Maps of Music

Brian Wilson Presents Smile (2004)

Where the lyrics of Brian Wilson Presents Smile take you, and where it was really made.

Wilson abandoned Smile in 1967, yet the album carrying its name in 2004 was built from all-new recordings rather than the original tapes.

Key places

Basic tracks cut at Sunset Sound (2004)

Recording site Sunset Sound — The basic tracks for the studio version were recorded here from 13 to 17 April 2004 with the touring band. Vocals and overdubs were later done at a different studio. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Brian Wilson Presents Smile (BWPS): fifth studio album by Brian Wilson
• Released 28 September 2004 on Nonesuch Records
• Contains all-new recordings of music Wilson originally made for Smile
• Smile: unfinished concept album made for the Beach Boys, abandoned in 1967
• Revisiting the project was an intense emotional undertaking for Wilson

Background

• Brian Wilson abandoned Smile in mid-1967 amid production difficulties
• The project began as a live concert commissioned by the Royal Festival Hall, London
• Follow-up to the 2000–2002 Pet Sounds tour
• Darian Sahanaja and Van Dyke Parks helped assemble the three-movement structure
• Premiered 20 February 2004 with five repeated sold-out shows
• Positive reception led Wilson to make a studio version and tour from late 2004 to mid-2005
• Former Beach Boys bandmates were not involved

Recording

• Basic tracks recorded at Sunset Sound, Hollywood, 13–17 April 2004
• Ten-piece touring band, augmented by a ten-piece string section and an acoustic bassist
• Vocals, overdubs and mixing done at engineer Mark Linett's Your Place or Mine studio
• Recorded on a custom Pro Tools HD rig; mixing completed in late July 2004

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · fr.wikipedia.org · www.discogs.com

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Career

• Brian Douglas Wilson (1942–2025) was an American musician, singer, songwriter and record producer who co-founded the Beach Boys.
• In 1961 he began his professional career as a member of the Beach Boys, serving as songwriter, producer, co-lead vocalist, bassist, keyboardist and de facto leader.
• After signing with Capitol Records in 1962, he became the first pop musician credited for writing, arranging, producing and performing his own material.
• He wrote or co-wrote over three dozen U.S. Top 40 hits, including the number-ones "I Get Around", "Help Me, Rhonda" and "Good Vibrations".
• In 1966 he produced Pet Sounds and his first solo credited release "Caroline, No", and began the unfinished album Smile.
• Struggles with mental illness led to withdrawal from regular touring from late 1964 and a long period of reclusion.
• A psychologist-led program with Eugene Landy in the 1980s preceded the solo album Brian Wilson (1988).
• He completed Smile in 2004 as Brian Wilson Presents Smile, earning his greatest acclaim as a solo artist.
• His influence spans the California sound, art pop, psychedelia, chamber pop, progressive pop, punk and indie music.
• Honors include two Grammy Awards, Kennedy Center Honors, and induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1988) and Songwriters Hall of Fame (2000).
• The 2014 biopic Love & Mercy dramatized his life.
• He died on June 11, 2025 at age 82.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Rolling Stone's Robert Christgau praised Parks' lyrics and Wilson's orchestrations
• Pitchfork's Dominique Leone wrote that as the follow-up to Pet Sounds it delivers
• AllMusic's John Bush called it a remarkably unified, irresistible piece of pop music
• Bush did not consider it a watershed on par with Sgt. Pepper's or Pet Sounds
• The Times' Stephen Dalton was skeptical of the album's myth
• Mojo's Jim Irvin was underwhelmed by the live performance

Reappraisal

• Metacritic average of 97 based on 29 reviews, the third-highest rated album on the site
• Rolling Stone ranked it number 399 on The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (2020)
• Rolling Stone placed it at 88 on its best albums of the decade list (2009)

Records

• Billboard 200 peak: number 13, the highest for a Beach Boys or Wilson album since 1976's 15 Big Ones
• UK peak: number 7
• Best-selling album on Amazon for two weeks
• Over 300,000 copies sold by February 2005 according to Nielsen SoundScan
• Three Grammy nominations; one win for Best Rock Instrumental Performance for "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow"
• Second place in the Pazz & Jop critics poll

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · es.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Mark Linett recorded every Royal Festival Hall show on a 48-track Genex hard disk recorder, and all six dates sold out.
• The Smile-era project was first approached as a compilation of released material for a live show, not as a completion of the album.
• Mail on Sunday gave away a free 10-track CD in September 2004; Love's 2005 lawsuit claimed it hurt sales of the original recordings.
• The album's title signals it is not the real Smile album, a point the French edition stresses.
• The documentary Beautiful Dreamer premiered on Showtime on 5 October 2004.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · fr.wikipedia.org · www.discogs.com

Maps of Ages ↗ (mapsofages.com)

Privacy · Contact