[AnotherUnixGeek]

I like Brian Wilson but he really exaggerates his influence. If Brian Wilson had never lived there would have been a Sgt Pepper’s.

Maybe, but it would have been a different album. At least Paul McCartney thinks so:

"I played it (Pet Sounds) to John so much that it would be difficult for him to escape the influence. If records had a director within a band, I sort of directed Pepper. And my influence was basically the Pet Sounds album. John was influenced by it, perhaps not as much as me."

[plain talk]

musicians have lots of influences. Pet Sounds is nothing like Sgt Pepper.