S.O.D. "Sloop John B" by The Beach Boys

4/20/2015     This 1966 single with "You're So Good to Me" on the B-side remains the band's fastest selling single with more than half a million copies sold in the first two weeks.  It peaked at #1 on the charts in 8 different countries including Austria, Germany, and Norway where it stayed for five weeks straight. In the U.S. it topped out at #3.  The song was taken from Carl Sandburg's 1927 collection of folk songs called "The American Songbag". Originally the tune is a traditional West Indies folk song called "The John B. Sails".  

     Mastermind and Beach Boys leader Brian Wilson was the main force behind their version which Rolling Stone ranked at #271 on their list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.  The Kingston Trio's 1958 version was a direct influence on Wilson.  Fellow bandmate Al Jardine helped lay out the changing chord sequence and had a big hand in talking Wilson into doing the song, who was not a fan of folk music.  It took only two sessions to record the vocals and 14 takes for the music with a 13 piece ensemble.  It is the seventh track from the album "Pet Sounds" which is considered to be by many musicians and critics the most progressive rock album ever and is regarded as one of the most influential pieces of popular music history. It comes under the genres of psychedelic rock, art rock, psychedelic pop and baroque pop.  

     Brian Wilson produced and wrote most of the music for the album which contain some unconventional instruments such as dog whistles, trains, Electro-Theremin, buzzing organs, Coca-Cola cans and barking dogs.  The Beach Boys have stayed active from 1961 to present day with only four past members.