Smiley Smile

Smiley Smile
Studio album by The Beach Boys
Released	September 18, 1967
Recorded	June 3–July 14, 1967 (except "Good Vibrations": sporadically from February 18 to September 1, 1966; portions of "Heroes and Villains"' backing track: October 1966; coda to "Vegetables": April 1967)
Genre	Psychedelic rock, psychedelic pop
Length	27:36
Label	Brother/Capitol
Producer	The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys chronology
Best of The Beach Boys Vol. 2 (1967) Smiley Smile (1967) Wild Honey (1967)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	link
Pitchfork Media	(9.5/10) link
Blender	link

Smiley Smile is the twelfth studio album by The Beach Boys, issued in 1967. Released in the place of the much-touted Smile, Smiley Smile is widely considered to be under-produced, and it was received with indifference and confusion upon its unveiling. However, Smiley Smile has managed to grow in stature over the years to become a cult favorite in The Beach Boys' recorded catalog.

History

After "Good Vibrations" topped the singles charts in late 1966, the Beach Boys' next album project (eventually titled Smile) was eagerly anticipated. Sessions for the album continued through most of 1966 and by late in the year it was evidently nearing completion. However, in December 1966 opposition to the project from within the group (notably from Mike Love) led to the departure of Brian Wilson's writing partner Van Dyke Parks and progress was further hampered by a range of other factors including Wilson's deteriorating mental health, the group's ongoing lawsuit against their label, and Carl Wilson's legal battle against being drafted into the US army. Although some recording and editing continued into early 1967, the project eventually ground to a halt. In May 1967 the scheduled release was officially cancelled, The Beach Boys pulled out of their headlining spot at June's Monterey Pop Festival and Smile (which took longer to record than any other Beach Boys album) was scrapped.

Nevertheless, the Beach Boys still needed to complete an album to fulfill their obligations to Capitol Records, so a replacement was hastily recorded, largely at Brian Wilson's new home studio in Bel Air, during June and July. Smiley Smile includes versions of several key Wilson-Parks songs originally intended for Smile. Three of these ("Wind Chimes", "Vegetables", and "Wonderful") were re-recorded in greatly simplified arrangements, along with a fragmentary version of the Smile instrumental "Mrs O'Leary's Cow" which was reworked as the short short instrumental piece "Fall Breaks and Back to Winter". "She's Goin' Bald" was a reworking of a Smile track known as "He Gives Speeches". The only remnant of Smile presented in anything like its intended original form was "Heroes and Villains", which went through numerous permutations before the selection of the shorter version included on Smiley Smile. The group also quickly added some new material (which nevertheless showed obvious thematic connections with Smile). Only "Good Vibrations" appears in its original version although the song was included at Capitol's insistence to help bolster sales, over Brian's strenuous objections.

When Smiley Smile was finally released in September, after months of hype, its critical reception was unenthusiastic, peaking at only #41 in the US. Its commercial reception a few months later in the UK was better; it reached #9 on British charts. Carl Wilson is reported to have called it "a bunt instead of a grand slam" comparing Smiley Smile to the much-fabled unreleased album that it eventually replaced.

Retrospective critical opinion of the record has been kinder. Richie Unterberger of Allmusic gave the album four out of five stars, calling it "a rather nifty, if rather slight, effort that's plenty weird" and noting that the media-hype of the collapsed Smile project at the time was much to blame for its lackluster reception. In 2007, Robert Christgau and David Fricke, writing for Rolling Stone, named Smiley Smile one of the 40 essential albums of 1967, declaring: "Towering it's not; some kind of hit it is." The album was also influential in some musical circles: Pete Townshend of The Who is a known admirer of the record, as is Robbie Robertson of The Band.

Smiley Smile marked the beginning of the end of Brian Wilson as the creative leader of The Beach Boys. Although the album was mostly produced by him, the production was for the first time credited to the group. The following years and albums had Wilson less and less involved in music production. It would not be until 1976's 15 Big Ones that Wilson was credited as producer again.

Quotes

• "In Fort Worth, Texas there is a drug clinic which takes people off the streets and helps them get over bad LSD trips. They don't use any traditional medical treatment whatsoever. All they do is play the patient our Smiley Smile album and apparently this acts as a soothing remedy which relaxes them and helps them to recover completely from their trip." – Carl Wilson, (1970)

• "Smiley Smile was an album that marked the end of an era." – Bruce Johnston

• "Smiley Smile was just something we were going through at that time connected with drugs, love, and everything." – Dennis Wilson

Track listing

Side one
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Lead Vocals	Length
1.	"Heroes and Villains"	Brian Wilson/Van Dyke Parks	B. Wilson/Al Jardine	3:37
2.	"Vegetables"	B. Wilson/Parks	Jardine/B. Wilson/Mike Love	2:07
3.	"Fall Breaks and Back to Winter (W. Woodpecker Symphony)"	B. Wilson	instrumental	2:15
4.	"She's Goin' Bald"	B. Wilson/Love/Parks	B. Wilson/Love/Dennis Wilson/Jardine	2:15
5.	"Little Pad"	B. Wilson	Love/Carl Wilson/B. Wilson	2:30

Side two
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Lead Vocals	Length
1.	"Good Vibrations"	B. Wilson/Love	C. Wilson/B. Wilson/Love	3:36
2.	"With Me Tonight"	B. Wilson	C. Wilson	2:17
3.	"Wind Chimes"	B. Wilson	Love/B. Wilson/C. Wilson/D. Wilson	2:36
4.	"Gettin' Hungry"	B. Wilson/Love	Love/B. Wilson	2:27
5.	"Wonderful"	B. Wilson/Parks	C. Wilson	2:21
6.	"Whistle In"	B. Wilson	C. Wilson/Love	1:04

Singles

• "Heroes and Villains" b/w "You're Welcome" (Brother 1001), 31 July 1967 US #12; UK #8; CAN #5
• "Gettin' Hungry" b/w "Devoted to You" (Brother 1002), 28 August 1967. (Credited to "Brian and Mike")

Smiley Smile is now paired on CD with Wild Honey, with bonus tracks from that period. Bonus tracks include "Heroes and Villains (Alternate Take)", "Good Vibrations (Various Sessions)", "Good Vibrations (Early Take)", "You're Welcome", "Their Hearts Were Full Of Spring", and "Can't Wait Too Long". In Australia, Smiley Smile was released on the Music for Pleasure label as The Beach Boys.

Personnel

• Alan Jardine – vocals, bass, guitar
• Bruce Johnston – vocals, bass, keyboards
• Mike Love – vocals
• Brian Wilson – bass, keyboards, vocals
• Carl Wilson – vocals, guitars, bass
• Dennis Wilson – drums, vocals
• Mike Deasy Sr. – guitar
• Lyle Ritz – upright bass

Sources

• Smiley Smile / Wild Honey CD booklet notes, David Leaf, c.1990.
• Look! Listen! Vibrate! Smile!, Domenic Priore, c.1995
• Catch a Wave, Carlin, c. 2006
• The Nearest Faraway Place: Brian Wilson, The Beach Boys and the Southern California Experience, Timothy White, c. 1994.
• The Beach Boys - The Definitive Diary of America's Greatest Band on Stage and in the Studio, Keith Badman, c. 2004
• Wouldn't It Be Nice - My Own Story, Brian Wilson and Todd Gold, c. 1991.
• Top Pop Singles 1955–2001, Joel Whitburn, c. 2002.
• Top Pop Albums 1955–2001, Joel Whitburn, c. 2002.
• Allmusic.com

External links

• Smiley Smile at MusicBrainz