Smiley Smile
Smiley Smile is the 12th studio album by the American rock band the Beach Boys, released on September 18, 1967. Conceived as a simpler and more relaxed version of their unfinished Smile album, Smiley Smile is distinguished for its homespun arrangements, "stoned" aesthetic, and lo-fi production. Critics and fans generally received the album and its lead single, "Heroes and Villains", with confusion and disappointment. The album reached number 9 on UK record charts, but sold poorly in the U.S., peaking at number 41—the band's lowest chart placement to that point.
Not to be confused with Smile (The Beach Boys album).Smiley Smile
September 18, 1967
February 17, 1966 – July 14, 1967
- Beach Boys (Los Angeles)
- Wally Heider
- Western
- Columbia
- Sound Recorders (Hollywood)
27:36
The Beach Boys
Following principal songwriter Brian Wilson's declaration that most of the original Smile tapes would be abandoned, the majority of the recording sessions lasted for six weeks at his makeshift home studio using radio broadcasting equipment, a detuned piano, electronic bass, melodica, found objects for percussion, and a Baldwin theater organ. The unconventional recording process juxtaposed an experimental party-like atmosphere with short pieces of music edited together in a disjointed manner, combining the engineering methods of "Good Vibrations" (1966) with the loose feeling of Beach Boys' Party! (1965). Despite leading these sessions, Wilson deliberately credited the album's production to the group collectively for the first time.
From late 1966 to mid-1967, Smile had been repeatedly delayed while the Beach Boys were subject to a considerable level of media hype proclaiming Wilson to be a "genius". After settling payment disputes with Capitol Records, Smiley Smile was distributed in collaboration with Brother Records, the band's new self-owned record company. A second single, "Gettin' Hungry", was credited to Wilson and Mike Love and failed to chart. Smile was left incomplete as the band immediately moved onto the recording of Lei'd in Hawaii, an unfinished live album featuring performances in the style of Smiley Smile, and Wild Honey, released in December 1967.
Smiley Smile has since become a critical and cult favorite, influencing the development of the lo-fi, ambient, and bedroom pop genres. It is often regarded as one of the finest chill-out albums for having positive effects on listeners experiencing an LSD comedown,[10] a usage adopted by at least one drug clinic.[11] In 1974, it was ranked number 64 in NME's list of the greatest albums of all time. Outtakes and session highlights from the album were included on the compilations The Smile Sessions (2011) and 1967 – Sunshine Tomorrow (2017).
Style and content[edit]
Modular approach and recording atmosphere[edit]
Since the recording of "Good Vibrations" in 1966, Wilson had established a new method of operation. Instead of working on whole songs with clear large-scale syntactical structures, Wilson limited himself to recording short interchangeable fragments (or "modules"). Through the method of tape splicing, each fragment could then be assembled into a linear sequence, allowing any number of larger structures and divergent moods to be produced at a later time. Smiley Smile continued this approach.[42] The album also continued Brian's exploration of "party tracks"—a form of music which includes the sounds of people shouting and making noises, as if at a party.[43][nb 4] Brian had enacted this approach with Beach Boys' Party! in 1965,[43] thereby mixing that record's style with the modular composition method he devised for "Good Vibrations".[44]
Initial reviews[edit]
In the description of journalist Nick Kent, Smiley Smile "appeared like the single most underwhelming musical statement of the sixties".[10] It was a "major disappointment" for fans, many of whom had expected a work similar to Pet Sounds and the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper.[102] According to writer Scott Schinder, the LP was released to "general incomprehension. While Smile may have divided the Beach Boys' fans had it been released, Smiley Smile merely baffled them."[51] Anderle said that whatever new fans the group had brought with Pet Sounds were "immediately lost with the release of 'Heroes of Villains,' then with the album [Smiley Smile]."[103] Biographer Keith Badman writes that the music press responded by "effectively blacklisting the band, refusing to review their latest records, or reviewing them long after they have been released."[63]
"Undoubtedly the worst album ever released by The Beach Boys", Melody Maker wrote. "Prestige has been seriously damaged."[63] A review in Hit Parader praised the album for "probably [having] more a cappella harmony than on any album since the fall of the singing-group era in the late 1950s", but reserved that they "still like Pet Sounds better".[104][nb 12] NME wrote, "By the standards which this group has set itself, it's more than a grade disappointing."[107] Hi Fidelity said: "... they are making the psychedelic route ... perhaps in the unforgettable city of Fresno. Until they reach the San Francisco Bay Bridge or return to the shores of Malibu ... their work can only receive partial approval."[108]
More favorably, Record Mirror's Wesley Laine predicted that Smiley Smile would "probably go to the top of the LP charts". He felt that it contained better songs "on the whole" than Pet Sounds, as well as "extremely clever and insiduous ... production and arrangements [that] fall into the current psychedelic bag without being blatantly acidy."[109] The Milwaukee Sentinel praised the LP as "probably the most valuable contribution to rock since the Beatles Revolver" and for being unlike anything the Beatles had done.[108] Cheetah gave the album a rave review, observing that "the mood is rather childlike (not childish)—the kind of innocence that shows on the album cover, with its Rousseau-like animals and forest, and the smoke from the cabin chimney spelling out the title. ... The expression that emerges from this music is very strange: it's a very personal mood."[32][nb 13] New York Times journalist Richard Goldstein rued that "the album is a memorable, if disjointed experience, and a truly religious one as well. One must decide for oneself what the sermon is worth listening for."[110][nb 14] In his May 1968 column in Esquire, Robert Christgau praised the minimalism of Smiley Smile, characterizing the record as "slight" and calling the deliberately uncommercial sound of the album "unique and almost perfect".[112]
Controversy involving whether the band was to be taken as a serious rock group followed them into the next year.[113] On December 14, 1967, Rolling Stone editor and co-founder Jann Wenner printed an influential article that denounced Wilson's "genius" label, which he called a "promotional shuck", and the Beach Boys themselves, which he called "one prominent example of a group that has gotten hung up on trying to catch The Beatles". He wrote that "for some reason, [Smiley Smile] just doesn't make it ... [the songs] just don't move you. Other than displaying Brian Wilson's virtuosity for production, they are pointless."[114] In February 1968, a Rolling Stone reviewer referred to the album as a "disaster" and an "abortive attempt to match the talents of Lennon and McCartney."[115]
Per David Leaf,[68] as well as from band sessionographer Craig Slowinski, including full credits for "Good Vibrations" and "Heroes and Villains" and partial credits for "Vegetables."[153] The credits for "Good Vibrations" are adapted from Slowinski's liner notes from The Smile Sessions box set,[154] as well as the website Bellagio 10452, maintained by music historian Andrew G. Doe.[155]
The Beach Boys
Technical staff