Claim: Brian Wilson was a member of a band.

Smile -LRB- stylized as SMiLE -RRB- was a projected album by American rock band the Beach Boys intended to follow their 11th studio album , Pet Sounds -LRB- 1966 -RRB- . After bandleader Brian Wilson abandoned large portions of music recorded over a ten-month period , the band substituted its release with Smiley Smile -LRB- 1967 -RRB- , an album containing stripped-down remakes of some Smile material . Some of the original Smile tracks eventually found their way onto subsequent Beach Boys ' studio and compilation albums . As more fans learned of the project 's origins , details of its recordings acquired considerable mystique , and it was later acknowledged as the most legendary unreleased album in the history of popular music .   Working with lyricist Van Dyke Parks , Smile was composed as a multi-thematic concept album , existing today in its unfinished and fragmented state as an unordered series of abstract musical vignettes . Its genesis came during the recording of Pet Sounds , when Wilson began recording a new single , `` Good Vibrations '' . The track was created by an unprecedented recording technique : over 90 hours of tape was recorded , spliced , and reduced into a three-minute pop song . It quickly became the band 's biggest international hit yet ; Smile was to be produced in a similar fashion . Wilson touted the album as `` a teenage symphony to God '' , incorporating a range of music styles including psychedelic , doo-wop , barbershop singing , ragtime , yodeling , early American folk , classical music , and avant-garde explorations into noise and musical acoustics . Its projected singles were `` Heroes and Villains '' , a Western musical comedy , and `` Vega-Tables '' , a satire of physical fitness .   The album 's collapse has been attributed to several personal , technical , and legal issues which surrounded its making . The majority of its backing tracks were completed between August and December 1966 . A deadline set for January 1967 was missed , and Parks soon distanced himself from the project . In June , the Beach Boys reconvened at Brian 's makeshift home studio to record Smiley Smile . Many attempts were then made to complete the original Smile , most of which were derailed by Wilson , who became psychologically traumatized by the album . It was in the 1980s when bootlegged tracks from Smile began circulating widely among record collectors , encouraging others to assemble their own versions using what surviving recordings were available . The potential of what Smile could have been inspired many musicians , particularly those in indie rock , while the album 's saga became a touchstone for chamber pop and the more art-inclined sectors of post-punk .   As a solo artist , Wilson reinterpreted the project for concert performances in 2004 , and then followed up with the studio album Brian Wilson Presents Smile . Although he had ostensibly completed the work , Wilson clarified that his 2004 arrangement differed substantially from how he had first conceptualized the album during the 1960s . On October 31 , 2011 , The Smile Sessions was released containing an approximation of what the Beach Boys ' completed Smile might have sounded like based on the structure of Brian Wilson Presents Smile . It received universal acclaim . In 2012 , the compilation was ranked number 381 in Rolling Stone 's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list . In 2013 , it won the Best Historical Album award at the 55th Grammy Awards .