed royalty checks of up to $100,000 scattered around Wilson's house.[7] He later called Wilson a "genius musician but an amateur human being".[11] In 2013, he said that he "didn’t mean that in the way it came out" and explained: "We all have areas of things we’re good at and things we’re not so good at, but his is so zeroed-in on music."[12] Asher was particularly effusive about the way Wilson "hunt[ed] for a chord change ... the [same] way some of us type."[1]

After their songs were completed, Asher visited a few of the recording sessions, most of which were string overdub dates.[13] He did not have a favorable reaction when he learned of the album's title. He remembered that Wilson showed him "some proofs of the pictures they'd done at the zoo, and he told me they were thinking of calling the album Pet Sounds. I thought it was a goofy name for an album – I thought it trivialized what we had accomplished. On the other hand, I was aware that many of Brian's off-the-wall ideas had turned out to be brilliant."[14] Asher was not called again to write for the next Beach Boys album. He said, "I wasn't surprised. Remember, Pet Sounds was considered a flop. Even before the songs were recorded, I knew that the rest of the band felt that Brian's decision to write with me was a bad decision."[15]