The Smiley Smile Message Board

i apologize if this has been asked already.

Mine would probably be You Still Believe in Me.  I just had no idea a pop song could be so spiritual, strange, and sad.  It has some of the most beautiful sounds I've ever heard.  Brian truly was writing pop psalms.  I feel similarly about God Only Knows, Wouldn't It Be Nice, and Help Me Rhonda.

I Just Wasn't Made For These Times. Heard when I was 16, it summed up the way I felt better than anything I'd ever heard, and made me a fan. I think the band have done much *better* songs (anything that connects that strongly to teenage angst is a less mature song than some of their others) but that's the one that I first felt a deep connection to.

Wouldn't It Be Nice- From the first time that I heard it, as a 9 year old kid, I felt like Brian wrote that song just for me. The music, the arrangement just does something to me. My whole body just perks up and it always makes me feel happy. I've played this song thousands of times in the past 46 years, and it always affects me the same way. I know that I love hearing the accordians and tympani; they rock me. :)

Surf's Up, since both it and it's parent album came at a time(college)that enabled me to make new friends through the attraction of the music I was playing for them. Friendships that have lasted a liftime.

Probably A Day in the Life of a Tree or Kiss Me Baby. Both songs never fail to send me to a another place mentally.

When I Grow Up (To Be a Man). One of the many songs that took me from casual listener to fan.

I'll take it a different way:  In my experience, probably either "Surfer Girl" or "In my Room".  When I was a kid, these two songs stuck out the most as 'different' than anything else I heard.  So it would have been these two songs that first showed me that the Beach Boys not only could make good songs, but had true, raw, talent that nobody else seemed to have quite in that same way.  I wouldn't have fully appreciated it as a child, but I can distinctly remember those two songs, from early, early on, and that was the "Beach Boys" sound to me.

the first one I heard.

Surfin' Safari

Good Vibrations...especially at the 'Gotta keep those...' organ break when the bass kicks in.  That song really took my young mind places that it had never imagined. 

"Brian's a friggin' genius!"- my friend Doug

Cleaned the kitchen today listening to "all this is that" and was the happiest I have even been in my life.

First time I heard Cabin Essence my mind just blew. It opened my mind like nothing before it. It was like "whoa, I never even though it is possible to make anything like this". When that chorus hit me like a freight train... Whew. It is not necessarily my favourite song, but it's initial impact was amazing, and I will never forget it. And it still gets me everytime.

Surf's Up. I heard the backing track as part of a mix, and was compelled to hunt the song down. When I did, the first version I came across was the Anne Wallace mix (in my opinion still the definitive pre-SMiLE Sessions version). It's safe to say it Blew. My. Mind.

I've spent so much time lost inside that coda, which - to me - is the most beautiful, transcendent sound I've ever heard. Discovering Surf's Up then lead me to uncover a whole world of new music in the form of various SMiLE bootlegs, and I spent many an hour reading up on the fascinating stories taht surrounded the sessions.

¨You Still¨ had the greatest impact. I had heard Beach Boys songs (obviously who hasn´t?) growing up especially the famous surf and car songs. But about four years back Itunes had the 40th anniversary Pet Sounds album for like six bucks and I remember seeing it on the store front and thought ¨well this is a great deal¨  becuase I had seen it as the 2nd greatest album of all time and I remember reading Paul McCartney interviews stating it had the greatest impact. I was always a huge Beatles fan and was so before the Beach Boys. But I remember going to see a movie with a friend and burned a copy of the album. I had listened to it piece meal that afternoon and thought it was a pretty cool album etc.  I remember getting to the second track on a normally busy road on a December evening and then hearing the beautiful introduction then the chorale part. Then listening to Sloop John B.  It just was mind blowing and it made me think of my girlfriend (who I´m still with :)) 

Looking back on it, I thought it was funny that Pet Sounds would hook me so much because if you think about it, the earlier stuff hooks way more but I just couldn´t get over that bass nor the vocal blend.

i had been buying beach boy 45's for years. liked them. had some lp's also. but the obsession , for me, started the summer of 1969. was reading a scifi book. had an old battery operated am radio under my pillow at night to listen to the local station. was dreaming about the book and 2 nights in a row, in the fog of a light sleep, sloop john b was played during that dream. the singing fit the dream. that is when i just had to get my hands on anything beach boy related. and boy, did i ever collect.  :)

"God Only Knows."  It's my favorite song of all time, and I don't see how that could ever change. Every time I hear it, I'm reminded of some of the goodness and beauty that exists in our f***ed up world. 

Lately, "Surfer Girl" has had a big impact on me...I started singing it to my little girl at bedtime (she's 2 1/2 now) a while back, and a few months ago, she started singing it back with me...talk about impact. Sheesh.

Great story.... it's a timeless song, every child should be steeped in the greatness that is "Surfer Girl"

My Solution. It fits the way I live better.   :brian

Good Vibrations, reissue 1976. That was the first time I consciously heard the BBs and it's been affecting my bank balance ever since. Obsession bordering on illness at times.

Sloop John B (BB's greatest hits '81) got me hooked, Surf's Up (Ten Years of Harmony) blew my mind and Busy Doin' Nothin' made me mellow.

A 13 year old lad in my house thinks Smile (particularly HV) is awesome, which is pretty rewarding.

My story is similar to Steve Mayo's in that I had grown up with Beachboys 45's but rediscovered them in a way when I first  heard the newly released I Can Hear Music on the top 40.   Sweet and soaring Beachboys harmony over a song written by by the late Elle Greenwich (didn't know it at the time but she had also written some other personal favorite songs).  I seem to recall this being the last top 40 song I purchased on a 45 rpm record.  My obsession with the band really began around that time and led to my discovery of dozens of other favorite Beachboys songs.  So I have to say that one had the most overall impact.

Incidentally, I had a bit of deja vu yesterday when, while driving my car , I heard Isn't It Time on the radio.

Who could  have dreamed that all of these years later one can still hear a NEW Beachboys song on the radio?  :h5

I was a casual listener to rock/pop in the '60's and then heard Sloop John B. one day on the radio. The harmonies, arrangement etc. just resonated with me and I started to take note of the Beach Boys. A few years later, I heard a "new" song on the radio (FM) that sure sounded like them and it was - California Saga/California. Still 2 of my most favorite BB songs!

The answers to this question and questions like it kind of reaffirm something I believe is true about the Beach Boys more so than almost any other group. Their catalogue is so wide and varied and that lends to their continued appeal. Surfin Safari to Surf's Up; Little Duece Coupe to Cabinessence; 409 to Country Air. FX3 to Full Sail; Warmth of the Sun to Ding Dang. You can just go on and on about the variety of the songs put out over a course of 50 years! Solo songs to elecrifying harmonies. R and R guitar to orchestra arrangements. There is something for almost everyone. I really think that is one of the reasons for their attraction across a wide spectrum of fans and generations.

Hard if not impossible to argue with that one, even these 50 years later.

The coda of Surf's Up hits me like a ton of bricks every time I hear it, but it was hearing it as the finale of the Wonderful suite on BWPS that I first realized how affected I was by the song.

I'm not sure I could narrow this down to a single song because there are several that have impacted me at various times including This Whole World, Cuddle Up, All This is That, God Only Knows, Don't Worry Baby, Wouldn't It Be Nice, She Knows Me Too Well, Good Vibrations, All I Wanna Do, Pacific Coast Highway, etc.  I could probably list 20 songs that have impacted me at various times.