Van Dyke Parks had become known as an in-demand arranger and session pianist in Los Angeles during the mid-1960s, working with artists including the Byrds, Tim Buckley, and Paul Revere & the Raiders.

At the same time, he had become unsatisfied with contemporary American pop and its increasing submissiveness to the British invasion, going so far as to say that "apart from Pet Sounds I didn't find anything striking coming out of the United States.

"[7] Wanting to create "an American experience which would be uniquely disassociable [sic] from the Beatles/British pop viewpoint," he became involved with numerous projects that indulged his interest in Depression-era American pop and folk music, such as co-writing and arranging much of Harpers Bizarre's 1967 album Anything Goes, releasing the singles "Come to the Sunshine" and "Number Nine", and working as Brian Wilson's lyricist and assistant arranger for the Beach Boys' Smile project.

[11] After Parks signed a solo contract with Warner Bros, he formed a creative circle that came to include producer Lenny Waronker and songwriter Randy Newman.

[17] Audio engineer Bruce Botnick was credited with inventing the "Farkle" effect, modification to a Sunset Sound Recorders tape delay unit.

The tape then ran through the recorder and fluttered as the rubber capstan bounced, and, by bringing back the output of the farkle to the mix, Botnick was able to attain the sought-after effect while adding plenty of echo from the famed Sunset Sound chamber and delaying it further via an Ampex 200 three-track at 15ips.

"[14] Although it received good reviews upon release, Song Cycle sold slowly, and took at least three years to pay for the original studio sessions.

[26] AllMusic's Jason Ankeny has described the album as an audacious and occasionally brilliant attempt to mount a fully orchestrated, classically minded work within the context of contemporary pop.

...[T]he album is both forward-thinking and backward-minded, a collision of bygone musical styles with the progressive sensibilities of the late '60s; while occasionally overambitious and at times insufferably coy, it's nevertheless a one-of-a-kind record, the product of true inspiration.

[28] Excerpts from positive reviews were reprinted in these ads, which included statements written from the Los Angeles Free Press ("The most important art rock project"), Rolling Stone ("Van Dyke Parks may come to be considered the Gertrude Stein of the new pop music"), and The Hollywood Reporter ("Very esoteric").