Smiley Smile by The Beach Boys

Smiley Smile, the Beach Boys' twelfth album, came out on September 18, 1967, as the first release on their own Brother Records, and it's what was left standing after Smile, the grand project Brian Wilson had been laboring over for months, was shelved. Instead of symphonic pocket epics, Wilson led six weeks of sessions in a makeshift studio at his home, where the band cut stripped-down, stoned-sounding miniatures on a detuned piano, a melodica, a theater organ, electronic bass and whatever was lying around for percussion, then stitched the fragments together. For once the production credit went to the whole group.

"Heroes and Villains" led the way and "Good Vibrations" came along for the ride, but the public was baffled: the album stalled at number 41 in America, their lowest yet, though Britain took it to number 9. Later ears were kinder. It became a cult favorite, and lo-fi, ambient and bedroom pop all trace a line back to it.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.