Smile (The Beach Boys album)

Smile (stylized as SMiLE) is an unfinished album by the American rock band the Beach Boys, conceived as the follow-up to their 1966 album Pet Sounds. The project—a concept album involving themes of Americana, humor, youth, innocence, and the natural world—was planned as a twelve-track LP assembled from modular fragments, the same editing process used on their single "Good Vibrations". After a year of recording, the album was shelved and a downscaled version, Smiley Smile, was released in September 1967. Over the next four decades, few of the original Smile tracks were officially issued, and the project became regarded as the most legendary unreleased album in popular music history.
The album was produced and primarily composed by Brian Wilson with guest lyricist and assistant arranger Van Dyke Parks, envisioning the project as a Rhapsody in Blue-like riposte to contemporary rock trends and the British Invasion. Wilson touted Smile as a "teenage symphony to God" intended to surpass Pet Sounds and inaugurate the band's Brother Records imprint. Consuming over 50 hours of tape across more than 80 recording sessions, the content ranged from musical and spoken word to sound effects and role-playing. Its influences spanned mysticism, classical music, ragtime, pre–rock and roll pop, jazz, doo-wop, musique concrète, and cartoons. Planned elements included word paintings, tape manipulation, acoustic experiments, comedic interludes, and the band's most challenging and complex vocals to this point. The projected lead single was either "Heroes and Villains", about early California history, or "Vega-Tables", a satirical promotion of organic food.
Numerous issues, including legal entanglements with Capitol Records, Wilson's uncompromising perfectionism and mental instabilities, as well as Parks' withdrawal from the project in early 1967, delayed the album. Most tracks were produced between August and December 1966, but few were finished, and its structure was never finalized. Fearing the public's reaction to his avant-garde work, Wilson blocked its release. A mythology bolstered by journalists present at the sessions soon surrounded the project. Long the subject of intense debate and speculation over its unfinished tracks and elusive tracklist, Wilson's unfulfilled ambitions inspired many musicians and groups, especially those in indie rock, post-punk, electronic, and chamber pop genres.
Smile was estimated to be "50% done" by mid-1967. Pared-down versions of "Heroes and Villains", "Vega-Tables", and four other songs were issued on Smiley Smile; further material was reworked into new songs such as "Cool, Cool Water". Three additional tracks—"Our Prayer", "Cabinessence" and "Surf's Up"—were completed for the albums 20/20 and Surf's Up. Since the 1980s, extensive session recordings have circulated widely on bootlegs, allowing fans to assemble hypothetical versions of a finished album, adding to its legacy as an interactive project. In response, Capitol included a loose reconstruction on the 1993 box set Good Vibrations. In 2004, Wilson, Parks, and Darian Sahanaja rearranged Smile for live performances, billed as Brian Wilson Presents Smile, which Wilson later adapted into a solo album. He considered this version to be substantially different from his original vision. The 2011 compilation The Smile Sessions was the first official package devoted to the original Beach Boys' recordings and included an approximation of the completed album. It received universal acclaim and won the Best Historical Album at the 55th Annual Grammy Awards in 2013.
By early 1965, as his industry profile grew, Beach Boys leader Brian Wilson networked with various figures within the Los Angeles music scene and increasingly used recreational drugs such as marijuana, LSD (or "acid"), and Desbutal. Having withdrawn from concert tours, he had distanced himself from his bandmates and began to expand his social, business, and creative circles. According to his then-wife Marilyn, Wilson's new friends "had the gift of gab [...] All of a sudden [Brian] was in Hollywood—these people talk a language that was fascinating to him. Anybody that was different and talked cosmic or whatever [...] he liked it." During this period, he forged a close relationship with Loren Schwartz, an aspiring talent agent he met at a recording studio, who supervised his first LSD trip and introduced him to college-favored literature, including The Little Prince, poetry by Kahlil Gibran, works by Hermann Hesse, and texts by Krishna. On his first LSD experience, Wilson described the event as "very religious" and claimed to have perceived God.
In November 1965, during early sessions for the Beach Boys' eleventh album, Pet Sounds, Wilson explored recording an album centered on humor and laughter. Wilson sought to make Pet Sounds a clear departure from previous Beach Boys releases and opted not to work with his usual lyricist, bandmate Mike Love. Instead, he collaborated mainly with jingle writer Tony Asher, at Schwartz's recommendation. In December, Byrds member David Crosby introduced Wilson to Van Dyke Parks, a 22‐year‐old songwriter, arranger, session musician, and former child actor. Parks had relocated to Los Angeles a few years earlier to pursue film scoring for Disney, but instead worked with the Byrds and MGM pop groups the Mojo Men and Harper's Bizarre. Through Parks or Bruce Johnston, Wilson was then introduced to former Beatles press officer Derek Taylor, soon recruited as the Beach Boys' publicist. Taylor was tasked with elevating the band's image, leading a media campaign that hailed Wilson as a pop genius.
On February 17, 1966, Wilson began recording "Good Vibrations", initially intended for Pet Sounds but later excluded due to his dissatisfaction with the initial recording, experimenting with several arrangements until April. On May 4, during the fourth session for "Good Vibrations", he began recording the track in sections rather than as one continuous performance, intending to splice the segments together later. Pet Sounds was released on May 16 and immediately became a landmark album for its sophisticated orchestral arrangements and its role in positioning the Beach Boys among top rock innovators. In the U.S., the album confused their fans and sold worse than previous Beach Boys releases, whereas the British embraced it warmly. This UK success encouraged Wilson to take greater creative risks and convinced Capitol Records to support his next ambitious project.
In 1966, Wilson reconnected with Parks at a house party hosted by Byrds producer and Johnston collaborator Terry Melcher. Impressed by his articulate manner, Wilson, seeking a new lyricist, later offered him a collaboration on the Beach Boys' next album. Parks had attended some "Good Vibrations" recording sessions, and believed that his suggestions regarding the song's cello convinced Wilson of their shared creative understanding, cementing their collaboration. He agreed to join the project despite concerns raised by reports of Asher's split from Wilson and the band. Between July and September, the pair composed numerous songs at Wilson's Beverly Hills home for the tentative project Dumb Angel (later retitled Smile), with sessions potentially extending into October or November.
Like Asher, Parks had limited experience in lyric writing, and Wilson was largely unaware of his collaborator's musical background. Although Parks occasionally performed on Smile recordings, his role was primarily as a lyricist for Wilson's melodies. He also suggested in interviews that he and Wilson shared an understanding of the album's Americana theme, but in a 2005 response to a New York Review of Books article, he wrote, "Manifest Destiny, Plymouth Rock, etc. were the last things on his mind when he asked me to take a free hand in the lyrics and the album's thematic direction". Journalist Geoffrey Himes reported that although Parks did not write any music, he did collaborate with Wilson on the arrangements.
Biographer Steven Gaines characterized Wilson's circle as a mix of "drainers" and "talented" or "industrious" individuals. This group included MGM talent scout David Anderle and his client, singer Danny Hutton, who had performed with Parks; Hutton later introduced Parks to Anderle, who soon became his manager. Turtles singer Mark Volman, who was also introduced to Wilson by Hutton, later remarked that his association had felt akin to being a "groupie for Brian". Many of these individuals, later dubbed "the Vosse Posse" by Beach Boys fans, became regulars at Wilson's home and during studio sessions.
Journalists were similarly integrated into his milieu. Michael Vosse, a magazine reporter and college friend of Anderle, was introduced to Wilson by Parks and was later tasked by Taylor to interview him for the forthcoming release of "Good Vibrations". The day after their meeting, Wilson called Vosse and offered him a job recording natural sounds. Paul Jay Robbins, from the Los Angeles Free Press and a New Left political activist involved in the 1966 Sunset Strip curfew riots, met Parks at Byrds concerts, which led to his inclusion in Wilson's circle. Paul Williams, the 18-year-old founder and editor of Crawdaddy!, expressed admiration for Pet Sounds and "Good Vibrations", and subsequently visited Wilson at his home at Christmas 1966 before returning to New York. Jules Siegel, from The Saturday Evening Post, was introduced to Wilson by Anderle and accompanied him at his home and in the studio for two months. Richard Goldstein, the first rock critic from The Village Voice, and Lawrence Dietz, from New York magazine, was also among those involved.
Anderle said, "Smile was going to be a monument. That's the way we talked about it, as a monument." Journalist Nick Kent, writing in 1975, believed that the reliability of figures such as Anderle, Siegel, and Vosse had been compromised by claims "so lavish [that] one can be forgiven, if only momentarily, for believing that Brian Wilson had, at that time orbited out to the furthermost reaches of the celestial stratosphere for the duration of this starcrossed project." Gaines, in 1986, acknowledged that the "events surrounding the album" varied so greatly by individual perspective that the facts remain uncertain, while Williams stated that he, Wilson, Anderle, Parks, Taylor, and other journalists were "very stoned", which may have "had some effect" on their assessment of the situation.
Wilson originally planned several projects—including a sound effects collage, a comedy album, and a "health food" album—but Capitol's lack of support for these ideas spurred the Beach Boys to form their own label, Brother Records. Initiated in August 1966 under Anderle, the label was announced later that year as a platform for introducing "entirely new concepts to the recording industry" while granting the Beach Boys full creative and promotional control over their work. Anderle later described the label as a means for releasing projects considered "special" for Wilson, recalling that distribution by Capitol was not an initial concern.
Anderle emphasized that it was "important" to recognize that Wilson's prolific creativity defied any attempt at consolidation, as Wilson's ideas ranged from concepts for an elemental-themed suite to "humor albums", originally separate from Smile, which was intended as "the culmination of all of [his] intellectual occupations". Journalist Tom Nolan, present at the sessions, later reported that Wilson's expansive ideas included an album constructed from "sound effects" with "chords spliced together through a whole LP". Nolan further observed that when Wilson briefly turned his attention to films, it appeared he could "capture more" in his art, explaining, "If you couldn't get a sound from a carrot, you could show a carrot. He would really liked to have made music that was a carrot."
"Smile" was designed to embody an explicitly American style and subject matter, serving as a riposte to the British influences that had dominated rock music at the time. Wilson stated that with Smile he aimed to "Americanize" both early and mid-America, much as George Gershwin "Americanized" jazz and classical music. According to Parks, Gershwin's 1924 composition Rhapsody in Blue encapsulated a "musical kaleidoscope" of America—a quality that both he and Wilson sought to emulate. He explained that they "wanted to investigate […] American images" and slang, deliberately taking a "gauche route" to counter the era's pervasive British fixation. Many artists had adopted British inflections to mimic the Beatles' style; in Parks' description, Wilson faced no other alternative but to combat these developments, as he was effectively "the last man standing".
Numerous authors state that Wilson intended Smile as a response to the Beatles' August 1966 release Revolver. In a 2004 interview, Wilson mentioned that while the 1965 album Rubber Soul had inspired his artistic ambitions with Pet Sounds, Smile was meant to be "something more advanced" than pop music and incomparable to the Beatles. Journalist Andrew Sacher, after examining many books, documentaries, and articles about the subject, states that Wilson himself "never seems to mention Revolver", possibly because his "main goal in late 1966 was topping his own Pet Sounds". In a 1969 interview, Mike Love said that the record did not affect Wilson's music, remarking that "Brian was in his own world, believe me."
Smile was inspired by Wilson's growing interest in astrology, numerology and the occult. After a friend introduced him to Pickwick Bookshop in Hollywood, Wilson became an avid reader, later reflecting that overexposure to disparate authors left him with "too many paths to choose from". According to Nolan, one anonymous observer remembered that whenever someone introduced a new idea to Wilson, whether astrology or Russia-China relations, it would invariably "find its way into the music". Wilson's library reportedly included works spanning poetry, prose, and cultural criticism—notably Arthur Koestler's The Act of Creation (1964), which he frequently cited—alongside texts on non-Christian belief systems such as Hinduism (from the Bhagavad Gita), Confucianism (via the I Ching), Buddhism, and Subud. These works promoted practices like meditation and vegetarianism, in which Wilson took interest.
Wilson, in 2005, described his engagement with metaphysics as "crucial", citing The Act of Creation as pivotal: "It turned me on to very special things [...] people attach their egos to their sense of humor before anything else." Vosse recalled Wilson stating that "laughter was one of the highest forms of divinity" and that he had intended to create "a humor album"; Vosse later surmised that Smile would have manifested as a "sophisticated" Southern California-inspired gospel album, reflecting Wilson's "own form of revival music." Anderle, recounting Wilson's fixation on humor and spirituality, said his "innate sense of spiritualism" had led him to explore numerology, astrology, and the I Ching.
Jules Siegel recalled Wilson, during one evening in October 1966, announcing to friends his intent to create a "teenage symphony to God", also describing a shift toward a "white spiritual sound" he believed would define music's future. Wilson cited the Beatles' latest work as part of a broader "religious" movement in music, stating, "That's where I'm going. It's going to scare a lot of people." That November, Nolan reported Wilson's artistic shift stemmed from a prior psychedelic experience, though Wilson later stated he would not take LSD again, criticizing figures like Timothy Leary for emphasizing rhetoric over creativity. Asked about music's trajectory, Wilson predicted "White spirituals [...] Songs of faith."
In 2004 interviews, Wilson denied that Smile was influenced by LSD, Zen, or religion. Anderle also denied that drugs were an influence on Wilson's artistic pursuits. Parks, in the 1970s, said that Wilson had envisioned Smile as experimenting with "the mind-expanding possibilities of music and the mind-expanding properties of drugs".
Wilson said that the album's original working title, Dumb Angel, was discarded after the group opted for a "more cheery" alternative. His brother Carl later explained that the final title, Smile, had reflected the band's focus on spirituality and "spreading goodwill, good thoughts and happiness". Biographer Peter Ames Carlin speculated the Dumb Angel name derived from hallucinations Wilson experienced while composing under Desbutals late at night. Wilson's 2016 memoir, I Am Brian Wilson: A Memoir, states that the lowercase "i" in the cover art's SMiLE spelling referenced the loss of ego, one of the album's concepts.
Wilson maintained a hands-off role in the album's thematic direction, preferring to rely on Parks' expertise in American history and iconography. Parks' lyrics employed wordplay, allusions, and quotations, though he emphasized a focus on the "power of words" over wordplay. Although Smile is identified as a concept album, the surviving recordings lack a cohesive narrative, instead weaving disparate themes. He rejected the "concept album" framing, stating the project aimed to employ "American vernacular" amid prevailing "soundalike Beatle-esque music around." Web journal Freaky Trigger described the lyrics as "literary" yet often abstract.
Parks characterized his lyrical approach to Smile as accommodating Wilson's fragmentary musical ideas, which he described as "short spasms of enthusiasm" and disconnected sections that collectively embodied a "cartoon consciousness". This aesthetic prioritized vivid, impressionistic snapshots over linear narrative, culminating in a range of archetypal scenarios and symbols tied to American history, spanning railroads and automobiles to Western colonialism's impact on Native American communities. According to Parks, it was "important to capture the westward movement, the conquering of this continent and beyond [...] with some anecdotes and snapshots". Scholar Darren Reid interpreted the album's historical Americana as a deliberate counterpoint to the Beach Boys' earlier hedonistic themes, arguing that its mood blended humor, sarcasm, and introspection rather than overt happiness, with Wilson's titular "smile" suggesting irony.
There is a wealth of material that diverges from this purported Americana focus, according to musicologist Marshall Heiser. This included themes of physical fitness, childhood, and the natural environment. Themes of spirituality and childhood permeate songs like "Wonderful", "Child Is Father of the Man", and "Surf's Up", though only "Wonderful" explicitly references God. Parks acknowledged spirituality's "inescapable" role in Smile but avoided overt religious lyrics, wary of appearing "uppity". He reflected that the album grappled with questions of belief shaped by Wilson's and his own religious upbringings: "What should we keep from [...] the hard-wiring we had with religion? [...] There's a lot of thinking about belief." In 2011 interviews, Wilson described Smile as embodying themes of childhood, freedom, and resistance to adult conformity, framing its message as "Adults keep out. This is about the spirit of youth." When a journalist characterized the album as "impressionistic psychedelic folk rock" that captures childhood's "psychedelic magic", Wilson endorsed the description: "You coin those just right."
A recurring melodic and rhythmic motif, sometimes called the "Bicycle Rider" theme, was configured into several tracks. Biographer Byron Preiss wrote that this figure was an outlet for Wilson's "obsession with the sound of 'light' wheels—the gentle clicking of a coasting bicycle". The lyric references 19th-century "Rider Back" playing cards by the United States Playing Card Company, which featured angelic cupids on bicycles, and were commonly used in American social settings, including saloon bars. Parks commented, "A lot of people misinterpreted that, but that's OK; it's OK not to be told what to think, if you're an audience."
Musicologist Philip Lambert characterized Smile as an American historical narrative framed through a time-traveling cyclist's "journey from Plymouth Rock to Hawaii", while biographer Keith Badman interpreted Wilson's intent as an exploration of youthful innocence within an Americana context. Williams wryly suggested the album might chronicle "the story of the unnatural love affair between one man's voice and a harpsichord". Historian Dale Carter summarized Smile as engaging with history, culture, and societal themes while exploring faith through national allegiance, ideology, religion, and spirituality. He argued that the album expanded the introspective focus of Pet Sounds into an examination of American identity, framing loss and gain as interconnected rather than final. Lyrically, he highlighted its skepticism toward religious institutions, interest in alternative belief systems, and exceptionalist perspectives.
Unlike the 1960s norm of single-take recordings, Wilson employed tape splicing techniques as early as 1964 to refine vocal performances, a method that evolved into his Smile modular recording process. Starting with "Good Vibrations", he recorded brief, interchangeable musical fragments ("modules") rather than complete songs, later assembling them into varied structures and moods through tape editing. This approach, akin to film editing's "dangling causes" (unresolved elements bridging sequential scenes), allowed flexible rearrangement during production.
Parks said that he and Wilson incorporated elements of musique concrète, using tape jumpcuts as deliberate compositional tools. Heiser noted these abrupt edits created a distinct sonic signature and effectively broke "the audio 'fourth wall'", reflecting Wilson's engagement with avant-garde techniques and subversion of auditory realism. Additionally, Heiser likened the modular approach to the nonlinear logic of childhood play.
The album's material underwent daily revisions and rearrangements. Anderle recalled instances where sections from "Cabin Essence" were repurposed into tracks like "Vega-Tables", leading him to "beg Brian not to change a piece of music because it was too fantastic". While tracks such as "Heroes and Villains" and "Surf's Up" approached traditional verse-chorus frameworks, others functioned as brief atmospheric vignettes. Due to the fragmented, incomplete nature of the recordings, the boundaries between individual songs remain ambiguously defined.
The mid-1960s tape-editing process required physically cutting and splicing reels, a method that proved unsustainable for compiling a full-length album. Mark Linett, who engineered Wilson's recordings after the 1980s, argued Wilson's modular approach exceeded the limitations of pre-digital technology, given the "infinite" permutations for assembling fragments. Brother Records archive manager Alan Boyd concurred, calling it "probably an unbearably arduous, difficult and tedious task".
Smile has been described by various commentators as a work of art pop, psychedelic rock avant-pop, progressive pop, experimental rock, folk rock, musique concrète, and Americana music. The sessions generated over 50 hours of recordings, spanning music, spoken word, sound effects, and role-play. Many segments functioned as word paintings, evoking imagery of physical entities or settings. Ethnomusicologist David Toop likened Wilson's style to "cartoon music and Disney influence mutating into avant-garde pop", while Heiser argued the album defies singular categorization, instead comprising a "complex, nebulous macrocosm" of disparate elements. These included Renaissance-style chromatic vocal arrangements (similar to a Carlo Gesualdo vocal motet), aquatic chants ("swim swim fishy"), Wild West film score pastiches, cartoonish caveman gutturals, a feigned "group orgasm", and surreal skits ranging from a man trapped inside a microphone to a group of French horns mimicking speech and laughter.
Parks stated that the goal of Smile was to serve as a distinctly American testament of belief, a purpose he felt was best achieved by deliberately opposing prevailing countercultural trends. The work drew from pop culture elements that many 1960s rock musicians had viewed as antiquated, including doo-wop, barbershop, ragtime, exotica, cowboy film motifs, and pre-rock 'n' roll pop. It also blended jazz, classical tone poems, yodeling, cartoon sound effects, Sacred Harp singing, Shaker hymns, Native American chants, and Hawaiian mele. Music critic Erik Davis noted its departure from contemporary rock trends, emphasizing the use of banjos rather than sitars and a "creepy, pseudo-castrato" vocal style later rejected by figures such as Jimi Hendrix. Wilson stated his intent to avoid conventional rock instrumentation in favor of original approaches. Additionally, he reconfigured older songs—"Gee", "I Wanna Be Around", "The Old Master Painter", and "You Are My Sunshine"—described by Priore as an attempt to expose "pre-1960s songwriting [...] to the psychedelic era".
The Beach Boys' mid-1960s output incorporated psychedelic characteristics marked by fluid structures, intricate forms, layered sonic -1textures, novel combinations of instruments, shifting tonal centers, and slower, sustained tempos. Music critic Alexis Petridis noted that prior to late-1960s works reflecting LSD's destabilizing effects in rock music, artists had largely avoided addressing the darker aspects of psychedelia. He cited Smile as an early exploration of these themes through tracks exemplifying frenetic intensity ("Fire"), nocturnal unease ("Wind Chimes"), and disembodied vocal manipulations ("Love to Say Dada").
Toop identified a range of "contradictory templates" embedded within the album's "music legacy", citing Frank Sinatra, the Lettermen, the Four Freshmen, Martin Denny, Patti Page, Chuck Berry, Spike Jones, Nelson Riddle, Jackie Gleason, Phil Spector, Bob Dylan, the Penguins, and the Mills Brothers. He noted parallels between Miles Davis and Gil Evans' collaborations and the atmosphere of tracks like "Look" and "Child Is Father of the Man", while comparing the album's acoustic experimentation to Charles Ives' avant-garde techniques, Les Baxter's thematic LPs, and Richard Maxfield's electronic experiments. Toop further suggested that Smile's structure could be interpreted as a series of tone poems indirectly related to the principles of Third Stream, a notion reminiscent of Charles Mingus's term "jazzical" In 2004, Wilson felt that Smile transcended pop conventions, crediting Bach's use of simple forms to build intricate compositions as an inspiration.
Building on the harmonic ingenuity of Pet Sounds, Carter viewed the albums as inseparable in their "differential impact". Smile extended Wilson's orchestral approach, emphasizing traditional American instruments like banjo, steel guitar, and tack piano in addition to textures such as a piano with muted strings, tic-tac bass, bass harmonica, and bouzouki. Al Jardine described the music as increasingly textural and vocally dynamic, with "esoteric chord changes" and discrete movements requiring distinct sessions: "Each movement had its own texture." While Pet Sounds introduced rhythmic experimentation distinct from the Beach Boys' earlier work, Smile amplified this complexity.
Harpsichords and tack piano, typically played in unison, are prominent alongside mallets and unconventional percussion. Parks recalled being impressed in the studio by Wilson's use of "tuneful percussion", evoking early 20th-century orchestrations such as Percy Grainger's "Country Gardens". Author Domenic Priore highlighted a "flair for exotica" in tracks like "Holidays", "Wind Chimes", "Love to Say Dada", and "Child Is Father of the Man", while Heiser likened the album's consistently "playful" and "colorful" moods to the music of Sesame Street. Examples of Wilson's "uninhibited inventiveness", according to Heiser, include the "Doing, doing" backing vocals evoking banjos in the "Home on the Range" section of "Cabin Essence", French horns mimicking laughter in the first movement of "Surf's Up", and the sound of celery crunching rhythmically in "Vega-Tables".
The album's vocal arrangements employ varied pitch centers, antiphonal exchanges, rhythmic shifts, cyclical repetitions, contrasts between legato and staccato phrasing, and other effects uncommon in mid-1960s rock. Musician Brian Torff identified choral-style arrangements and a rhapsodic Broadway influence, while Toop characterized some vocals as regressing into "baby talk". According to Williams, the lyrics often prioritize phonetic texture over literal meaning, an approach Freaky Trigger likened to experimental artists like Sun Ra and John Cage. The journal framed this as an avant-garde reworking of doo-wop, a foundational genre for the Beach Boys.
In discussing "Smile's musical language", Lambert highlights Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue as a structural model, particularly its thematic development and variation techniques. Gershwin's piece revolves around two primary motifs: a stepwise clarinet melody and a ballad theme marked by descending octave leaps, both reiterated with shifting instrumentation and rhythmic textures. Similarly, Wilson adopted variation as a central structural device for Smile, expanding techniques used in earlier Beach Boys songs like "Fun, Fun, Fun" (1964), which modified verses through layered vocals and arrangements. Smile systematized this approach, with musical elements such as the "bicycle rider" motif recurring in evolving forms to establish cohesion. Williams writes that this motif eroded traditional song distinctions, eschewing the narrative coherence typical of rock opera, a term Wilson later adopted for the work.
Lambert contrasts Smile's musical architecture with Pet Sounds: while the latter achieved unity through subtle harmonic and melodic parallels between tracks, Smile relied on overt thematic variations interwoven into a continuous narrative. The album integrates recurring harmonic elements, including a four-note motif resembling the "How Dry I Am" melody (scale degrees 5–1–2–3) and shared chord progressions across songs. This motif appears in tracks such as "He Gives Speeches", "Look", and the "Cantina" section of "Heroes and Villains", transposed to different keys, altered rhythmically, and paired with reverse-order countermelodies (3–2–1–5).
By November 1966, Wilson had declared Smile would feature "Good Vibrations", "Heroes and Villains", and ten other tracks, incorporating both musical and spoken humor. He clarified it was not a comedy album, with spoken elements limited to brief interjections between verses rather than standalone tracks. On December 15, he submitted a handwritten provisional track list to Capitol to address delays in the album's release. The label produced sleeves listing "Good Vibrations", "Heroes and Villains", and ten other tracks with the notation "see label for correct playing order", while preliminary mixes—some extensively developed—were created for multiple songs.
"Heroes and Villains" marked Wilson's first collaboration with Parks. Wilson envisioned the track as a three‐minute musical comedy intended to surpass "Good Vibrations" and produced several versions—some lasting six to eight minutes. He selected the title and linked the melody to the Old West, which reminded Parks of Marty Robbins' "El Paso" (1959). Parks promptly devised the opening line: "I've been in this town so long that back in the city I've been taken for lost and gone and unknown for a long, long time." This collaboration spurred additional Old West–themed songs, including "Barnyard" and "I'm in Great Shape". On November 4, 1966, Wilson recorded a piano demonstration of "Heroes and Villains" incorporating sections of "I'm in Great Shape" and "Barnyard", although the December note listed "I'm in Great Shape" as a separate track. Vosse recalled that "Barnyard" had evolved from an impromptu piano reinterpretation of "You Are My Sunshine" that sparked Wilson's concept for a rustic barnyard aesthetic. Wilson recorded a short medley, sometimes called "My Only Sunshine", that bridged "The Old Master Painter" with "You Are My Sunshine", with Dennis Wilson singing lead on the latter. In 1978, Wilson told Preiss about an uncompleted "Barnyard Suite" of four brief pieces.
"Surf's Up" was Wilson and Parks' second collaboration, composed primarily in one night while under the influence of Desbutal. Wilson noted the song's atypical minor-seventh opening chord progression and its title, unrelated to surfing, stating: "from there it just started building and rambling". Vosse, writing in 1969, described it as the intended climactic finale of Smile, preceded by a "choral amen" segment. "Child Is Father of the Man" blends keyboards, trumpet, vocal rounds, and reverberant guitar drones. Parks stated the title, borrowed from William Wordsworth's "My Heart Leaps Up", reflected Wilson's aspiration to redefine his identity beyond youth.
"Do You Like Worms?" explores themes of American recolonization, though its lyrics never reference worms. Parks attributed the title's origin ambiguously to Wilson, Mike Love, or a studio engineer. "Cabin Essence" addresses railroad themes; biographer Jon Stebbins characterized the track as containing a waltz-like chorus with percussive effects resembling rail spikes and "some of the most haunting, manic, evil-sounding music the Beach Boys ever made".
Marilyn recalled that Wilson composed "Wind Chimes" after observing wind chimes they had purchased and hung outside their home, noting his tendency to derive inspiration from everyday occurrences. "Wonderful" similarly derived from Wilson's nickname for Marilyn. Parks described the music as distinct from their other work, leading him to conceive a love song with "boy/girl" lyrics. Three incomplete arrangements were recorded between August and December 1966. Wilson described "Vega-Tables" as promoting healthy eating through satire, blending advocacy for organic food with humor to avoid being "pompous about it". The track marked Parks' final co-writing contribution to the album.
"The Elements" was conceived as a four-part suite structured around the classical elements: Fire, Water, Air, and Earth. Anderle recounted Wilson's immersion in natural environments to inspire the work, including trips to Big Sur, mountains, beaches, and water sources. To capture water sounds for the project, Wilson tasked collaborators with using a Nagra tape recorder. Vosse recalled, "I'd come by to see him every day, and he'd listen to my tapes and talk about them. [...] And I had no idea what he was listening for!" The "Fire" segment (also known as "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow" and "The Elements – Part 1") involved unusual studio conditions where participants wore toy fire helmets and burned wood for ambiance, with crackling sounds mixed into the track.
Anderle stated that while Wilson outlined concepts for fire, water, and air, the group lacked a cohesive structure beyond viewing it as operatic. Parks recalled the elemental theme emerged later in production. Early album artwork grouped "Vega-Tables" under "The Elements", though Wilson's note listed them separately alongside "Wind Chimes". In 1978, Wilson confirmed "Air" remained an unfinished piano piece.
"Prayer", a wordless hymn intended as the album's opener, was distinguished by Lambert as "every technique of chromatic harmony [Wilson] had ever heard or imagined." Session tapes capture Wilson designating the album's introduction, dismissing Jardine's suggestion to treat it as a standalone track. It remains the only track with confirmed placement.
"I Wanna Be Around", a cover of the Sadie Vimmerstedt and Johnny Mercer standard, was recorded post-"Fire" sessions alongside the intended segue piece "Friday Night". During the session, Wilson directed musicians to simulate construction sounds (sawing, drilling) using tools, a recording known as "Workshop", "Woodshop", or "The Woodshop Song". He later described the session as blending humor and seriousness. Wilson's conceptualization of the track and its noises ("Workshop") symbolized a "rebuilding after the fire", according to Priore, suggesting that the track might have been placed in sequence after "Fire".
"I Ran" (alternately titled "Look") shares melodic elements with "Good Vibrations" and features upright bass, vibraphones, brass, and keyboards. Vocals recorded in October 1966 were lost. "He Gives Speeches" was a minor fragment that, according to Lambert, served as a thematic variation on Wilson's recent material, designed to interlink tracks through "cross-references" for the developing concept album. "You're Welcome" is a reverb-drenched vocal chant. "Love to Say Dada", according to Preiss, formed part of the water-themed section of "The Elements" and was "briefly considered" to be paired with "Surf's Up".
The instrumental "Holidays" was sometimes mislabeled on bootlegs as "Tones" or "Tune X". In early 1967, Carl and Dennis Wilson recorded individually written pieces—Dennis' "I Don't Know" on January 12 and Carl's "Tune X" (later "Tones") on March 3 and 31. Badman speculated these recordings may have been intended either to transform Smile into a group effort rather than a Brian solo project or simply to allow Carl and Dennis to test their production skills.
Compiled under the title "Psycodelic Sounds" [sic], Wilson conducted numerous sessions focused on capturing "humorous" situations. This resulted in hours of recordings created with his friends while they chanted, played games, staged mock arguments, or engaged in casual conversation, described by Carlin as "just like the old days with his Wollensak recorder, except much, much weirder." His bandmates were absent from these sessions. He had previously incorporated lighthearted spoken-word interludes and comedic tracks such as "'Cassius' Love vs. 'Sonny' Wilson" (1964) and "I'm Bugged at My Ol' Man" (1965) on earlier Beach Boys albums, typically as filler material.
A collection of tapes with titles such as "Basketball", "Chewing Terry's", "Kid at Fairfax", "Tea Pot", and "Water Hose" were recorded on October 4, 1966. Recordings from the "Psycodelic Sounds" experiments included sound effects such as exaggerated breathing, moans, and laughter, and pronounced echo effects. An audio vérité segment titled "Bob Gordon's Real Trip" initially presents a routine conversation with a Chicago taxi driver, which abruptly transitions into surreal audio manipulation as the driver's voice becomes heavily drenched in spring reverb.
One 24-minute exercise, recorded on October 18, featured Wilson, his sister-in-law Diane Rovell, Parks, Anderle, Vosse, Diane Rovell, Siegel, and a woman named Dawn. Siegel initiates the party game Lifeboat, where participants roleplay shipwreck survivors debating whom to sacrifice. Tensions escalate, culminating in Wilson lamenting, "I feel so depressed. [...] I'm too down to smile." Another session (November 4, 1966) included Wilson, Parks, Hutton, Vosse, and a participant named Bob ordering from a psychedelic ice cream van playing a piano-simulated music box version of "Good Vibrations". Wilson initiated a comedic routine about falling into a piano and microphone, followed by group chants of phrases like "Where's my beets and carrots?" and "I've got a big bag of vegetables" over bongo rhythms. Parks later reflected on withdrawing from such interactions, perceiving them as "destructive". On November 16, Wilson staged arguments between Vosse and studio drummer Hal Blaine, portraying Blaine as angered by Vosse trespassing in his garden. The exchange transitioned into a discussion about planetary alignments, concluding with Wilson himself engaging in a mock dispute with Blaine. This recording was reportedly intended for potential inclusion in the "Vegetables" track.
Wilson also recorded a series of novelty songs with photographer Jasper Daily: "Teeter Totter Love", "Crack the Whip", and "When I Get Mad I Just Play My Drums". Mike Love called "Teeter Totter Love" "simple but poignant." The AFM contracts for these tracks list "Brother Records" as the employer. Gaines stated that these recordings were intended to fulfill Wilson's separate "humor album" concept; the collection was subsequently offered to A&M Records but was rejected. Vosse recalled that when Wilson presented "Crack the Whip" to A&M head Chuck Kaye, Kaye appeared visibly alarmed by its quality: "You could see the panic on [Kaye's] face when he heard how awful it was. This look of, 'What the fuck do I do?'"
Capitol assigned Smile the catalog number DT2580 and produced at least two slightly varied album jackets. The album was to include cover artwork and a booklet of pen-and-ink drawings by graphic artist Frank Holmes, a friend of Parks. Holmes met with Wilson and Parks around June 1966, basing his work on lyric sheets provided by them, and completed his contributions by October. Parks felt that Holmes' illustrations profoundly influenced the project, serving as the album's "third equation" and framing its creative direction in cartoon terms.
Holmes based the cover on an abandoned jewelry store near his Pasadena home. regarding the storefront as "something that would be pulling you into the world of Smile". The cover features a husband and wife rendered in an early-Americana, 19th-century style. According to Vosse, the smile shop idea had derived from Wilson's "humor album" concept, and "everybody who knew anything about graphics, and about art, thought that the cover was not terribly well done [...] but Brian knew better". Parks recalled that although Holmes was expected to create a "light-hearted" design with no specific instructions, his work ultimately provided an effective visual framework for the project and remains a fundamental aspect of its identity: "I think of Smile in visual terms".
Wilson approved the design and submitted it to Capitol. In September 1966, Capitol began production on a gatefold cover with a 12‑page booklet featuring color photographs from a November 7 Beach Boys photoshoot in Boston by Guy Webster, alongside Holmes' illustrations. In early 1967, the cover was modified to include repeated instances of "Good Vibrations", absent from Holmes' original design. The back cover displayed a monochrome photograph of the band without Brian, framed by astrological symbols. Capitol produced 466,000 copies of the record sleeve and 419,200 copies of the booklet, which were ultimately stored in a Pennsylvania warehouse until the 1990s.
Corporate pressures, technical difficulties, internal conflicts, legal stalling, and Wilson's deteriorating mental health led to the shelving of Smile. After months of work, Wilson determined that its esoteric nature would not appeal to the public and opted to produce simpler music. According to Carl, Brian felt unable to complete the album and feared a negative public response. In Brian's words, the band was "too selfishly artistic" and had not sufficiently considered the public.
Writers often theorize that the album was cancelled because Wilson's bandmates had failed to appreciate its music. However, Stebbins contends that this view is "overly simplistic and mostly wrong", with not enough consideration for Wilson's psychological decline. Carl, Dennis, and Al Jardine contributed instrumentally to several tracking sessions, with Carl participating more extensively than any other member aside from Brian, although Stebbins notes, "Even Carl was unhappy with the project". Derek Taylor recalled that despite Wilson's erratic mood swings, his bandmates were generally supportive; he also felt that Wilson was insecure and highly sensitive to criticism, frequently seeking others' opinions on his work. Journalist Tracy Thomas, who attended sessions around January 1967, reported in the NME that Brian's "dedication to perfection does not always endear him to his fellow Beach Boys, nor their wives, nor their next door neighbours, with whom they were to have dinner [...] But when the finished product is 'Good Vibrations' or Pet Sounds or Smile they hold back their complaints."
It is often suggested that Mike Love was chiefly responsible for the project's collapse. Love dismissed these accusations as hyperbolic, contending that his vocal opposition to Wilson's drug suppliers instigated claims that he, along with other band members and Wilson's family, sabotaged the project. Wilson's remarks on the matter have been inconsistent, as he has both affirmed and denied that his confidence in the project was undermined by Love.
Parks has sometimes stated that he was dismissed from the project at Love's behest. In a 1974 interview, he elaborated that he both "resigned" and "was fired" after Love and "the least known members" had decided that his lyrics were "indecipherable and unnecessary". Two years later, when interviewed for the 1976 television special The Beach Boys: It's OK!, he indicated that he had suggested discarding his lyrics after Love inquired about a particular line. In a 2013 interview, Parks said that he "walked away from the job" to escape Wilson's "buffoonery" and Love's "jealousy".
In author Clinton Heylin's estimation, other reports suggest that Wilson became dissatisfied with Parks' lyrics, although Love "certainly" contributed to Wilson's change of opinion. Addressing the claim that he had hastened the project's collapse by criticizing Wilson, Love acknowledged that Wilson, under the influence of psychoactive drugs, might have become overly sensitive to "body language" and attitudes. However, Love rejected the notion that he should "be held responsible" for his cousin's drug-induced paranoia and impaired mental condition, a subject that was little understood at the time.
Wilson's uncompromising perfectionism, which may have been intensified by his drug use, was a major issue that contributed to the project's collapse. At one Smile session, Wilson's repeated calls for retakes elicited a horn player to sarcastically remark, "Perfect – just one more". At the end of another session, which had extended until dawn, an engineer asked Wilson's wife if she believed he would be satisfied with the final take, to which she replied, "No, when he gets home he won't be satisfied. He's never satisfied." Wilson was later diagnosed with bipolar and schizoaffective disorders, although most associates observed no signs of mental illness during the early Smile sessions.
To prepare for the album's writing and recording, he had purchased about two thousand dollars' worth of marijuana and hashish (equivalent to $19,000 in 2024) and built a $30,000 hotboxing tent ($291,000) in his former dining room. He installed a sandbox under the grand piano in his den and, after developing an interest in health and fitness, replaced his living room furniture with gym mats. Vosse, speaking in 2004, maintained that the tent had generated enthusiasm rather than signaling widespread disapproval of Wilson's conduct. He recalled that Wilson's eccentricities were comparable to those of many in show business, and behaviors later deemed alarming were not initially concerning. Anderle reflected that Wilson was not uniquely strange, and that they all engaged in unusual conduct, while Taylor recalled struggling with Wilson's "temporary whims". Musician and television producer David Oppenheim, who briefly visited in late 1966, described Wilson's home as "a playpen of irresponsible people" and "a strange, insulated household, insulated from the world by money". The sandbox remained in Wilson's home until April 1967.
Carl recalled that completing the album would have required considerable "willingness and perseverance to corral all of us", as everyone "was so loaded on pot and hash all of the time that it's no wonder the project didn't get done." Love acknowledged his own marijuana and alcohol use during the sessions but maintained that his work, along with Dennis and Carl's, remained unaffected. Dennis, who also used LSD, remembered that the group grew "very paranoid" about losing their audience, adding that while drugs significantly influenced their evolution, they also fostered a fear that the public "would no longer understand us, musically." Brian told an interviewer in 1976: "We were too fucking high, you know, to complete the stuff. We were stoned! You know, stoned on hash 'n' shit!" Jardine, who did not use drugs, compared his position to "being trapped in an insane asylum", citing an incident during a "Heroes and Villains" session when Brian instructed the band to crawl around the studio and mimic pig-snorting noises.
Parks said that he was uninterested in using psychedelics himself, as well as "anything that would incapacitate" Wilson. Wilson used Desbutal—a combination of methedrine and a barbiturate—more frequently than LSD. Siegel later attributed Wilson's paranoid delusions, unusual behavior, and diminished artistic confidence to his Desbutal abuse, explaining that Wilson had suffered from "classic amphetamine psychosis" and that, while some aspects of his paranoia had a basis in reality, the amphetamine-induced euphoria and subsequent "crash" distorted his assessment of himself and his work.
Vosse maintained that despite the abundant marijuana available, Wilson "wasn't stoned all the time [...] really, Brian had a job to do, and he was a hard workin' guy." He dismissed drug use as "the biggest red herring in [his] story". Danny Hutton countered that drugs did not hinder production, believing that certain substances had helped him "work longer hours", while Parks argued that an emphasis on marijuana obscured the "athletic" productivity and discipline demonstrated during the project. Mark Linett, upon study of the session tapes, highlighted the swift development of studio arrangements and Wilson's cohesive rapport with musicians. Oppenheim had been similarly impressed by Wilson's rapid workflow; however, Heiser writes that this flow ultimately extended to a "compulsive desire to have his every whim fulfilled, even outside of the studio, regardless of the time of day or the impracticality of his ideas."
On May 11, 1966, Wilson recorded a demo instrumental take of "Heroes and Villains" at Gold Star Studios. He returned on August 3 to record "Wind Chimes", marking the unofficial start of the album sessions. Over 80 sessions occurred in the subsequent ten months. "Good Vibrations" was completed on September 21, by which time the project had been renamed from Dumb Angel to Smile. Recording had also begun for "Look", "Wonderful", "Holidays", "He Gives Speeches", and "Our Prayer" by the end of September. Work on "Cabin Essence", "Do You Like Worms?", "Vega-Tables", "Barnyard", "I'm in Great Shape", and "Child Is Father of the Man" followed in October.
One of the most-discussed albums in the rock press, Taylor continued to write articles for music publications, sometimes anonymously, in an effort to further speculation. Nolan, writing in Los Angeles Times West Magazine, called Wilson "the seeming leader of a potentially-revolutionary movement in pop music". "Good Vibrations" was issued as a single on October 15, becoming the group's third U.S. number-one hit by topping the Billboard Hot 100 in December and marking their first number one in Britain. Wilson informed Melody Maker that Smile would "be as much an improvement over [Pet] Sounds" as that album had been over Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!) (1965). Dennis remarked in Hit Parader, "In my opinion, it makes Pet Sounds stink. That's how good it is."
In November, the sessions saw the first recordings of "Surf's Up", "My Only Sunshine", and "The Elements", while December sessions introduced "You're Welcome" and "Love to Say Dada" (then titled "Da-Da"). Smile was initially slated for a December release. That month, Capitol promoted the album with a Billboard ad proclaiming, "Good Vibrations. Number One in England. Coming soon with the 'Good Vibrations' sound. Smile. The Beach Boys." This was followed by a TeenSet color ad declaring "Look! Listen! Vibrate! SMILE!" The ad promised "Good Vibrations" alongside "other new and fantastic Beach Boys songs", as well as "an exciting full-color sketch-book look inside the world of Brian Wilson!" Record stores featured cardboard displays of the cover, and Capitol circulated a promotional ad for employees that used "Good Vibrations" as a backdrop for a voice-over stating, "With a happy album cover, the really happy sounds inside, and a happy in-store display piece, you can't miss! We're sure to sell a million units... in January!"
In the UK, a headline claimed that the Beach Boys' British distributor EMI Records were giving the band the "biggest campaign since the Beatles". On December 10, NME published a reader's poll that ranked Wilson fourth among "World Music Personalities"—about 1,000 votes ahead of Bob Dylan and 500 behind John Lennon. The Beach Boys were also voted the top "vocal group", ahead of the Beatles, the Walker Brothers, the Rolling Stones, and the Four Tops. On December 17, KRLA Beat published a nonsense article by Wilson titled "Vibrations – Brian Wilson Style", filled with in-jokes about his associates. Music historian Luis Sanchez writes that Wilson seemed "poised" to join the Beatles and Dylan among pop luminaries, yet over time, the public anticipation for Smile shifted from high expectations to "doubt" and "bemusement".
Wilson began having increasing doubts about the project during late 1966. One evening, he declared to his associates that, based on his reading of the I Ching, the project was fated to collapse to enable everyone involved to pursue their own individual creative paths, recalled by Vosse as an abrupt shift in Wilson's attitude. From October 25 to November 14, his bandmates toured Europe—including their first UK dates—then undertook their fourth annual U.S. Thanksgiving tour from November 16 to 24. Vosse later wrote that Smile "was a totally conceived entity" during the British tour, but it "started going nuts" upon their return. In Gaines' description, the bandmates, unaware of Wilson's "strange behavior", were "infuriated" to find Anderle leading a pack of outsiders who "had infiltrated and taken over the Beach Boys" while encouraging Wilson's eccentric conduct. Anderle commented, "I stand guilty on those counts [...] I was an interloper and I was definitely fueling his creativity. No holds barred. No rules." Johnston felt Wilson, having endured belittling treatment from his father, "craved" approval—a need his associates exploited by "pump[ing] [his] ego to the ceiling"—and interpreted his actions as schadenfreude against the bandmates.
Wilson's friends, family, and colleagues often date the unraveling of the project around the time he recorded "Fire" on November 28. Parks did not attend that session, later stating he avoided it "like the plague" because of what he saw as "regressive behavior" from Wilson. Within days, a building across the street burned down, and Wilson grew fearful that the music might have caused the fire through "witchcraft", prompting him to discard the track. He later attributed his decision to his use of marijuana and hashish and paused his drug use for two weeks.
By then, tensions had emerged during the album recording, contrasting sharply with the project's early optimism. Anderle recalled that the collapse of "The Elements" coincided with mounting studio resistance—issues with engineers, securing studio time, and assigning parts "to one of the fellas or to a group of the fellas"—that became one of the greatest factors in the project's downfall. He said that Wilson experienced considerable paranoia before entering the studio, anticipating conflict. Wilson's erratic direction and apparent detachment had fostered resentment among the band members, unaware of his underlying struggles. According to Johnston, "We hated him then because we didn't really know what was happening to him."
Vosse, in 1969, recalled that during group vocal sessions, older members of the Wilson family actively undermined Brian's relationships with Parks, Anderle, and himself—motivated by suspicions of an imminent band breakup and disapproval of their appearances. He said that band publisher Murry, father of the Wilson brothers, had regarded "Good Vibrations" as a "horrible mistake" that would alienate the band's audience, igniting a "big argument" over preserving their established image or forging a new one. As internal schisms grew, Parks became the "most convenient" scapegoat due to his occasional disputes with Brian, according to Vosse. In Parks' recollection, "the whole house of cards began tumbling down" when Wilson summoned him to the studio to resolve a disagreement over the "Cabin Essence" lyric "over and over the crow cries uncover the cornfield". Love was confused by this line, suspecting the song referenced drugs, and dismissed Parks' contributions as "acid alliteration". Parks offered no explanation and Love sang the lyric as written.
Love, in a 1993 interview, stated that he had been deeply concerned about Wilson's treatment of "himself", "others", and "the reputation of the band", as well as the potential destruction of their "livelihoods". In 2015, he explained that while he had no issue with "crazy stupid sounds" or Wilson's strange requests, he wanted to produce "a commercially successful pop record", leading him to question the lyrics. He had openly critiqued Wilson's work in the past, yet during the Smile sessions, "he was acting so strange, I couldn't have any conversation with him." The oft-attributed remark "don't fuck with the formula" was denied by Love, who later maintained that the Beach Boys "have no formula." According to Carl Wilson, Love's main objection was that the lyrics were overly abstract; however, Parks argued that his issue was with the music.
Wilson's inability to promptly follow up on "Good Vibrations" became an escalating issue. On December 15, Wilson informed Capitol A&R director Karl Engemann that the album and its lead single "Heroes and Villains" would likely be delivered "some time prior to January 15". Consequently, Capitol postponed their release until March 1967. Possibly pressured by Capitol's demand for a ready single, Wilson resumed work on "Heroes and Villains" on December 19, 1966, halting progress on other tracks until April 1967. While 1966 sessions had been methodically documented, Wilson often took unlabeled test acetates home, leaving them scattered without systematic archiving. By early 1967, session logs indicate increasingly lost studio tapes.
In January, Carl received a draft notice from the U.S. Army while Brian missed his deadline and reduced his work on the album. "Good Vibrations" dropped from the top 20 chart positions after seven weeks in the top 10. Meanwhile, Parks was offered a solo deal by Warner Bros. Records, and, upon signing it, became increasingly unavailable to Wilson, who grew uncertain about the album's direction. Anderle remembered that as "everything started to collapse"—including the collaboration with Parks—Wilson subsequently retreated into managing Brother Records, which provided "excuses" to avoid recording.
Wilson suspected that Capitol was withholding payments and ordered band manager Nick Grillo to audit the label's records, which confirmed irregularities. On February 28, the band filed a lawsuit against Capitol for $250,000 in unpaid royalties (equivalent to $2.4 million in 2024) and sought to terminate their contract before its November 1969 expiration. Subsequently, he announced that "Vega-Tables" would be the album's lead single, but Parks opposed this decision, considering it one of their weaker songs.
According to Anderle, tensions between the songwriters escalated post-February over creative differences; Wilson argued that Parks' lyrics were "too sophisticated, and in some areas Brian's music was not sophisticated enough [for Van Dyke]." Vosse recalled that Parks resented working in a subordinate role, "And every once in a while, [Brian] would say no just to let Van Dyke know he could say no: and that's what really made Van Dyke mad." Siegel corroborated that Parks was "tired of being constantly dominated by Brian."
On March 2, Wilson and Parks dissolved their partnership following disagreements—possibly over lyrics—during a "Heroes and Villains" session, an event sometimes seen as marking the end of the Smile era. Parks later stated that he preferred to withdraw from what he viewed as unrelated family feuds and believed that Smile might have been completed without his involvement. Wilson, reliant on Parks' input, faced challenges assembling the fragmented recordings. Anderle highlighted unresolved lyrical integration issues, as Wilson struggled to merge his contributions with Parks' existing work, halting the recording sessions.
Throughout late 1966 and early 1967, Wilson's paranoid delusions and increasingly erratic behavior had concerned those around him. One incident involved Anderle secretly painting Wilson's portrait; upon viewing it, Wilson believed it had literally captured his soul, irreparably altering their relationship. After attending a screening for Seconds, Wilson became convinced the film contained coded messages from Phil Spector and director John Frankenheimer as part of a supposed Jewish conspiracy against him. Gaines recounts that Anderle, himself Jewish, "was so insulted he couldn't speak. [...] It took him several days to forgive Brian." Wilson's paranoia escalated into reciprocal surveillance between him and Murry, described by Taylor as a cycle of "complete insanity".
Wilson later described himself as "fucked up" and "jealous" of Spector and the Beatles, stating he began Smile intending to surpass his rivals. Taylor recounted Wilson's "mad possessive battle" with the Beatles and Rolling Stones, saying Wilson demanded unwavering loyalty and often challenged him to compare his work favorably against theirs. Throughout early 1967, the music industry and pop fans were aware that the Beatles were working on a significant new work as their follow-up to Revolver, with the band having been ensconced in their London studios since the previous November. Historian Darren Reid writes that Wilson believed releasing the first significant 1967 album would establish an industry benchmark, setting "the standard against which all other albums released after that time would have to be judged."
A popular rumor suggests that Wilson was deeply affected upon hearing the Beatles' February 1967 single "Strawberry Fields Forever". He heard the song under the influence of Seconal while driving with Vosse, who recalled that Wilson immediately pulled over and remarked, "They did it already—what I wanted to do with Smile. Maybe it's too late", before both laughed. He added that he "never gave much import" to Wilson's remark. Responding to a fan's question on his website in 2014, Wilson denied that hearing the song had "weakened" him.
Amid ongoing litigation, the Smile tapes were relocated to engineer Armin Steiner's Sound Recorders studio, and Anderle's efforts to secure a distributor for Brother Records proved unsuccessful. In March, Wilson canceled three sessions—including one due to perceived "bad vibrations"—at a total cost of $3,000 (equivalent to $28,000 in 2024). A March 18 KMEM radio survey in San Bernardino reported Wilson's commitment to completing Smile without restraint, having "informed the Capitol bosses that he doesn't intend to 'hold back' on these projects", while KFXM reported delays to the single's release due to legal disputes on March 30. Parks briefly rejoined the project during a March 31 session.
During an April "Vega-Tables" session, Paul McCartney, who had been staying with Taylor in Los Angeles, previewed his song "She's Leaving Home" for Wilson. Shortly after, Wilson learned of rumors that Taylor had shared Smile tapes with the Beatles. Parks recounted Wilson's attitude changing "completely", stating he felt "raped" and grew increasingly suspicious of his team's loyalties.
In mid-1967, Wilson and his wife moved from Beverly Hills to a Bel Air mansion; according to Badman, this was to distance themselves from his entourage. Marilyn added security measures, including a brick wall and electronic gate, while Wilson began building a home studio. By April, much of his inner circle—including Parks and Siegel—had departed. Vosse attributed Siegel's expulsion to Wilson's unfounded suspicion that Siegel's girlfriend disrupted his work via ESP. Siegel acknowledged, "Wilson didn't trust [anyone] anymore, [but] with some of them he had good reason." Vosse was fired in March after band members objected to funding his role as Wilson's exclusive aide.
Parks' final involvement in the Smile recordings occurred during an April 14 "Vega-Tables" session, after which Wilson paused studio work for four weeks. Anderle at that time felt that Parks' departure was "central" to the project's collapse. He also resigned within weeks, later reflecting that while Wilson "on many occasions" had considered disbanding the Beach Boys, severing ties with non-family collaborators proved simpler. During Anderle's final business meeting with Wilson, Wilson remained in his bedroom, refusing to engage.
CBS premiered the documentary Inside Pop: The Rock Revolution, produced by Oppenheim and co-hosted by Leonard Bernstein, on April 25. The film was initially planned to center on Wilson but broadened its focus as the Beach Boys' popularity declined in early 1967. Wilson's contribution comprised footage of him performing "Surf's Up" at the piano, devoid of interviews or mentions of Smile. He was disturbed by the praises he received via Oppenheim's voice-over, which accelerated the album's dissolution, according to Kent.
Carl, who three weeks earlier had been indicted on draft evasion charges, was arrested by FBI agents before a Long Island concert on April 26; he posted bail and performed with the group that evening. Desperate for a new product from the band, on April 28, the group's British distributor EMI released "Then I Kissed Her" as a single without their approval. On April 29, Taylor announced in Disc & Music Echo, "All the 12 songs for the new Beach Boys album are completed and [...] there are plans to release the album on a rush-schedule any moment." That same day, a Taylor-penned press release, published in Record Mirror and NME, revealed that "Heroes and Villains" was delayed due to "technical difficulties" and that the lead single would be "Vegetables" backed with "Wonderful". A session scheduled for May 1 was cancelled.
Williams reported in the May issue of Crawdaddy! that the next Beach Boys LP would include "Heroes and Villains" ("weighing in at over four minutes"), "The Elements" ("a composition in four movements"), "The Child Is the Father of the Man" [sic], "and something about going in the yard to eat worms." He wrote, "Lyrics are mostly by Van Dyke Parks, and it is possible that the LP will be finished one of these days. Smile." On May 6, a week after stating that Smile was to be released "any moment", Taylor announced in Disc & Music Echo that the album had been "scrapped" by Wilson; however, it is likely that the report was spurious and that Wilson was unaware of Taylor's proclamation.
On May 14, Wilson's bandmates held a press conference at the Amsterdam Hilton with the Dutch music press. Hitweek later reported that communication breakdowns had led them to believe Smile was slated for release by mid-May. Wilson cancelled a May 15 session for "Love to Say Dada", again due to "bad vibes". The final session for the track, and possibly the Smile album, was held on May 18, with a follow-up session scheduled for May 19 subsequently cancelled. From June 3 to 7, the band resumed sessions at professional studios before retreating to the home studio. In a June issue of Hit Parader, Dennis reported that the group had been recording Smile, by then "50% done".
Wilson later reflected that he had run out of ideas "in a conventional sense" and felt "about ready to die" during this period. He explained, "Time can be spent in the studio to the point where you get so next to it, you don't know where you are with it, you decide to just chuck it for a while." Declaring most Smile recordings off-limits to his bandmates, he later acknowledged that withholding "Surf's Up" "nearly broke up" the band. Between June and July, the Beach Boys embarked on a new album project at Wilson's makeshift home studio, repurposing simplified versions of selected Smile tracks.
Smiley Smile is sometimes considered the fulfillment of Wilson's "humor" concept album. This belief was shared by Anderle, who surmised, "I think that what Brian tried to do with Smiley Smile is he tried to salvage as much of Smile as he could and at the same time immediately go into his humor album." Stylistically akin to Beach Boys' Party!, Carl compared the result to "a bunt instead of a grand slam". The album incorporated four modules from Smile sessions—two each from "Heroes and Villains" and "Vegetables". The cover art adapted Holmes' smile shop illustration, now depicted within an overgrown jungle. Parks was not involved with this project, and despite reports that the band had considered Smile "too weird", there was no attempt to make the content on Smiley Smile appear less bizarre for their established fanbase.
On July 18, Capitol announced a settlement with the band alongside Wilson's launch of Brother Records, whose product was to be distributed by Capitol. Days later, Engemann circulated a July 25 memo describing Smiley Smile as a stopgap for Smile and outlining discussions with Wilson about a pared-down 10-track Smile album excluding "Heroes and Villains" and "Vegetables". The proposal never materialized; instead, the band toured Hawaii in August, hoping to release a live album titled Lei'd in Hawaii. Music historian Andrew Doe later speculated the memo might reflect Wilson "being his usual agreeable self and telling people what they wanted to hear ... or a simple misunderstanding."
During 1967, Wilson's public image declined into that of an "eccentric" figure amid the release of numerous revolutionary rock albums targeting an increasingly anxious and maturing youth market. It is sometimes suggested that he abandoned Smile because of the widespread recognition afforded to the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (released in the U.S. on June 2). Biographer David Leaf contends that while the Beatles' album may have been a contributing factor, it was unlikely the sole reason, as Wilson proceeded to release "Heroes and Villains" weeks later, although Williams reported that the single was significantly reconfigured after Wilson heard the Beatles' LP.
On September 18, Smiley Smile—the first Beach Boys album crediting production to the group itself—was released to tepid critical and commercial reception. Wilson gradually withdrew from production and songwriting responsibilities, turning to excessive consumption of food, alcohol, and drugs. Reflecting in 2004, he stated that revisiting the Smile music later evoked "the bad feelings of the drugs" associated with its creation. Johnston attributed his decline to multiple factors: the commercial disappointment of Pet Sounds in the U.S., lingering trauma from his fraught relationship with his father, substance abuse, and the psychological toll of expectation.
In the decades after shelving Smile, Wilson associated the project with personal failure and trauma. He dismissed the recordings as "contrived with no soul", "corny drug influenced music", and inferior imitations of Phil Spector's work. When questioned about Smile, he typically refused to engage or abruptly exited conversations, a reluctance that persisted until the early 2000s. Parks, in a 1998 interview, minimized his connection to Smile, calling it "just a few months of work I did as a contract employee many years ago", and stating that it held greater significance for fans than himself. According to Carlin, Parks grew frustrated that his career remained overshadowed by an unfinished 1967 project, and that later Beach Boys albums did not honor his contributions on songs, including "Wind Chimes" and "Wonderful", with an official co-writing credit. Carlin also suggested Parks harbored conflicted feelings: guilt over abandoning Wilson during the project's collapse, coupled with resentment toward Wilson's subsequent withdrawal from music.
After leaving the project in early 1967, Parks signed a solo contract with Warner Bros., joining a creative circle that included producer Lenny Waronker and songwriter Randy Newman. Later that year, the company released Parks' debut album Song Cycle, which commentators frequently compared to Smile. Newman biographer Kevin Courrier wrote that the "failed aspiration of Smile served as a guiding spirit" for Song Cycle and Newman's 1968 debut album, both produced by Parks and Waronker. Despite poor sales, Parks remained at Warner as an arranger, and the professional and business trajectories of Wilson, Parks, Waronker, and Warner Bros. remained closely intertwined in subsequent years.
Material from Smile continued to appear sporadically on subsequent Beach Boys releases, often as filler tracks to compensate for Wilson's reduced creative output. The first examples emerged on the two albums following Smiley Smile: "Mama Says" from Wild Honey (1967) derived from a segment of "Vega-Tables", while "Little Bird" from Friends (1968) incorporated the refrain of "Child Is Father of the Man". Neither "Mama Says" nor "Little Bird" were from the original Smile recording sessions; both tracks were newly recorded for their respective albums.
The Beach Boys' 1969 album 20/20 included reworked Smile tracks: "Cabin Essence" (retitled "Cabinessence") and "Prayer" (retitled "Our Prayer"), both featuring vocals newly recorded by Carl, Dennis, and Bruce Johnston in November 1968. "Workshop" was incorporated into the album's version of "Do It Again". Carlin states that Brian opposed the inclusion of "Our Prayer" and "Cabinessence" and declined to participate in their overdub sessions.
Following 20/20, the group signed with Reprise Records, a subsidiary of Warner, through a deal brokered by Parks, then a Warner multimedia executive. Their contract included a $50,000 advance contingent on delivering a completed Smile album by 1973, a stipulation made without Brian's consultation. The band's 1970 Reprise debut Sunflower featured "Cool, Cool Water", a track derived from "Love to Say Dada" and included at Waronker's insistence.
For their second Reprise album, initially titled Landlocked, the group included "Surf's Up" with Wilson's approval. Between mid-June and early July 1971, Carl and band manager Jack Rieley retrieved Smile multi-tracks from the Capitol archives to locate and reconstruct the song's masters, with Brian joining them on at least two occasions. Recording sessions at Brian's home studio followed, during which he initially declined involvement but later contributed to the "Child Is Father of the Man" coda. The album was retitled Surf's Up and released in August 1971. Most contemporary listeners remained unaware of the track's origins as a lost Beach Boys song.
At a February 28, 1972, London press conference, Carl announced plans to release Smile, stating he had worked on the album in June 1971 and that safety copies of its tapes had been created. He asserted the tapes were fully assembled with new vocal overdubs added where necessary. A Melody Maker article listed tracks proposed for Carl's Smile iteration, several grouped under the "Heroes and Villains" subtitle: "Child Is Father of the Man" "Surf's Up", "Sunshine", [sic] "Cabinessence" (incorporating "Iron Horse" [sic]), "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow", "I Love to Say Dada" (incorporating "Cool, Cool Water"), and original versions of "Vega-Tables", "Wind Chimes", and "Wonderful". These announcements may have aimed to mislead Reprise into extending the deadline for the band's next album.
Asked about Smile at a later date, Carl responded: "We've all had intentions of finishing the album, but something persists that keeps that from happening, and I don't know what that is." In April 1973, Beach Boys assistant manager Steve Love sent a memo warning the group that Warner Bros. would deduct $50,000 from their next advance if Smile was not delivered by May 1 per their contract. The deadline passed without submission, resulting in the withheld payment (equivalent to $354,000 in 2024). Later that year, Brian told Melody Maker there was insufficient material to compile Smile and that it would remain unreleased. Around this time, he and his group American Spring added new vocals and instrumentation to a remix of Dean Torrence's 1967 version of "Vegetables", credited to "Laughing Gravy" on Jan and Dean's compilation Gotta Take That One Last Ride. Three years later, Wilson stated that he felt an obligation to release Smile, estimating it might emerge "probably in a couple years". By 1980, he stated an intent to complete Smile in three movements, according to biographer Steven Gaines.
Most original Smile recordings remained exclusive to bootlegs until 2011. These unofficial releases typically featured hypothetical versions of the album, with compilers providing liner notes that rationalized their track sequencing, and relying on the list of song titles printed on the unused 1966 album sleeves as a key reference point. Bootlegs circulating as Smile emerged in the late 1970s, combining tracks from Smiley Smile, 20/20, and Surf's Up. Compilers relied solely on the jacket's song titles, often unaware most released tracks had originated after the 1966 sessions.
Scholar Andrew Flory writes the origins of genuine Smile material reaching bootleggers remain unclear, though unverified claims suggest Dennis copied tapes for friends that were later recopied. Despite contemporaneous rumors of leaked tapes and acetates, only limited authentic material circulated before the early 1980s. While writing his 1978 authorized band biography, Byron Preiss received a tape of Smile recordings that was later shared with a limited audience in subsequent years.
During the 1970s and early 1980s, Beach Boys fan groups were organized by at least a dozen individuals, including David Leaf, Don Cunningham, Marty Tabor, and Domenic Priore. These groups primarily communicated through newsletters that shared information and connected enthusiasts compiling details about the band's music. Membership growth was partly spurred by an advertisement for the official fan club, Beach Boys Freaks United, featured on the back cover of their 1976 album 15 Big Ones. Priore later described the club's newsletter as minimal but noted its "Trading Post" section served as a vital pre-Internet networking tool.
In 1978, Leaf published his own biography, in which he proposed releasing Smile through a series of records titled The Smile Sessions, akin to Elvis Presley's The Sun Sessions (1976). Johnston criticized the proposed Smile Sessions release as commercially unviable, stating it would only satisfy listeners with a niche interest akin to "Zubin Mehta analyzing a young composer's work."
In 1983, a 48-minute cassette tape circulated among fans and was later pressed as an unauthorized LP known as the "Brother Records" Smile. The compilation featured Smile-related tracks and outtakes, including the misattributed 1959 Miles Davis recording "Here Come de Honey Man" (erroneously titled "Holidays"). The LP sleeve lacked authorship credits but listed addresses for Cunningham's Add Some Music, Tabor's Celebrate, Beach Boys Freaks United, and the Australian fan publication California Music.
In April 1985, the documentary The Beach Boys: An American Band premiered with previously unreleased material, including an excerpt of "Fire." That year, a "Second Edition" of the Brother Records LP surfaced, omitting the original addresses and rearranging the track order. It featured alternate mixes, implying newly accessed Smile recordings. The enhanced audio quality further suggested that cassette copies had been made from the band's master tapes by an insider.
In 1987, Waronker encouraged Wilson to write a Smile-style song for his solo debut album, leading to the "Rio Grande" suite co-composed with multi-instrumentalist Andy Paley. During the album's production, engineer Mark Linett mixed Smile tracks for a planned release. By 1988, Wilson confirmed Smile was being prepared for release but cited business-related delays. He expressed concerns about its commercial appeal, given it consisted mostly of instrumental tracks, and proposed having bandmates record overdubbed vocals. Journalist David Cavanaugh wrote that Wilson abandoned these plans after a cassette compiled for Capitol executives leaked to the public. A collaborator on Wilson's solo album had obtained first-generation copies of Smile recordings, which were shared with a DJ and subsequently circulated widely, leading to a proliferation of Smile bootleg albums.
In the late 1980s, Domenic Priore collaborated with musicians Darian Sahanaja and Nick Walusko on The Dumb Angel Gazette, a punk-style fanzine and the most comprehensive attempt at documenting Smile. The second issue, Look! Listen! Vibrate! Smile!, presented a 300-page history of the album through press clippings, reprinted articles, primary sources, and original analysis. Contributors included Leaf, Paley, journalist Greg Shaw, and musician Probyn Gregory. Despite skepticism over publishing an extensive book about an unreleased album, Look! Listen! Vibrate! Smile! received acclaim from Spin and Rolling Stone.
The wider circulation of Smile bootlegs demonstrated the album's near-complete state, contradicting Wilson's public statements. By the mid-1980s, CDs had become the primary bootleg format, and after the Linett tape leak, dozens of distinct Smile CD releases were distributed via mail order, independent stores, and head shops. Many purchasers transitioned from Beatles bootleg markets. Among the most prominent releases was a November 1989 Japanese CD that opened with a 15-minute version of "Good Vibrations".
In 1990, Capitol included alternate versions of "Good Vibrations" and "Heroes and Villains" as bonus tracks on a CD reissue of Smiley Smile and Wild Honey. Following the 1992 emergence of a three-disc vinyl bootleg, featuring some previously uncirculated tracks, Capitol released over 40 minutes of original Smile recordings on the 1993 box set Good Vibrations. This compilation included the official debut of "Do You Like Worms?", "I Love to Say Da Da", Smile versions of "Wonderful", "Wind Chimes" and "Vegetables", session excerpts of "Surf's Up" and "Cabinessence", and mislabeled "Heroes and Villains" outtakes.
The Good Vibrations box set marked the first official release of a compiled Smile album, sequenced by Leaf, Paley, and Linett. However, the tracks were presented largely in raw form, lacking a cohesive approximation of the intended final product. Leaf's liner notes encouraged listeners to assemble their own versions using the included materials, prompting many fans to create personalized iterations of the album.
In the 1990s, two types of Smile bootlegs emerged: compilations attempting to reconstruct the album in a finished form and collections of session recordings. Among the best-known releases were those by underground labels Vigotone and Sea of Tunes, which issued Smile sets combining elements of both formats, generating broader interest in the recordings beyond the Beach Boys' fanbase. Vigotone's 1993 version was the most widely circulated Smile bootleg during the decade.
In 1995, Wilson reunited with Parks for the collaborative album Orange Crate Art, provoking speculation about a potential Smile release. That year, Wilson performed "Wonderful" in its original Smile arrangement for the Don Was-directed documentary I Just Wasn't Made for These Times, with the rendition included on the accompanying soundtrack album. Capitol also announced a three-CD box set titled The Smile Era, scheduled for release that autumn.
The planned Smile box set failed to materialize, partly due to the complexity of compiling and sequencing the material. Was proposed releasing Smile as an interactive CD-ROM, akin to Todd Rundgren's No World Order (1993), that would have contained extensive session content for listeners to assemble themselves, an idea Wilson reportedly supported, though dependent on record company approval. According to Mike Love, after finishing the Beach Boys' 1996 album Stars and Stripes Vol. 1, discussions to complete Smile were vetoed by Carl over concerns it might jeopardize Brian's mental health. Capitol's hesitation was further influenced by the 18-month delay experienced during the release of The Pet Sounds Sessions (1997), discouraging similar efforts for Smile. During promotion for his 1998 album Imagination, Wilson dismissed Smile, saying, "I thought too much. Smile was just a bunch of weird stuff that didn't even amount to anything."
In the late 1990s, Sea of Tunes issued eight CDs containing seven hours of Smile recordings as part of their "Unsurpassed Masters" series. By the end of the decade, Smile had become one of the most well-documented projects among bootleggers. Authorities later arrested individuals involved with Sea of Tunes, seizing nearly 10,000 discs. Vigotone, following their 1998 bootleg Heroes and Vibrations, planned a multi-disc Smile set but ceased operations after a 2001 law enforcement raid.
In 2011, Smile topped Uncut's list of the greatest bootleg recordings of all time.
Wilson completed a version of Smile in 2004 with support from the longstanding fan network that had developed since the 1970s. In 1999, Sahanaja, Walusko, and Gregory—who had together formed the pop group Wondermints—were recruited into Wilson's supporting band. In 2001, he performed "Heroes and Villains" publicly for the first time in decades; weeks later, he reiterated reluctance to release the material, calling it "inappropriate" while acknowledging its status as a "legendary" project. Following this performance, Sahanaja proposed incorporating Smile material into rehearsals, leading to plans for dedicated concerts. Sahanaja assumed the role of "musical secretary", while Parks contributed new lyrics. Together with Wilson, they structured the work into three movements. Sahanaja recalled that Wilson and Parks approached the project as if "finishing" Smile.
Brian Wilson Presents Smile (BWPS) premiered in February 2004 at the Royal Festival Hall in London, followed by a studio album version recorded six weeks later and released in September. Leaf's accompanying documentary, Beautiful Dreamer: Brian Wilson and the Story of Smile, premiered on Showtime in October. The project was realized without participation from Wilson's former Beach Boys bandmates or original recordings. The album peaked at number 13 on the Billboard 200, the highest chart position of any album by the Beach Boys or Wilson since 1976. He subsequently embarked on a global tour spanning the U.S., Europe, and Japan.
The Smile Sessions, a five-CD box set released in October 2011, marked the first official release dedicated to the Beach Boys' Smile. It compiled session highlights, outtakes, and a reconstructed version of the album modeled after Wilson's 2004 version. Contributors included longtime Beach Boys fan community members such as Priore and Reum, who provided essays and consultation. The set received widespread critical acclaim, earned a ranking on Rolling Stone's 2012 "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list, and won Best Historical Album at the 55th Grammy Awards.
Following its shelving, Smile gradually attained a cult following within the American underground music scene despite its incomplete state. In Courrier's words, the project "became oddly influential. While functioning mostly as a rumor, when some bootlegged tracks confirmed its existence, Smile became a catalyst for records that followed in its wake." It served as a foundational influence on indie rock, art-driven post-punk, acts such as Pere Ubu, XTC, R.E.M., and the Pixies, and bands tagged as "chamber pop". In Priore's estimation, the "alternate-rock" generation began embracing Smile after the early 1990s, adding that his book about the album had elicited interest from musicians including XTC, Apples in Stereo, and George Harrison. In 2002, journalist Rob Chapman remarked that he had "yet to meet an ambient or electronica artist who doesn't have a soundfile full of Smile bytes".
The Elephant 6 Recording Company, a collective of bands that includes Apples in Stereo, the Olivia Tremor Control, Neutral Milk Hotel, Beulah, Elf Power, and of Montreal, was founded through a mutual admiration of 1960s pop music, especially Smile, which they regarded as the epoch's "Holy Grail". Will Cullen Hart appreciated "the idea of the sections, each of them being a colorful world within itself. [Wilson's] stuff could be so cinematic and then he could just drop down to a toy piano going plink, plink, plink and then, when you least expect it, it can fly back into a million gorgeous voices." According to Kevin Barnes, of Montreal's album Coquelicot Asleep in the Poppies: A Variety of Whimsical Verse (2001) was inspired in part by the "screwball" quality of Smile.
Released exclusively in Japan, the 1998 tribute album Smiling Pets featured cover versions of Pet Sounds and Smile tracks by artists such as the Olivia Tremor Control, Jim O'Rourke, and Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore. Trey Spruance, who had contributed a rendition of "Good Vibrations", said that Smile "definitely" influenced the Mr. Bungle album California (1999), "especially when it comes to the Faustian scale of it." The cover artwork for Velvet Crush's Teenage Symphonies to God (1994) was based on the Smile cover. Weird Al Yankovic created a parody song, "Pancreas", for his 2006 album Straight Outta Lynwood.
Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine said that his band's 2013 album MBV was inspired by the modular approach of Smile. Priore believed that Smile influence was apparent on albums such as XTC's Oranges & Lemons (1989), the High Llamas' Gideon Gaye (1994) and Hawaii (1996), the Flaming Lips' The Soft Bulletin (1999), Mercury Rev's All Is Dream (2001), the Apples in Stereo's Her Wallpaper Reverie (1999), Heavy Blinkers' 2000 eponymous LP, and the Thrills' So Much for the City (2003).
With Smile, Wilson foresaw editing techniques that were not standard practice until the advent of digital audio workstations. Similar structural ambitions would later emerge in extended rock suites like Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" (1975) and 10cc's "Une nuit a Paris" (1975). Carter identifies the album's formal complexity, varied instrumentation, and lyrical themes as anticipating progressive rock developments of the late 1960s and early 1970s; thematically, its shift from urban materialism toward natural imagery prefigured the Americana genre later exemplified by the Band's Music from Big Pink (1968). Williams characterized Wilson as one of the earliest pioneers of sampling, while Priore likened his manipulation of sound effects to techniques later employed by Pink Floyd on The Dark Side of the Moon (1973). The album cover—considered to be among the most "legendary" in rock music, according to Priore—would have been one of the earliest instances of a popular music group featuring original commissioned artwork.
In his 2014-published 33⅓ book about the album, Luis Sanchez regarded Smile as a "radical" extension of Pet Sounds' "glow and sui generis vision", marked by "a kind of directness that is unlike anything else in popular music". Ed Masley of AZ Central believed that while the album diverged sonically from contemporaneous psychedelic works, it "clearly" reflected an adventurous ethos "that would have been unthinkable just two years earlier." Stylus magazine contributor Ed Howard suggested that its "arty experimentation", "exotic, often surprising arrangements", and "twisting wordplay" had "arguably" exceeded the innovative scope of the Beatles' concurrent output. A contributor for Freaky Trigger, in 1999, characterized Smile as "astoundingly original" and a reflection of an unrealized trajectory in rock history, though not "the best album ever."
Philip Lambert, who authored book-length analyses on the music of Wilson and Charles Ives, described Smile as "a landmark artwork that could have captured the spirit of a generation"; had Wilson realized his ambitions, he would have effectively created "a whole new genre of popular music". NewMusicBox, while dedicated to contemporary non-commercial music, highlighted Smile in 2011 due to its standing as "an album recorded more than 45 years ago by one of the biggest (and most financially lucrative) musical acts of all time". Reviewer Frank Oteri wrote that Wilson's mid-1960s experimentation aligned with broader genre-blurring trends, yet appeared less radical than contemporaneous efforts. He concluded that the album's legacy remained overshadowed by the Beach Boys' enduring image as a "light-hearted party band" associated with earlier hits, limiting its recognition alongside innovators like Ives or John Coltrane, though it "would have, could have, and should have" surpassed the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper as the era's defining artistic breakthrough.
Following its non-release, Smile became the subject of widespread speculation and gained status as the most "legendary" unreleased album in popular music. Numerous journalists and associates present at the sessions contributed chiefly to this stature, especially Siegel, whose October 1967 memoir "Goodbye Surfing, Hello God!", published in the magazine Cheetah, initiated the mythos surrounding the album. A published conversation between Anderle and Williams, serialized in Crawdaddy in 1968, served as another early source of information. Flory attributed Siegel's memoir with providing rock audiences a framework to perceive Wilson as "hip" and venerating Smile as an artifact of that ethos, heightening public interest. Accounts from Anderle and others, occasionally anonymous, were further disseminated in a 1971 Rolling Stone feature by Nolan and Leaf's 1978 biography The Beach Boys and the California Myth. Music critics had increasingly engaged with its mythology by the 1970s. Dave Marsh, in 1983, criticized this phenomenon as "an exercise in myth-mongering almost unparalleled in show business", arguing that Wilson's artistic reputation had been inflated through inaccessible work.
Smile is one of the most extensively analyzed and debated unreleased works in music history. Numerous interpretations exist regarding the album's hypothetical final form, while unresolved questions linger about Wilson's provisional track listings and the abundance of incomplete session material. Journalist Bill Holdship remarked in 1995 that some Los Angeles residents he had encountered were "as obsessed with Smile the same way people are obsessed with the Kennedy assassination." By the late 1990s, online fan communities produced numerous essays analyzing the work, followed by dedicated book-length studies in subsequent years. Chapman said the album had become "the ultimate metaphor for pop's golden age; that moment when everything seemed possible, when heaven seemed reachable". The 2007 comedy film Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story contained a segment inspired by the Smile saga, in which the protagonist is consumed with recording his "masterpiece" (titled "Black Sheep") before suffering a mental breakdown. Parks was commissioned to write the parody song.
Anderle, in 1997, acknowledged his role in shaping the album's mythos, stating, "I guess we all do that. We all extend the story, don't we? We all extend the moment. It's satisfying. But what a burden for Brian [...]" Responding to Anderle's statement, Siegel accused him of perpetuating "falsehoods" and countered, "Brian was a genius and, if anything, I underestimated him. [...] I wasn't aware of him as a myth. I just wrote down what I saw and heard." After revisiting the recordings for the first time in 16 years, Williams reassessed his stance, arguing that separating the album from its "myth", which he and Anderle "certainly helped create", revealed "the work of someone very stoned". While acknowledging moments of "great sensitivity and deep feeling", he characterized the recordings as "a sort of three-ring circus of flashy musical ideas and avant-garde entertainment", contrasting it with the cohesive sincerity of Pet Sounds.
Sanchez felt the myth, sustained by "writers and cultists [...] rehashing hyperbole and rumor", had since lost its power to "lure and convince", though it overshadowed and "nearly consumed the artist and the music it was about." While acknowledging Wilson's musical achievements, Love wrote in his 2016 memoir, "it speaks to the self-absorption of Brian's hagiographers and sycophants who view Smile only as a musical event. Not me. The album is a reminder of a painful time in the history of our band and our family. I cannot separate the music from the man, and I cannot separate the man from the physical and emotional turmoil that befell him."
Many commentators have suggested that the album's release could have redefined the Beach Boys' artistic trajectory and reinforced their status as rock innovators. Author Allan Moore proposed that the album might have transformed the concept album format through recurring musical motifs, "a form frankly far more sophisticated than any of its contemporaries." David Howard, in his 2004 book Sonic Alchemy, stated that a completed version would likely be recognized as a landmark pop statement rather than "an infamous, unfortunate footnote." Ed Howard posited in 2003 that the work had potential to expand creative boundaries for the group and popular music, calling its obscurity "the saddest fact in all of music."
Spencer Owen suggested in Pitchfork that Smile might have shifted popular music's historical trajectory, reducing the Beatles' dominant cultural stature. Brian Boyd of The Irish Times rued that while Wilson's rivalry with the Beatles had contributed to the project's collapse, its release might have delayed the Beatles' dissolution due to mutual artistic competition.
Given the runtime constraints of vinyl discs, much of the Smile material would likely have been excluded. According to Mark Linett, while double albums by artists like Frank Zappa and Bob Dylan emerged contemporaneously, no plans existed for a multi-disc Smile release in 1966 or 1967. Mojo's Jim Irvin challenged assumptions of the album's hypothetical perfection, positing it might have been received as an extended, disjointed work akin to a "forty-minute 'Heroes and Villains' with some stuff about vegetables in the middle", potentially facing a reception similar to Parks' Song Cycle.
Asked in a 1987 interview whether Smile would have topped his rivals' subsequent release, Wilson replied: "No. It wouldn't have come close. Sgt. Pepper would have kicked our ass." Later, he claimed that his work would have been "too advanced" for 1967 audiences. Writing in his book about Sgt. Pepper, Clinton Heylin criticized Parks' lyrics as "little more than columns of non sequiturs from a man who once swallowed a thesaurus" and decreed that much of the surviving Smile recordings "confirm that Wilson was nowhere near completing an album to rival Revolver let alone its psychedelic successor." In the opinion of Kicks co-editor Billy Miller, "nobody would have got too jazzed over electricity being invented for the second time" had Smile followed the release of Sgt. Pepper, "And it's a damn shame, too".
Reviewing the available bootlegs and officially released tracks for AllMusic, Richie Unterberger said that "numerous exquisitely beautiful passages, great ensemble singing, and brilliant orchestral pop instrumentation" were in circulation, yet "the fact is that Wilson somehow lacked the discipline needed to combine them into a pop masterpiece that was both brilliant and commercial." Former Record Collector editor Peter Doggett states that Smile would most likely have had the same reception as that afforded Song Cycle – namely, critical acclaim but a commercial disaster. He suggested that while the release "would surely have set the Beatles back for months while they considered a suitable reply", it lacked the mainstream appeal of contemporaneous acts like the Doors, Love, or Jefferson Airplane, potentially leaving Wilson disillusioned and the Beach Boys without unreleased material to bolster later albums.
The definitive structure and content of Smile remain unresolved, with debate persisting over its classification as a conventional album. Anderle felt that the album should be viewed as a creative period, encompassing Pet Sounds and "Good Vibrations", rather than a standalone work. Heiser favored "sonic menagerie", a term coined by Smile Sessions co-producer Dennis Wolfe in the compilation's liner notes. While Priore argued that Smile was largely complete by 1967, Ed Howard countered that the album was "nowhere near finished", arguing that any reconstruction would rely on speculation, as Wilson himself lacked a consistent vision for the project. Further complicating efforts to reconstruct a completed album is the permanent loss of many session tapes and trial mixes that would have illuminated Wilson's original creative intent.
Following BWPS, critics widely treated the original project as conclusively finished. Toop characterized attempts to finalize the album as "misguided", describing Smile instead as a "labyrinth" existing within a conceptual "memory house" where Wilson invited collaborators to manifest its components. Freaky Trigger echoed this perspective, arguing that the work lacks a definitive track sequence or completion due to its modular, organic structure, which inherently resists definitive framing. Further to its fragmented legacy and film-like editing process, Toop likened the editorial challenges to unfinished cinematic endeavors by Orson Welles, Erich von Stroheim, and Sergei Eisenstein. Howard similarly suggested the material functions most effectively as an archival document of the recording process, akin to a film reel presenting multiple iterations without a singular authoritative version. Shawn Setaro of Forbes drew parallels with Kanye West's 2016 album The Life of Pablo, a work marketed as perpetually unfinished.
Academic Larry Starr opined that the pursuit of a definitive Smile version decades after Wilson halted the project was "always chemerical". He proposed that the album's "apparent malleability" might reflect its forward-thinking nature, positing that such adaptability exemplified its prescient nature. In a 2004 dialogue with Wilson, Parks speculated their work on Smile could have unintentionally pioneered the concept of an interactive album.
Adapted from The Smile Sessions liner notes and Andrew Doe's Bellagio 10542 online compendium.
Key
All tracks written by Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks, except where noted.
Contemporary articles
Web articles
Journals
Books