One extended sequence of “The Beach Boys” focuses on the production of “SMiLE,” the band’s hotly-anticipated follow-up to “Pet Sounds” that would result in one of the music’s most legendary pieces of lost media. Brian Wilson was determined to create his next magnum opus, but the band’s increasing worries about mainstream viability, not to mention Wilson’s deteriorating mental health, led to Wilson scrapping the project in 1967 and truncating it into the band’s cult classic, “Smiley Smile.”
Disney’s documentary leaves it at that, but the album has seen the light of day in numerous different forms since then. It became one of the most commonly bootlegged albums online, although the band would also rework a few tracks into subsequent albums and release 30 minutes of material from “SMiLE” on their “Good Vibrations” box set in 1993. Then, in 2004, Wilson helped arrange a concert version of the album, dubbed “Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE,” which he released as a solo album to great acclaim. However, Wilson said this version of the record is intentionally “much different” than his original vision (via Ear Candy).
Our closest reconstruction came in 2011 with “The Smile Sessions,” one of many Beach Boys restorations and expansions produced by their longtime engineer, Mark Linett, and archive manager, Alan Boyd. The album was sourced from the original ’60s recordings and used Wilson’s 2004 solo album as a guideline. It, too, received immense praise upon release, and even won a Grammy for Best Historical Album in 2013.
