The Beach Boys’ ‘Pet Sounds’ Hits Highest Rank on Billboard 200 in Nearly 60 Years After Brian Wilson’s Death

Following the death of The Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson at age 82 on June 11, the group’s catalog surged 184% in equivalent album units earned in the United States in the week ending June 12, growing to 31,000, according to Luminate. Plus, the act’s classic 1966 album Pet Sounds reenters the Billboard 200 chart — and at its highest rank in nearly 60 years.

Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album.

On the Billboard 200, Sounds of Summer: The Very Best of The Beach Boys, released in 2003, jumps 180-52 (15,500 units; up 71%) and Pet Sounds reenters at No. 136 (11,000; up 1,335%). For the latter, it returns to the chart for the first time since July 2015, and to its highest rank since Feb. 18, 1968, when it ranked at No. 110. It peaked at No. 10 in 1966 and is one of 13 top 10 albums for the group.

Overall on-demand official streams of the group’s songs increased by 126% to 26.7 million, while their collected songs sold 19,000 (up 1,132%). The act’s most-streamed song of the week was “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” (2.28 million; up 78%), while the top-selling song was “God Only Knows” (4,000; up 3,382%). On the Digital Song Sales chart dated June 21, “God Only Knows” debuts at No. 7, while “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” the second-biggest-selling Beach Boys song of the week, debuts at No. 18.

“Woudn’t It Be Nice” reached No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1966, while its follow-up single, “God Only Knows,” hit No. 39 later that same year. Both are from Pet Sounds. In total, The Beach Boys boast 35 top 40-charted hits on the Hot 100.

The Beach Boys’ catalog also makes waves on the LyricFind U.S. and Global charts, where “God Only Knows” bows at No. 1. The LyricFind Global and LyricFind U.S. charts rank the fastest momentum-gaining tracks in lyric-search queries and usages globally and in the U.S., respectively, provided by LyricFind. The Global chart includes queries from all countries, including the U.S. The company is the world’s leader in licensed lyrics, with data provided by more than 5,000 publishers and utilized by more than 100 services, including Amazon, Pandora, Deezer, Microsoft, SoundHound and iHeartRadio.

According to LyricFind, lyric searches and usages of “God Only Knows” jumped 1,238% in the U.S. and 1,519 globally week over week (June 9-15 vs. June 2-8).

The U.S. chart features five Wilson-penned songs in all, with “God Only Knows” followed by “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” (No. 2), “Don’t Worry Baby” (No. 4), “Sloop John B” (No. 7) and “Good Vibrations” (No. 9).

Further increases for The Beach Boys catalog could occur in the tracking week ending June 19 (Luminate’s tracking week runs Friday through Thursday each week), after a full week of impact is felt following Wilson’s passing.

Additional reporting by Kevin Rutherford