Tony Asher

Tony Asher (* 1939 in London ) is an American music writer . He became known for his work on the Beach Boys album Pet Sounds .

Asher learned to play the piano in childhood and studied journalism . After completing his studies, he gained a foothold in the advertising industry, where he worked as a copywriter . With various partners he composed short advertising jingles for products and TV series and created numerous jingles for the radio. He wrote some songs for the Carpenters with Roger Nichols .

In 1965 he received an offer from Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys to work as a copywriter on his project Pet Sounds . Songs like God Only Knows and others were created here. Asher was hired by Wilson to put his thoughts and ideas into words. Asher explained: "The general tenor of the lyrics was always [Brian's], and the actual choice of words was usually mine. I was really just his interpreter." (The general content of the texts always came from Brian, the choice of words was up to me. I was really just his translator).

Since Wilson wanted to get away from the original Beach Boys themes at the time and didn't want to work with any of his previous partners, he offered Tony Asher to work with him. Wilson only knew Asher very vaguely at this point, but he trusted his feelings.

Brian initially worked with Asher on the single Good Vibrations , but Asher's lyrics were eventually replaced by Mike Love 's. When Wilson re-recorded Good Vibrations for his album Brian Wilson presents Smile in 2004 , he went back to the original lyrics by Asher.

After Pet Sounds, Asher no longer appeared as a copywriter. It wasn't until 1996, when Asher and Wilson met again for the 30th anniversary of Pet Sounds, that the two spontaneously started working together again and wrote some songs. Two of these songs - "This Isn't Love" and "Everything I Need" were released.

Asher now lives in Los Angeles with his wife and son.