The Smile Sessions


The Smile Sessions is a compilation album and box set recorded by American rock band the Beach Boys, released on October 31, 2011 by Capitol Records. The set focuses on abandoned recording sessions from their unfinished 1966–67 album Smile which would have followed the group's 11th studio album Pet Sounds. It features comprehensive session highlights and outtakes, and the first 19 tracks comprise an approximation of what the completed album might have sounded like.
The compilation is the first and only package devoted to the 1960s Smile recordings originally produced by Brian Wilson, arriving after decades of public anticipation and numerous false starts. The project was led primarily by audio engineers Alan Boyd, Mark Linett, and Capitol A&R director Dennis Wolfe, with Wilson acting as a remote supervisor, assisting the engineers with some mixing decisions. Previously, Wilson had completed a solo album based on Smile in 2004, which Boyd, Linett, and Wolfe used as a blueprint for The Smile Sessions. Wilson later stated that, while the compilation is "not a far cry" from his original vision, he prefers his 2004 version. It is preceded by the similar box set The Pet Sounds Sessions.
The Smile Sessions received virtually unanimous critical acclaim upon release. It was ranked number 381 in the Rolling Stone 2012 reissue of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list, and won the Grammy Award for Best Historical Album at the 2013 Grammy Awards. The Los Angeles Times encouraged its inclusion in "every library of American recording history," deeming it an essential learning tool for university composition departments, music professors, budding recording engineers, and composers. A spiritual successor, 1967 – Sunshine Tomorrow, followed in 2017.

Background

Work on what would have been the original Beach Boys version of Smile began in 1966, following the release of their album Pet Sounds, and based on the complex engineering methods of their single "Good Vibrations". After Wilson abandoned the project, sporadic attempts would be made over the next few decades to either finish or release the album as it was. During this time, recordings from the sessions had surfaced in underground trading circles and became a focal point for bootleg recording makers and collectors.
Plans for a Smile archival release go back to at least early 1980s, when it was proposed that the album be issued in some form by Wilson or compilers. In his 1978 biography The Beach Boys and the California Myth, David Leaf wrote that Smile "can never be completed as Brian intended, so a compromise solution might be to release the surviving tapes and outtakes in a series of records called The Smile Sessions Elvis' Sun Sessions..." In 1993, an official release of some archival Smile material was included on the box set . In 1997, Capitol Records issued The Pet Sounds Sessions, which featured an assortment of alternate mixes and highlights of the Pet Sounds recording sessions spread over four CDs. This caused speculation that an official Smile release was imminent, but it never materialized.
Though certain fragments of the original Smile recording sessions leaked via studio albums, compilations and bootlegs, a comprehensive and official package was never compiled by Capitol Records. This was due to both the logistics in organizing the hundreds of convoluted song components and out of respect for Wilson who was once deeply disturbed by some of the recordings and who associated the album with personal failure. In 2004, Wilson reconciled with the project and released a newly-recorded interpretation of the source material via the solo album Brian Wilson Presents Smile.
Work on The Smile Sessions began in mid-2010 before the project was officially greenlit. On February 3, 2011, Al Jardine unexpectedly divulged to former Examiner.com journalist Jeremy Roberts that "Capitol Records plans to issue a Beach Boys version of Smile sometime this summer to begin the celebration of the Beach Boys’ 50th anniversary. Smile is the Holy Grail for Beach Boys’ fans, so it will be good." Jardine also mentioned that the surviving Beach Boys "didn't do any new recording. I'm happy to see it finally come out. Brian’s changed his mind about releasing the material, but it was inevitable, wasn’t it?" The release was confirmed by Capitol Records on March 11, with the acknowledgement that an official release was planned for later in 2011.

Reconstruction

The first nineteen tracks of The Smile Sessions assembles the Smile album as it may have sounded in the 1960s while loosely following the template spelled by Brian Wilson's 2004 interpretation. Wilson himself made a few suggestions to the compilation's sequencing after it was presented to him by the compilers Mark Linett, Alan Boyd and Dennis Wolfe. Brian has stated that the exact running order was not decided in 1967 and that the original Smile would have been "less uplifting" than his 2004 version. Although the track listing to The Smile Sessions is different from what it would have been on the original 1967 Smile album, interviews with Linett clarified that the track listing would "present the whole piece as close to it as was envisioned, or as is envisioned, as possible... with input from Brian as from everybody else".
When asked whether Linett and Boyd had arrived at what he had envisioned during the 1960s, Brian responded: "Somewhat, yeah. To some degree. It's not a far cry from what I thought it would be." He added that he preferred his 2004 version, and that the sound of The Smile Sessions disappointed him because of its unfinished state. Linett argued that The Smile Sessions may be more accurate to Brian's vision than if he had completed the album in 1967, surmising that "he would have been happier if he had had a bigger canvas to present this," referencing the overwhelming amount of material that would have had to have been condensed into a two-sided vinyl LP, and Brian's ambition to "expand the boundaries of what a pop record was beyond what anybody was doing at the time."

Non-''Smile'' tracks

Not all of the tracks feature material recorded solely in the February 1966 through May 1967 timespan in which Smile was being worked on. In reference to including sessions from Smiley Smile, Linett stated, "Of course there’s things that some people think – should Smiley Smile sessions be there – "Can't Wait Too Long", we get into a very fuzzy area." Some elements of the final product were recorded by the Beach Boys at later dates or for other purposes:
The reconstruction is largely mixed in single-channel mono due to missing stems and as a nod to Wilson's producing methods at the time. Digital manipulation was used; most prominently on "Surf's Up", in which the instrumental track is mashed up and synced with the vocal stem from an alternate performance of the song.

Release

After numerous delays, The Smile Sessions was released online via iTunes on October 31, 2011, and the next day on CD, vinyl and through other online services via digital download. The compilation was released in an array of physical format releases, including a single CD release, a double LP release, a deluxe 2-CD package, as well as a limited edition deluxe box set composed of 5 CDs, 2 LPs, 2 singles on 7" vinyl records, a poster and a 60-page booklet that features high quality photographs, essays and liner notes on the reconstruction process.
The crowdsourcing film studio Tongal was used to create the music videos for The Smile Sessions, where fans in 2011 could submit video concepts, which were voted on and ultimately selected by other fans for two videos.

Reception

The Smile Sessions was met with universal acclaim. It was named the best reissue of 2011 by Rolling Stone magazine, while The Wire magazine placed it fifth in its annual critics' poll of the top releases of the year. The box set version of the album won the Best Historical Album award at the 2013 Grammy Awards.
Pitchfork Media gave the album a perfect score and had particularly high praise of "Surf's Up" stating, "To my ears, the song is a high-water mark of pop songwriting, positively haunting with its melodic twists and turns. And Brian's vocal performances, with wild leaps into the upper reaches of his falsetto, give the track an almost unbearable poignancy." PopMatters claimed "There is something holy in the tapestry of the album" and when reflecting on the drama surrounding the album's history stated "Contemporary bands could certainly stand to realize that all the band myths and stories in the world don’t matter much if you can't bring the songs, and no one brought the songs like Brian Wilson." The Los Angeles Times encouraged its inclusion in "every library of American recording history," suggesting, "university composition departments, music professors, budding recording engineers and composers should study it."
Musicians including Henry Rollins have given enormous praise to the compiled recordings, calling it "even better than advertised... Sonically, the album is one of the best things you are likely to hear in all of your life. There are moments on SMiLE that are so astonishingly good you might find yourself just staring at your speakers in unguarded wonder, as I have."

Accolades

Track listing

''Smile'' (tracks 1–19 all editions)

Bonus tracks

2-CD deluxe edition

Vinyl edition

Box set edition

Bonus 7" records
All tracks written by Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks.

Personnel

Recording

The Beach Boys
Additional musicians