The Smiley Smile Message Board

I mentioned in a previous post as a Beach Boys fan you learn to accept that throughout the amazing BBoys discography there are plently of filler/turd tracks you learn to dodge and dodging these filler/turd "songs"  seems to be almost a Beach Boys fan art form especially younger fans like myself who have the leisure of going back to the discography and deleting the turds/filler (Bless You iTunes). 

So how do you curate your Beach Boys catalog?

Heres Mine (Which I would happily give you my reasons for)

Surfin Safari : The only songs I think that are worth having are
Cukoo Clock
Surfin Safari
Little Girl (Miss America)
Summertime Blues

Surfin USA :
Lana
Shut Down
Surfin USA
Farmers Daughter
Lonely Sea

Surfer Girl :
Catch a Wave
In My Room
Surfer Moon
Surfer Girl
Surfers Rule
Your Summers Dream

Little Deuce Coupe :
Little Deuce Coupe
A Young Man Is Gone
Be True to your School

Shut Down Vol 2 :
Fun Fun Fun
This Car Of Mine
Why Do Fools Fall in Love
Dennys Drums
Warmth of the Sun
Keep an eye on Summer
Dont Worry Baby
I Do

All Summer Long :
Just eliminate - Carls Big Chance
Do You Remember
Drive In
Our Fav Record Sessions

Do not own Beach Boys Concert find no reason too

The Beach Boys' Christmas Album
only songs worth having -
Little Saint Nick
Merry Christmas Baby

Today!
Just eliminate - Bull Sessions w/ Big Daddy

Summer Days and Summer Nights
Just eliminate-Girl from NYc
Amusement Park USA
Salt Lake City
add Little Girl I Once knew

Party! Decent album only real turd is Times are a changin' but nothin really special besides Barbra Ann
Must have Youve got to Hide Your love away for the Denny lead vox and Brian and Mike telling the girls in the studio to shut up or go home at the end of the song!!

Pet Sounds :
Cmon essential listening for any music fan

Smiley Smile/Smile :
Have All of it

Wild Honey :
All

Friends :
All

20/20
All

Sunflower :
All

Surfs Up :
All

Carl and the Passions So Tough :
All

Holland :
All
Do not have the Mt Vernon EP just have Fairy Tale Music for the GV Box Set

Beach Boys in Concert
All

15 Big Ones (aka 6 kinda sorta Big Ones):
Its OK
Had to Phone Ya
That Same Song
Back home
In the still of the Night (gotta have that Denny Vox)
Just once in my Life

Love You :
All

MIU :
Only song worth having- My Diane

LA Album:

Good Timin
Full Sail
Angel Come Home
Love Surrounds Me
Baby Blue

Keepin the Summer Alive
Livin with heartache
Goin On

BB*85 -
Getcha Back
Male Ego

Gotta include Live at Knebworth and the bonus tracks on the digital albums that their singles r included on like Break Away, Celebrate the News, etc.

Let me know if I should have included any more or any that should be removed.  Again it is in fun and my opinion, to me its kinda of the fun of being a fan.

The only filler I could probably do without would be "Denny's Drums" and all the bull sessions. I think the material suffers the most starting with the '85 album. What can I say, I love (most of) it all!

I'm not even going to type anything from All Summer Long to Love You. All Tracks are ok for me. Plus they all play like albums so any missing song would feel weird for me. As for the rest, I don't have the track lists memorized so i'm look at wikipedia while typing this.

Surfin Safari - don't own it, but off the top of my head i know i liked these:
Surfin Safari
County Fair
Chug a Lug
Little Girl (You're My Miss America)
409
Surfin
Summertime Blues
Cuckoo Clock

Surfin USA - same as above
Surfin USA
Farmer's Daughter
Stoked
Misirlou
Lonely Sea
Shut Down
Noble Surfer

Surfer Girl
All

Little Deuce Coupe - I won't type songs i did above, same for the next album
Little Deuce Coupe
Be True To Your School
Car Crazy Cutie
Cherry Cherry Coupe
Spirit Of America
Custom Machine

Shut Down Vol 2
Fun, Fun, Fun
Don't Worry Baby
In The Parking Lot
The Warmth of the Sun
This Car of Mine
Pom Pom Play Girl
Keep An Eye On Summer
Shut Down Part 2

MIU
She's Got Rhythm
Hey Little Tomboy
My Diane

LA
Good Timin
Lady Lynda
Love Surrounds Me
Here Comes The Night (i don't want to hear anything about this, it's an ok track, just way long)
Shortenin Bread

Keepin The Summer Alive
havent heard it

Beach Boys (self titled) - not fond of this one, only heard the songs on youtube
Getcha Back is ok

Still Cruisin' -
Kokomo
Somewhere Near Japan
Still Cruisin

Summer in Paradise
ALL  ;D

Umm yeah, I'm going to have to disagree with you there. :)  Give me all of it!!

I'm coming up with something similar to this based on the results of the song survey. Basically, any song that noticeably exceeds the average score for tracks on a given album would be added to the proposed boxed set. So the better half of Pet Sounds, the best eight or so songs from Smile and then the obvious three-to-four highlights from the earlier albums, etc. It's a pretty effective way at cherry picking the best except when it comes to Summer In Paradise (a horrible, turgid piece of sh*t where pretty much all the tracks sit around the average since nothing on it is notable).

Anyway, I'll give the full results of that once I sort the rest of the albums. Should prove interesting.

Mate, you were a little harsh on the Little Deuce Coupe album weren't you? No Custom Machine? Really??? No-Go Showboat likewise is a gem.

Re The Beach Boys 85: took me a long time to get round to listening to this one as i'd heard such dreadful things about it, and for the most part is pretty lousy, however you MUST hear 'Where I Belong', an absolutely gorgeous song awaits i promise.

Disney Boy I checked out "Where I Belong" I must credit you with an assist on that one, solid track , that was reason for this thread to find a few more gems through the "turds"- I love it.  But to follow up on Little Duece Coupe you may be right in that I have been harsh on it but I feel the BBoys car songs are their weakest songs and have not aged too well in that regard.  I also feel that they come off a bit dare I say corny?  So a whole album of songs like that puts that album in the lower echelon of their discography.

And the Mt Veron EP is squirmishly bad w/ the narriation in my opinion.  But the Good Vibrations Box takes out the dialog and you get Brians singin and just the music in like a 4-5 min 1 song track which is not great but certainly better than the EP as a whole.  I just feel that Brian was completly off his rocker and possibly at his most weakest mentaly and this EP shows it.  But maybe thats the reason why ppl like it.

Errrrm, We Three Kings? Some frankly bizzarre track choices being made by people on this thread, it would seem that some posters love such 'classics' as How She Boogaloed It, Bluebirds Over The Mountain, Take A Load Off Your Feet and Student Demonstration Time but consider 409, Hawaii, A Young Man Is Gone, No Go Showboat, Drive In and many more to be 'turd' filler.

I love HSBI, really like their take on BOTM and TALOYF and don't care that much for "409" (as opposed to "Little Honda" for instance) or "No Go Showboat".

But you're right, there are some odd choices here..

Fair enough, I'm more annoyed about the fact that some posters are acting like anything from Pet Sounds to Love You doesn't contain filler/weak tracks. I notice you didn't defend SDT... ;D

Yeah, the Xmas album also an under-appreciated gem. The first four of the five Brian originals are all good, and on the second side, agreed, We Three Kings... is just majestic!

Who would....  >:(
Including SDT over obvious other stuff is one of the singular moments in (still early) BBs history for which I'd like to smack Mike with this:

(http://www.wilhelmina-store.de/media/catalog/product/cache/1/small_image/208x/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/w/a/waschlappen_requin.jpg)

I love  "A Young Man is Gone" it has almost a haunting quality to it, I can roll w/ 409 but Drive In, No Go Show Boat dont really care for too much.  "Take a Load off..", and SDT are easily the weakest on  Surfs Up and I have always said that if you elminate "take a load off.." and add Dennis's "4th of July" and "Carry me Home" and Surfs Up is an amazing LP.

Dennis is my dude so I guess I am biased towards his selections

I'll take Drive-In and No-Go Showboat over Young Man... and maybe even 409. So, what does this all prove? Nothing, or maybe that so-called good filler is in the ear of the listener. Anyway, all we have is what was done, and on the whole I'm pretty happy with what was created and given to us.

Yes, we could have quite easily had none of it.

Personally I love that there are just SO MANY albums, even if not all of 'em are perfect... The quality of music that was consistently sustained from 1962-1973 in incredible, especially considering there was so much of it and it was being released at such a frantic pace. Breathtaking, really.

The wonders of iTunes....allowing me to create my ideal playlists for every Beach Boys album.

Surfin' Safari (1962)

01. Surfin' Safari
02. County Fair
03. Ten Little Indians
04. Chug-A-Lug
05. Little Girl (You're My Miss America)
06. Land Ahoy
07. Cindy, Oh Cindy
08. Surfin'
09. Luau
10. Barbie
11. What Is A Young Girl Made Of?
12. Heads You Win, Tails I Lose
13. Cuckoo Clock

Surfin' USA (1963)

01. Surfin' USA
02. Farmer's Daughter
03. Miserlou
04. Stoked
05. The Lonely Sea
06. Shut Down
07. Noble Surfer
08. Lana
09. Summertime Blues
10. The Baker Man
11. Judy
12. Let's Go Trippin'
13. Finders Keepers

Surfer Girl (1963)

01. Surfer Girl
02. Catch A Wave
03. The Surfer Moon
04. South Bay Surfer
05. The Rocking Surfer
06. Little Deuce Coupe
07. In My Room
08. Hawaii
09. Surfer's Role
10. Our Car Club
11. Your Summer Dream
12. Boogie Woodie
13. I Do

Little Deuce Coupe (1963)

01. Little Deuce Coupe
02. Ballad Of Ol' Betsy
03. Be True To Your School
04. The Beginning of the End
05. Car Crazy Cutie
06. Cherry Cherry Coupe
07. 409
08. Shut Down
09. Spirit of America
10. Our Car Club
11. No-Go Showboat
12. A Young Man Is Gone
13. Custom Machine

Shut Down Volume 2 (1964)

01. Fun, Fun, Fun
02. Don't Worry Baby
03. In the Parkin' Lot
04. The Warmth of the Sun
05. This Car Of Mine
06. Thank Him
07. Why Do Fools Fall In Love?
08. Their Hearts Were Full Of Spring
09. Pom Pom Play Girl
10. Keep An Eye on Summer
11. Shut Down, Pt. 2
12. Louie, Louie
13. Denny's Drums

All Summer Long (1964)

01. All Summer Long
02. I Get Around
03. Hushabye
04. Little Honda
05. We'll Run Away
06. Carl's Big Chance
07. Wendy
08. Do You Remember
09. Girls On the Beach
10. After the Game
11. Drive-In
12. Our Favorite Recording Sessions
13. Don't Back Down

The Beach Boys' Christmas Album* (1964)

* As is

Today! (1965)

01. Do You Wanna Dance?
02. Good To My Baby
03. Don't Hurt My Little Sister
04. When I Grow Up (To Be a Man)
05. Help Me, Rhonda
06. All Dressed Up For School
07. Dance, Dance, Dance
08. Please Let Me Wonder
09. I'm So Young
10. Guess I'm Dumb
11. Kiss Me Baby
12. She Knows Me Too Well
13. In The Back of My Mind

Summer Days (Summer Nights!!) (1965)

01. California Girls
02. The Little Girl I Once Knew
03. The Girl From New York City
04. Amusement Parks U.S.A.
05. Then I Kissed Her
06. Salt Lake City
07. Girl Don't Tell Me
08. You're So Good To Me
09. Let Him Run Wild
10. Sherry, She Needs Me
11. Summer Means New Love
12. I'm Bugged At My Old Man
13. And Your Dreams Come True

The Beach Boys' Party! (1965)

01. Hully Gully
02. I Should Have Known Better
03. Tell Me Why
04. Papa Omm Mow Mow
05. Mountain of Love
06. You've Got To Hide Your Love Away
07. Devoted To You
08. Alley Oop
09. Ruby Baby
10. There's No Other Like My Baby
11. I Get Around/Little Deuce Coupe
12. The Times They Are A'Changin'
13. Barbara Ann

Pet Sounds* (1966)

* As is

Smiley Smile (1967)

01. Mama Says
02. Heroes & Villains
03. Vege-Tables
04. Fall Breaks and Back Into Winter
05. She's Goin' Bald
06. Little Pad
07. Good Vibrations
08. With Me Tonight
09. Wind Chimes
10. Gettin' Hungry
11. Wonderful
12. Whistle In
13. You're Welcome

Wild Honey (1967)

01. Wild Honey
02. Aren't You Glad
03. I Was Made To Love Her
04. Country Air
05. A Thing Or Two
06. Darlin'
07. I'd Love Just Once To See You
08. Time To Get Alone
09. Here Comes the Night
10. With A Little Help From My Friends
11. The Letter
12. Let The Wind Blow
13. How She Boogalooed It

Friends (1968)

01. Meant For You
02. Friends
03. Wake the World
04. Be Here In the Mornin'
05. When A Man Needs A Woman
06. I Went To Sleep
07. Passing By
08. Anna Lee, The Healer
09. Little Bird
10. Be Still
11. Busy Doin' Nothin'
12. Diamond Head
13. Transcendental Meditation

More later...

Yea! Without Custom Machine, Todd Rundgren wouldn't have put that great tacet vocal break, "deep down inside me," in Real Man.

It is amazing when you really think about the music they put out in such a short period of time, your right.  Thats why I created that previous post on what the their early albums could of sounded like if the Boys didnt have to record at a frantic pace.  I wasnt dismissing their albums but thought they could have been much better if given the proper time.  Its hypothtical I know, being that very few rock groups or musicians in the US or UK were trying to construct comprehensive LPs at the time.  So this is out of pure speculation and fun.

Some ppl on here, Stebbins included, thought it was blasphomus but it really was just thrown out here for an interesting topic to discuss,  I enjoy their early work but up until All Summer Long their records sounded rushed, and backlogged with studio banter, covers and intrumentals or studio, where the orginal versions sound much better and stronger.   For the record they achieved glimpses of greatness on Surfin USA and Surfer Girl but both albums for me hit a few snags along the way.

What is great for me personaly and one of the reasons I started this topic was it allowed me to go back to their early work and find an appreciation for the songs:
Spirit of America
Moon Dawg
Cindy,Oh Cindy
Surfer Jam
Stoked

as well as a couple older gems in "Come Go With Me" and "Where I Belong". I overlooked these in my naivety.  So thank you all for the suggestions, comments, and critisims.  Hopefully more will follow

P.S. coco-some great examples you listed.  Where do you find a cover of "The Letter"?  Im a big Alex Chilton fan and it would be cool to have a copy of the Boys doing a cover of the Box Tops

The Letter was released on the 'Rarities' compilation, have a look on ebay for it.

As promised, the rest of my 'reimagined' Beach Boys albums:

20/20 (1969)

01. Do It Again
02. I Can Hear Music
03. Bluebirds Over the Mountain
04. Be With Me
05. All I Want To Do
06. Celebrate the News
07. The Nearest Faraway Place
08. Never Learn Not To Love
09. Cotton Fields
10. We're Together Again
11. Walkin'
12. A Time To Live In Dreams
13. Old Folks At Home/Ol' Man River

Sunflower (1970)

01. Slip On Through
02. This Whole World
03. Add Some Music To Your Day
04. Got To Know the Woman
05. Deirdre
06. Soulful Old Man Sunshine
07. It's About Time
08. Break Away
09. Tears In The Morning
10. All I Wanna Do
11. Forever
12. Our Sweet Love
13. At My Window

Landlocked (1971)

01. Don't Go Near the Water
02. Long Promised Road
03. Take A Load Off Your Feet
04. Sound of Free
05. Disney Girls (1957)
06. Student Demonstration Time
07. Feel Flows
08. Fallin' In Love (Lady)
09. Lookin' At Tomorrow (A Welfare Song)
10. A Day In the Life of A Tree
11. 4th of July
12. Til' I Die
13. Wouldn't It Be Nice (To Live Again)

Carl & The Passions - "So Tough" (1972)

01. Out In the Country
02. You Need A Mess Of Help To Stand Alone
03. Here She Comes
04. He Come Down
05. Barbara
06. Marcella
07. Hold On, Dear Brother
08. Make It Good
09. All This Is That
10. Cuddle Up

Holland (1973)

01. Sail On, Sailor
02. Steamboat
03. Carry Me Home
04. Big Sur
05. The Beaks of Eagles
06. California
07. The Trader
08. Leaving This Town
09. We Got Love
10. Hard Time
11. Only With You
12. Funky Pretty
13. Fairy Tale Music

Group Therapy (1975)

01. Good Timin'
02. It's OK
03. Had To Phone Ya
04. California Feelin'
05. That Same Song
06. Everyone's In Love With You
07. River Song
08. Loop de Loop
09. Susie Cincinnati
10. Back Home
11. Pacific Ocean Blues
12. I Wanna Pick You Up
13. I Write The Songs

15 Years of Golden Greats (1976)

01. Rock 'N Roll Music
02. Chapel of Love
03. A Casual Look
04. Palisades Park
05. Talk To Me
06. Blueberry Hill
07. Peggy Sue
08. Be My Baby
09. You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling
10. Come and Go With Me
11. Michael, Row The Boat Ashore
12. In The Still of The Night
13. Just Once In My Life

Love You (1977)

01. Let Us Go On This Way
02. Roller Skating Child
03. Mona
04. Johnny Carson
05. Good Time
06. Honkin' Down the Highway
07. Ding Dang
08. Solar System
09. The Night Was So Young
10. I'll Bet He's Nice
11. Let's Put Our Hearts Together
12. Airplane
13. Love Is a Woman

M.I.U. Album (1978)

01. She's Got Rhythm
02. Pitter Patter
03. Wontcha Come Out Tonight
04. A Sweet Sunday Kind of Love
05. Belles of Paris
06. Cruisin'
07. San Miguel
08. Matchpoint of Our Love
09. Almost Summer
10. Go And Get That Girl
11. My Diane
12. Our Team
13. Sad, Sad Summer

L.A. Light Album

01. Gettin' Hungry (Celebration arrangement)
02. Rainbows
03. Calendar Girl
04. Lookin' Down the Coast
05. Lady Lynda
06. Angel Come Home
07. Brian's Back
08. Love Surrounds Me
09. Sumahama
10. Country Pie
11. Baby Blue
12. Goin' South
13. Brand New Old Friends

Keepin' The Summer Alive (1980)

01. Keepin' The Summer Alive
02. Goin' On
03. Oh, Darlin'
04. Stevie
05. Heaven
06. All Alone
07. 10,000 Years Ago
08. Full Sail
09. It's A Beautiful Day
10. Don't Fight the Sea
11. Santa Ana Winds
12. When Girls Get Together
13. Endless Harmony

The Beach Boys (1985)

01. Getcha Back
02. Male Ego
03. It's Gettin' Late
04. Water Builds Up
05. Chasin' The Sky
06. What You Do To Me
07. She Believes In Love Again
08. Black Widow
09. At The Hop
10. I'm So Lonely
11. Oh Lord
12. Where I Belong
13. It's Just A Matter of Time

Still Cruisin' (1989)

01. Still Cruisin'
02. Somewhere Near Japan
03. Island Girl
04. In My Car
05. Kokomo
06. Wipe Out
07. Make It Big
08. Happy Endings
09. California Dreamin'
10. Rock 'N Roll To the Rescue

Summer in Paradise (1992)

01. Problem Child
02. Island Fever
03. Still Surfin'
04. The Spirit of Rock 'N Roll
05. Slow Summer Dancin' (One Summer Night)
06. Strange Things Happen
07. Run, Don't Walk
08. I Do
09. Lahaina Alona
10. Under the Boardwalk
11. Summer in Paradise

The Beach Boys (2012)

?  ^-^