The Beach Boys' style began to change in 1965. At the end of the previous year Brian Wilson had had a nervous breakdown, brought on by pressure to produce hits and the demands on his time as the band's producer, primary songwriter, and arranger. Wilson never again toured with the Beach Boys; while he remained a vital part of the band and performed on the group's albums, on stage he was replaced first by Glen Campbell (then a studio guitarist who had played on several Beach Boys albums), and then by Bruce Johnson, of the vocal harmony group the Ripchords.
Freed from demands of touring, Wilson began focusing more of his attention on the production end of the business. He was influenced by the pop rock hits coming out of Motown, particularly from the production team of Holland-Dozier-Holland, and the girl-group records produced by the eccentric prodigy Phil Spector. Spector's new sound, known as the "Wall of Sound," The correction leads to the impression that Spector created this style and that it is exclusively associated with him; neither is correct. Please return to the original wording, or "This new 'wall of sound' … added orchestral instruments to the standard rock ensemble to thicken the texture and to create a sense of gathering momentum. While Wilson didn't, at this stage, try to duplicate Spector's sound, might this read "try to duplicate the "wall of sound" ? he fully grasped its possibilities. He began employing a wide variety of tone colors, many from unorthodox instruments, to differentiate the formal sections of each song, and subtle end-weighting usually marked the trajectory of the verse leading into the chorus. The songs of this period are also distinguished by increasingly sophisticated vocal harmonies that Wilson composed by singing individual parts into a tape recorder, and then assembling the lines in various combinations until he liked the results. The hits of this middle period also featured adventurous chromatic, jazz-inspired harmonies.
By 1965 the kind of sun, fun, and surf lyrics that had been the stock in trade of the Beach Boys began to seem frivolous in comparison to the subject matter explored by folk rockers like Bob Dylan and the Byrds, not to mention the social commentary emerging in the songs of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. After the album Today (1965) Wilson abandoned the California life lyrics in favor of more introspective material.
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Phil Spector, Burt Bacharach, the Beatles
Must Haves:
 "Help Me, Rhonda"
"In My Room"
"Dance, Dance, Dance"
"When I Grow Up (to Be a Man)"
The Zombies, the Turtles, the Hollies, Fleetwood Mac (after 1971)
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