Brian Wilson’s 2004 Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE was a newly arranged, completed work—not the release of a finished 1960s Beach Boys album. Wilson said it was “much different” from his original intent: more progressive, happier and more uplifting. He and arranger Darian Sahanaja shaped its connected sequence for the 2004 version, while Wilson’s original collaborator Van Dyke Parks returned to the project.
Why the original Smile remained unfinished
Wilson conceived Smile as a major artistic follow-up to Pet Sounds. The 1960s project generated recordings and musical fragments but was abandoned before an album was released. It should not be confused with either Wilson’s completed 2004 presentation or the later archival collection.
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Smile | $47.15 | Buy on Amazon |
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Smiley Smile/Wild Honey | $13.84 | Buy on Amazon |
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Classics: Selected by Brian Wilson | $13.65 | Buy on Amazon |
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Smile by Brian Wilson (2004-01-01) | $79.98 | Buy on Amazon |
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![The Smile Sessions [2 CD]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51x0bJgd9YL._SL160_.jpg)
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The Smile Sessions [2 CD] | $58.36 | Buy on Amazon |
A Showtime announcement dated August 17, 2004, said recording had halted in 1967 after nearly a year of work, citing internal and external conflict and Wilson’s growing depression. That is the contemporary account given in the announcement, not a complete or uncontested explanation of why the project stopped. In a later CNN interview, Mike Love rejected the suggestion that he caused the abandonment and said he had participated in the sessions, while acknowledging disagreements over some lyrics.
Wilson returned to the material in 2004
Wilson revived the project with Parks, his original collaborator. The work was presented publicly for the first time as a full-album performance by Wilson and his ten-piece band at London’s Royal Festival Hall on February 20, 2004, according to Showtime’s announcement. The concert came before the studio album.
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Wilson described the new version’s relationship to the earlier idea in an October 2004 interview with Ear Candy Magazine: “Much different, much different. Much more progressive, much happier, much more uplifting.” He said the original concept was a two-movement rock opera, while a third movement was added for the 2004 version.
In an interview with The A.V. Club, Wilson described starting over while listening to the 1967 tapes. He said the new third movement drew on “blue Hawaii” and paradise, and characterized the result as a three-part rock opera. He also recalled that drug use had become a bad association with the earlier period; the 2004 project proceeded as a new undertaking rather than an attempt to recreate that time. Asked how he felt after finishing the album, he said, “It is such a relief to have finished up the album.”
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How the 2004 album was assembled
Creating continuity from musical pieces
Wilson said he and Sahanaja created the track-to-track flow for the 2004 album with computers and Pro Tools. “That was because of Darian Sahanaja and me. We sequenced it together with computers and Pro-Tools, modern instruments,” he told Ear Candy. Wilson estimated that they put the sequence together in about two weeks. This connected album presentation was a 2004 decision; the available account does not establish that the same sequence had existed in the 1960s.
Documentary director David Leaf’s retrospective account adds that Sahanaja helped map the fragments using modern technology as the live performance was reconstructed, and that the band returned to the studio afterward. Leaf also says Parks helped finish instrumental sections that still needed lyrics. That is Leaf’s account of the reconstruction, alongside Wilson’s own description of Parks’s role.
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Wilson and Parks’s creative roles
In the Ear Candy interview, Wilson credited Parks with the original ideas and lyrics, saying, “He’s the one who came up with the original ideas, and I just helped. I followed him.” Asked whether Parks composed music, Wilson answered no. Leaf’s account describes Parks contributing to the completion of sections that needed lyrics, a distinct part of the later reconstruction process.
Three different things called Smile
| Release or project | What it is | How to understand it |
|---|---|---|
| 1960s Smile | Unfinished project and recordings; no completed album was released at the time. | The abandoned work, not a definitive original album. |
| Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE (2004) | Wilson’s newly arranged and completed version, presented in concert in London before the studio album. | A distinct creative realization, with a three-part structure and linked sequence assembled for this version. |
| The Smile Sessions (2011) | An archival release of unfinished material and related footage. | A document of the earlier project, separate from Wilson’s 2004 completed presentation. |
CNN’s September 14, 2012 interview transcript discusses Wilson reviewing mixes for the 2011 box set and records the disagreement over the original cancellation. The two later releases answer different listening questions: the 2004 album presents Wilson’s completed arrangement, while the 2011 collection documents material from the unfinished project. The available accounts do not establish either as the definitive version of Smile.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What Wilson said Smile meant to him
In the Showtime announcement, Wilson called Smile “the most important piece of music that I ever composed” and said he was thrilled that Showtime would let him tell its story in a film. Showtime president Robert Greenblatt, speaking in the same announcement, called it “among history’s great unfinished works.” Those statements frame both the personal importance of the project to Wilson and the reason its unfinished status became part of its public story.
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- Record Label: EMI
- Catalog #: 0276632
- Country of release: NLD
- Year of Release: 2011
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