In an interview with Examiner.com last week, Al Jardine let slip news that pop fans have been waiting to hear for over four decades. According to the guitarist, Capitol Records is planning to release The Beach Boys’ lost masterpiece, Smile, this summer. The album, which was intended to be the follow-up to the group’s magnum opus, Pet Sounds, was scuttled in late 1966 for a variety of reasons and has never been released to the public in its entirety. In 2004, Brian Wilson rerecorded the material as Brian Wilson Presents Smile, winning three Grammy nominations for his efforts. But until now, The Beach Boys’ version has remained on the shelf. Jardine, though, says that is all about to change.
“Capitol Records plans to issue a Beach Boys version of Smile sometime this summer to begin the celebration of The Beach Boys’ anniversary,” he said. “Smile is the Holy Grail for Beach Boys’ fans, so it will be good.”
He continued, “I don’t have many details on it, although we 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?”
this would be great to have happen. Although as a friend of mine has said, Capital Records have been saying they were going to release these for decades. A bit like Chinese Democracy, but much longer.
If they do actually do come out, it'll be fun to hear them this way (compared to the bootlegs), and compare them to Brian Wilson's Smile from 2004.
