Badly Drawn Boy on how The Beach Boys’ ‘Pet Sounds’ led to a collab with The Fall’s Mark E Smith

Badly Drawn Boy has shared a story of how The Beach Boys’ ‘Pet Sounds’ once led to him making a track with The Fall’s Mark E. Smith.

• READ MORE: Brian Wilson, 1942-2025: culture-defining innovator who represented pop music’s awakening

The singer-songwriter posted the story on X on Thursday (June 12), the day after the news was shared that The Beach Boys’ creative visionary Brian Wilson had died at the age of 82.

Badly Drawn Boy wrote: “Mark E. Smith got in my car thinking I was a taxi in 1997, I was playing a cassette version of ‘Pet Sounds’. Mark asked what it was and could he have it?”

Mark E Smith got in my car thinking I was a taxi in 1997, I was playing a cassette version of Pet Sounds. Mark asked what it was and could he have it ? I said he could keep it if we could do a collaboration. We recorded a song ‘Calendar’ a few weeks later. Thanks Brian Wilson !

— Badly Drawn Boy (@badly_drawn_boy) June 12, 2025

“I said he could keep it if we could do a collaboration,” he added. “We recorded a song ‘Calendar’ a few weeks later. Thanks Brian Wilson!”

The two musicians wrote ‘Calendar’ together and the track was released as a B-side to The Fall’s 1998 single ‘Masquerade’, from the album ‘Levitate’. Listen to the track here:

In a follow-up post, Badly Drawn Boy responded to someone questioning whether Smith had really never listened to ‘Pet Sounds’ before, The Beach Boys’ landmark 1966 album that is regularly named as one of the greatest records ever made.

“Yes,” he replied. “He was indeed very merry. I was shocked and laughed that he didn’t seem to recognise the Beach Boys..he literally said, ‘What’s this, I like it can I have it?”

Yes .. he was indeed very merry. I was shocked and laughed that he didn’t seem to recognise the Beach Boys.. he literally said ‘ what’s this, I like it can I have it ?’

— Badly Drawn Boy (@badly_drawn_boy) June 12, 2025

Smith himself passed away in January 2018 at the age of 60. It was later confirmed that he had been battling terminal lung and kidney cancer.

As for Wilson, countless names from the music world have been paying tribute to him over the past 24 hours, including Paul McCartney, who has consistently reserved the highest praise for his songwriting.

“Brian had that mysterious sense of musical genius that made his songs so achingly special,” he wrote. “The notes he heard in his head and passed to us were simple and brilliant at the same time. I loved him, and was privileged to be around his bright shining light for a little while.

“How we will continue without Brian Wilson, ‘God Only Knows’. Thank you, Brian.”

Elton John shared a post that read: “Brian Wilson was always so kind to me from the day I met him… I grew to love him as a person, and for me, he was the biggest influence on my songwriting ever; he was a musical genius and revolutionary. He changed the goalposts when it came to writing songs and shaped music forever. A true giant.”

Bob Dylan, shared a tribute too, writing: “Heard the sad news about Brian today and thought about all the years I’ve been listening to him and admiring his genius. Rest in peace, dear Brian.”

You can find more tributes to the late artist here.

The post Badly Drawn Boy on how The Beach Boys’ ‘Pet Sounds’ led to a collab with The Fall’s Mark E Smith appeared first on NME.