Smiley Smile

Smiley Smile is the 12th studio album by American rock band the Beach Boys, released on September 18, 1967.

The album was released in the place of the long-awaited Smile. What caused confusion between fans and critics, that were waiting Smile's release, that was over-hyped by their record label, Capitol Records and delayed several times. It was the first bedroom pop / lo-fi album by them reaching #9 in UK charts and #41 in US charts.

Recordings
The album sessions started in June 1967, with most of the songs being recorded at Brian Wilson's home studio in Bel Air, using the Good Vibrations' recording method. Only portions of the backing track for "Heroes and Villains" (recorded October 1966) and the coda for "Vegetables" (recorded April 1967) were used for Smiley Smile.

Most of the Smile songs presented on Smiley Smile are scaled down arrangements,

David Anderle thought 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 [long-discussed] humor album."

While Brian produced most of the album, all of The Beach Boys were credited as producers."Brian acknowledged: 'We had done about six months work on another thing, but we jumped and ended up doing the entire thing here at the house with an entirely different mood and approach than what we originally started out with.'"In most of the songs of Smiley Smile, the instruments were played by the Beach Boys' themselves, instead of session musicians.

Ahead of its time?
With the years, Smiley Smile getting a big cult following, with it's influences being shown in ambient music and inspiration for artists such as Pete Townshend of the Who,  Robbie Robertson of the Band, and XTC's Andy Partridge and is often cited for having positive effects during an LSD comedown."Priore reflected: 'Actually, the [only] reason most people didn't care for Smiley Smile is that it came out in place of Smile.' Richie Unterberger concurred, rating the album four out of five stars, and suggesting that media-hype of the collapsed Smile project was to blame for Smiley Smile 's lackluster reception in the United States. He called it a 'rather nifty, if rather slight, effort that's plenty weird'."In his book about psychedelic music, author Jim DeRogatis referred to Smiley Smile as a work of the "ultimate psychedelic rock library"

Singles
Heroes and Villains

Good Vibrations

Gettin' Hungry

Track Listing
Side One: Side Two
 * 1) Heroes and Villains - Brian Wilson / Van Dyke Parks
 * 2) Vegetables - Wilson / Parks
 * 3) Fall Breaks and Back to Winter - Wilson
 * 4) She's Going Bald - Wilson / Mike Love / Parks
 * 5) Little Pad - Wilson
 * 1) Good Vibrations - Wilson / Love
 * 2) With Me Tonight - Wilson
 * 3) Wind Chimes - Wilson
 * 4) Gettin' Hungry - Wilson / Love
 * 5) Wonderful - Wilson / Parks
 * 6) Whistle In - Wilson