"What am I missing?" Well, for starters - just how old are you? If you weren't around then that explains a lot...
We're all a product of our experience, and the collective wisdom that identified this as one of the greatest all lived through that era. Narrod and Rar1 give a hint of some of the reasons - the Beach Boys were practically the major competitors in the U.S. to the Beatles (and Stones, maybe). They sounded like nothing else around (at the time...) and this did provide a significant spark for Dr. Pepper's.
Once you've heard so much that's been produced since that time then Pet Sounds may not seem like all that much - until you step back and realize that so much of what followed is often quite derivative in some way. This was such a change (as Jaybo noted) from the norm at that time that even many fans of the most popular group in the U.S. didn't get it nor buy it. It was just those guys like the Beatles, etc. who were knocked out by Pet Sounds and the rest has become history...
We're all a product of our experience, and the collective wisdom that identified this as one of the greatest all lived through that era. Narrod and Rar1 give a hint of some of the reasons - the Beach Boys were practically the major competitors in the U.S. to the Beatles (and Stones, maybe). They sounded like nothing else around (at the time...) and this did provide a significant spark for Dr. Pepper's.
Once you've heard so much that's been produced since that time then Pet Sounds may not seem like all that much - until you step back and realize that so much of what followed is often quite derivative in some way. This was such a change (as Jaybo noted) from the norm at that time that even many fans of the most popular group in the U.S. didn't get it nor buy it. It was just those guys like the Beatles, etc. who were knocked out by Pet Sounds and the rest has become history...