“John Phillips was a great vocal arranger and certainly the equal of Brian Wilson in that era.”
JP was definitely a great songwriter and vocal arranger. Not the equal of Brian in terms of composition and production, though. Phillip could hash out a great song on guitar... and arrange his group’s vocals... but then he needed Lou Adler and the Wrecking Crew to turn it into a hit record. Brian didn’t need Lou. In the Wrecking Crew documentary that Tommy Tedesco’s son did, Leon Russell says that Brian was the greatest music genius that they worked with.
Beach Boys used the Wrecking Crew - the best of the best session players. BW was certainly a great arranger...but Tony Asher’s lyrics on Pet Sounds made that album special and far more adult/intellectual than Brian’s lyrics.
A friend is a Mastering Engineer who remastered “Pet Sounds” and gifted me a copy of that album and 28 of the BB’s hits - all sourced from the studio master tapes...and so many others incl Beatles, Who, Stones, etc...