The Smiley Smile Message Board

“We hope to record some more...I mean, we all love music, and what we do together seems to be working, according to the recent charts.”
Cause, you know, the charts are how one should measure whether something is working.

Uh, they are kind of important when you have a contract with Capitol Records for only one new-issue album, which is all the Beach Boys have.  If the album is a hit, they could get a contract to make another one.  Sure, they could release a new album themselves,  but it wouldn't get them a budget for a proper recording studio and a record company to help promote it.  Also, I do think Brian Wilson pays attention to the charts and always has.  Brian even tracked chart positions for his daughters' albums. 

Not true, the Beach Boys signed a three-record deal. By Joe Thomas/ account, it even was quite a generous offer.

That makes good sense. Glad to hear it.

15 Big Ones sold pretty well outta the box too.  One reason was that it was the first studio album in a few years, plus people wanted to hear what Brian was doing lately. Plus a lot of good promotion from WB. Then Love You came out and didn't do as well........

We'll see what happens.  Is this new one better than 15 Big Ones after years of hiatus?  Will this new one live the test of time like 15 Big Ones didn't? Time will tell....

Those three records being a newly recorded album, a new hits compilation, and a new boxset, all accounted for.  If they want to record another new album then a new deal will need to be reached. 

The album did as well as it did for a several reasons:

1. 50th Anniversary
2. First studio album in decades

Somehow I don't see a follow-up album achieving quite the same success.  But considering that this album turned out pretty well, I'd certainly welcome more from them. 

TWGMTR is light-years ahead of 15 Big Ones, if only for those last three/four tracks.  I mean, seriously.  I Had To Phone Ya doesn't hold a candle to Summer's Gone.

It did well because
1. It's a good album
2. It was well promoted
3. There'sa tour to support it

Keep doin' that, and they'll keep selling.

This!

It really isn't hard for them to do well around these days, music doesn't sell that much.. so it doesn't take as much as it did back in the days to be in the top 10.

Not saying the album is bad, at all, but you know..

Anyway great news! as i said, the more we get albums, the more we get away from Still Cruisin' and Summer In Paradise, the better it is!
didn't know they had a 3 albums deal with Capitol, but with Joe Thomas only? shame, i guess we won't get any better production on the next records, but more music is always well welcome! as long it's as good (or hopefully even better?) than TWGMTR.

The three record deal is not for three new studio albums, it's for the new studio album, a new compilation, and a new boxset.

That's possible but not confirmed, it could be three new studio albums

I don't see what the "new compilation" or "new boxset" has to do with the record deal ? don't they (Capitol) just do that themselves ?
i mean for all the compilations they released in the last decades, they didn't need to make The Beach Boys sign a record deal, did they ?
sorry, i don't really know how all of this works yet, explain me.

Exactly! Thanks.

Hey, if it is three studio albums, I don't think you'll hear me complain.

The point is you assumed it was three studio albums. No one knows one way or the other, but word has been that it wasn't for three studio albums.

Again, I'm sure anyone would gladly be wrong if it is studio albums.

The deal was with the Capitol catalog division. Not the department that issues new music.

"They just flipped. They were like, Heck, we’ve got to sign this. They were wonderful to us. They’ve got a great catalog division. The people who run it get the Beach Boys, and they said, this is the only place for you guys."

http://andrewromano.tumblr.com/joethomasbeachboys

The deal, I believe, is for TWGMTR, the compilation with the new material, and a live set.

Actually, I believe the Beach Boys own all of their material from Smiley Smile on. Capitol has to license that material from Brother to feature it on any records.

Right.. i see.

We'll have to wait and see what happens, i guess! but looks like they recorded enough new and old songs to make another record.. who knows, prehaps it'll be just one record (TWGMTR) and some compilation/live/boxset ! but then maybe they might see the contrat again and ask for another chance.

Not to pull a Cohen, but I think a big part of why the current album has done so well is because cd sales are dead. They really didn't need to sell that many to make a decent dent in the Billboard charts.

Their stint on QVC really helped them out, too.

I wonder how well the album would have done had they never done something like QVC. I also wonder how much better the new album would have done had QVC played a couple re-runs of it.

It would have still debuted at number 3.


Good question, all we can say is that it would have debuted at number 1, 2, or 3.

How many cd's would you need to sell to get into the top three? How many were sold on QVC again? Twenty thousand?

They sold somewhere around 14,000 - 17,000 on QVC.
It would vary by week, but they need to break around 60,000 again to get back into the top three.

I'm wondering if the Walmart "Anniversary Collection 'ZinePak" is the compilation?

Maybe AGD knows????

But without good promotion and positive word of mouth that's all worthless. Summer in Paradise was their 30th anniversary album and their first full new album in seven years, and nobody bought that.

Let's hope not!  And remember, there have been two 'compilations' so far, the 'ZinePak' with 11 songs, and the QVC Bonus CD "50 Years of Hits" with 11 different songs from 62 - 68.

It was just an special offer for QVC, it's probably the channel who did that themselves (look at the artwork and all), i highly doubt that's any part of the contract with Capitol.