November 17, 2025

AN INTERVIEW WITH BRIAN WILSON’S ENGINEER LARRY LEVINE (THE BEACH BOYS’ PET SOUNDS & SMILE) (Ep. 233B)

9 minutes

Discograffiti is the deep-dive podcast for music obsessives. In this episode, we feature the next entry in The Chuck Granata Pet Sounds Interview Series. It’s Chuck’s chat with legendary Gold Star engineer Larry Levine, the man responsible, side by side with The Wrecking Crew, for building Phil Spector’s "Wall of Sound”. His peak accomplishments include “Be My Baby”, “Summertime Blues”, “River Deep, Mountain High”, “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’”, “He’s A Rebel”, "Then He Kissed Me", A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector, Pet Sounds, Smile, and so many others. Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss poached Larry in 1967, making him A&M Records’ Chief Engineer. Larry passed away just a few years after this interview in 2008, which makes this posthumously released “Chuck Chat” yet another priceless buried treasure.

Here are just a few of the many things that Larry discusses with Discograffiti in this podcast:

The early days of Gold Star and working with Phil Spector;

The Phil Spector session that became the turning point in his working relationship with the producer;

How Larry created the very first echo chamber, and an in-depth overview on how it developed over time;

Larry’s assessment of Brian Wilson’s overall character;

How Phil talked about Brian to Larry when Brian wasn’t around;

And his relationship with Chuck Britz.

There’ll be a short sneak peak running publicly for free, but the entirety of this podcast will only be accessible on the Major Tier of Discograffiti’s Patreon. Don’t miss it, or you’ll only be getting part of the story. Get it as a one-off, or better yet just subscribe…and then we’ll all have world peace.

Full Episode: Patreon.com/Discograffiti (available on the Major Tier & up)

Free Sneak Peek: linktr.ee/discograffiti

Subscribe to Discograffiti's Patreon and receive a ceaseless barrage (4 shows a week!) of must-hear binge-listening. It’s completely free to be a basic member, $1 to get your backstage pass, $5/month for the weekly Sunday show by & for our community, $10 for weekly early release, ad-free, super-extended Director's Cuts of the main show plus access to half our Patreon episode archive, & $20 for Discograffiti’s weekly bonus episodes and access to our entire Patreon episode archive. There are now over 400 Patreon episodes.

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