If ever there was an artist so perfectly able to tap into the creativity of his inner child, it was Brian Wilson. In the time leading up to the May 16, 1966 release of the Beach Boys' grand masterpiece Pet Sounds, Wilson—who was only in his early twenties—erupted with a manic wellspring of ideas, visions, and fleeting thoughts.

The songwriter suffered a panic attack while on a flight from Los Angeles to Houston two days before Christmas in 1964, which prompted him to stop touring with his band altogether. Then came the 1965 hit “California Girls,” which reportedly marked the first time Wilson composed a song while under the influence of psychedelics. He took in the Beatles’ then-brand-new album Rubber Soul, which challenged him to rethink his entire method of music making. With an opus in his brain, he headed to the studio. Compelled to break out of the surfing boy band box the Beach Boys were locked inside, Wilson sat out of the group's tour of Japan in January 1966 to create the 36-minute pocket symphony that would shatter every preconceived notion the world had about the band—and even popular music itself.

Considering the lack of formal training Wilson possessed in terms of arrangement and composition, the way he translated his ideas to the album’s orchestral format is nothing short of magic. Though he was awed by Phil Spector’s production on the Ronettes’ 1963 hit "Be My Baby," with Pet Sounds, Wilson didn't construct a wall of sound as much as a sonic sandbox. (Later on, he would have an actual sandbox built in his mansion while he created the Beach Boys' intended follow-up, SMiLE.) And while Pet Sounds did yield its fair share of individual hits, the record was meant to be heard as a themed song cycle. At its root, the album is a story that takes you along the complete arc of emotions that coincide with falling in love with someone—from hope to elation to worry to despair—a far cry from the steady diet of songs about girls, cars, and surfing that had been the band’s primary M.O. since their formation in 1961.

Pet Sounds has cast a net of seemingly infinite magnitude these last 50 years, informing the worlds of rock, hip-hop, jazz, electronic, experimental, punk, pop, and just about anything else you can imagine in between. The wide swath of artists assembled for this feature represent but a modicum of the album’s vast measure of influence. Its scope transcends just about all lines of age, race, and gender. Its impact continues to broaden with each passing generation.