The Smiley Smile Message Board

I could probably fit the Beatles songs that I like on one 60 minute album, whereas there are very few Beach Boys songs I don't like, but when it comes to album covers, the Beatles, IMO, win hands down over the Beach Boys. No other group beats or even comes close to my enjoyment of the Beach Boys music, which is what really matters, but many groups top them in the album cover design department. I think the first album cover they got right was SMiLE, which unfortunately of course wasn't released. I seem to remember reading years ago that one of the Beatles (Paul?) even told Brian that they should pay a little more attention to their album covers. As they were both with Capitol, why the stark differences in the "coolness" of the covers? The fab four sure knew how to market themselves. I wonder what different choices in terms of album cover design might have done to or for the Beach Boys image?

It seems easier to split an atom than it does to insert a photo in these threads, so I gave up and just changed my profile picture to show a very psychedelic looking photo of Brian from the back of the SMiLE box set book, which I think would have made a fantastic album cover, although I'm not sure which album. Pet Sounds perhaps? Although we've lived with the Pet Sounds cover for so long, it's difficult to imagine anything else but the boys and those goats. The SMiLE album cover in an alternate universe?

If we're comparing American Beach Boys album covers to British Beatle album covers, yeah.

...but Capitol used the same tactics on the Beatles' early American releases, as the appalling covers for "Something New" and "Beatles VI" can attest.

..and then there was the whole "Yesterday and Today" debacle.

Yeah, I can't argue that point. I guess my main point is, when the music was becoming art, the album covers of the Beach Boys were not at all artful... Smile would have been the exception up until that point. On the other hand, the Beatles album covers, beginning most especially with Rubber Soul, were very artistic and a good match with the music therein.

It's a really tough call to say who "wins" as far as album covers go. For me, it's always been solely about the music. It's really up to the listener to decide how much of an impact the artwork will have on their perception and experience of the music.

I don't know. If a cover's point is to catch the eye and make you buy records, I don't think they did too badly.  I think the "Surfin' Safari," "Surfer Girl" and "Surfin' USA" covers are classic, and definitely reflect the music and the time. I think "Summer Days" perfectly captures the whole California feel. "Pet Sounds" was a head scratcher at the time, but has become an iconic cover/font. Of course, there's "Smile" and "Surf's Up" that are very evocative, cool covers.  I think the ones that tried to be arty, like "Smiley Smile" and "Endless Summer" turned out a bit weird. Sure there were bombs.  "Love You" and "50 Big Ones" are just ugly. But, overall the covers were pleasant and eye catching and did the job of selling the records to the intended audience.

The Beach Boys actually had a pretty good share of "cool" covers.  The weirdness is that they would have a series of great covers...and then along comes a WTF cover.  I feel that from Safari to ASL they had some pretty decent covers that reflected the music pretty well.  Then there's Today, which features an oddly cropped photo of the group with a really clunky cover design.  Summer Days has a very cool cover, even if it's missing Al.  Party is ok, works for the type of album that it was.

But then there's PS, which I will go ahead and gloss over, since that cover has been thoroughly discussed on this forum.  Yeah, it coulda been so much better!

Smiley, WH, and Friends have some great artsy covers, IMO.  But then we have 20/20 with it's cheap, rushed looking design, as if nobody felt like putting a lot of thought into their last 60s album for Capitol (at least for the cover).  And then there's Sunflower, which baffles me as to why they couldn't come up with a cooler design.  There's no excuse for that!

I don't really care for the ASL cover; Today is an albatross in cross purposes to the music on that album, especially side two, a precursor to PS... and I have no words to describe what must have been going through the minds of the designers of that cover (PS). It couldn't have been less hip at the time but has sort of, in a weird way, become iconic, but to think what they could have done.

All Summer Long has one of my favorite covers ever

I found this quote from Mike Love online: "Paul McCartney mentioned that we ought to take more care with our album covers. Paul was the mastermind behind the Sgt. Pepper album cover, which was detailed and brilliant. Ours...was a photo taken at the San Diego Zoo.” I'm not sure how much credibility can be attached to that quote, but that's the one I was referring to in the OP. Anyone know the source?

I have to disagree here. As a kid, looking at the records in the stores, I thought "Something New" was the best cover - the Fabs actually playing and singing live!
I do think there were some good albums covers for the Boys - "Surfin' Safari" is an iconic shot; "Surfer Girl"; "Summer Days" (despite being one BB short); "Pet Sounds"; and I love the artwork for "Smiley Smile".

Kind of random, but someone working at my college cafe was playing Pet Sounds. Of course I had to talk about the Beach Boys with him and he said his girlfriend's uncle did the art for Endless Summer... pretty rad.

Anyway, I kinda dig the Wild Honey art (Brian's stained glass window, right?). And Smiley Smile is set as one of my desktop backgrounds ;D

The artwork for Holland is pretty good.

I like the Wild Honey cover

I think the covers of the first six albums are pretty decent.

I think the Sunflower album was alright in that it tried to show a new Beach Boys image for the 1970s. 

Just about every post Holland cover is pretty generic, many of them look like the covers of compilations, especially KTSA. 

Looks like they phoned in the cover of TWGMTR. 

Personally, I think No Pier Pressure ranks up with the best album art of any Beach Boys related album. 

I think the artwork for TWGMTR could have been a lot worse than it is.

This is true, they could've done something along the lines of KTSA.  But, it could've been a lot better too. 

I think the perfect cover for that album would've been a shot of the sun setting on the Pacific Ocean, with Brian, Mike, David, Al, and Bruce looking out onto the water with their backs to the camera. 

If Pet Sounds has an "OK" cover, then what makes you think Today would have a better cover due to the precursor to Pet Sounds status that you give it? The guys at Capitol didn't have a crystal ball in their offices. At the time they had no idea that side two of Today was a glimpse into the future. Hindsight is great 50 years down the line, but back then I doubt they were even looking past the current album cover they were working on.

I love Surfin' Safari.  So very iconic.  So perfect.  It's staged, but so is the music.  The overcast sky also works with the confined, cozy music.

(http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_400/MI0000/702/MI0000702071.jpg?partner=allrovi.com)


Smiley Smile's cover is also awesome.  Lost in a damp overgrown jungle.  A cozy little shack.  Wonder what they're smokin' in there?

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/21/SmileySmileCover.jpg)

Whatever they are smoking in there, it must be some smart sh*t that can bellow out and spell the album & group name.

For the Beatles, I like Abbey Road.  Sunny summer day fits well with the golden sounding music therein.

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/42/Beatles_-_Abbey_Road.jpg)


Rubber Soul has a simple and striking composition.  Autumnal and askew.  They look totally in command, and the music proves it.

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/74/Rubber_Soul.jpg)

Denny's hash-joints.  :smokin

Bean Bag - I'm looking at Rubber Soul right now, next to a "new vinyl" of SDSN gift from one of my kids!  ;)

Only Lennon looking at the lens, on RS...interesting... ;)

Covers I don't like much... 20/20.  It doesn't exude much confidence and even less imagination.

(http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_400/MI0002/541/MI0002541292.jpg?partner=allrovi.com)

A much, much better idea would have been the striking pick of Brian inside.

(https://arkhonia.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/bb-20-20-brian_top.jpg?w=500&h=499)



And Friends.  I like the concept -- soothing and pastoral -- it fits the album's peaceful vibe.  But I don't like the execution/artwork.  I don't mind the faces in the clouds, but I would have not included the "orange" Boys in the middle.  And I don't like the faces in the bushes - they're a little creepy, but really just unnecessary.  The clouds make sense. The rest are too busy.

(http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_400/MI0001/958/MI0001958623.jpg?partner=allrovi.com)

I like Brian & Bruce in bushes. The music surrounds land, sea and air. The group portrait drawing really captures the likeness of each band member. This has always been one of my favorite album covers.

Bean Bag - I think a green cover on Smiley was self-sabotage. It isn't a primary color. Red is the color to catch /draw in the eye in a sea of LP's.  The original artwork might have pulled in more sales...Smile vol. 1, perhaps.  

But I love 20/20. Including the inside gatefold.  The snellen eye chart came in very handy!  :lol

For the Beatles album covers, I never liked Magical Mystery Tour.  It's just ugly.  Lose the large orange border, cropping just the photo in the middle would have been better.

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/85/TheBeatlesMagicalMysteryTouralbumcover.jpg)


Even cooler than that, would be this photo.  Now that's a pic that fits.  It's how I imagine the music.  First thought when I saw this -- why didn't they use this!?!

(http://i2.cdnds.net/12/40/618x404/music_unseen_beatles_9.jpg)


...And to be a little controversial, I'm not a huge fan of Revolver's artwork.  Yes, I love the black n' white.  And yes, all very iconic.  But I don't care much for the collage -- which looks more like artwork from the back or inside.  Just the portraits might have been better.  That said... the portraits are also just a little bit creepy.  While they're cool, they're also a little ugly.

(http://static.stereogum.com/blogs.dir/2/files/2013/11/Revolver.jpg)

I always thought it was Paul McCartney in the bush on the left.  For me, the back of Friends is the winner.  First thought when I flipped it over and saw this was, "woah."  Maybe a tad cliche, but man does it work.

(http://www.ebreggae.com/reggae-images/back/Vinyl/185662/Beach-Boys-The-Friends-180-Gram-Vinyl.jpg)

Well, that 20/20 cover shot does capture the mood!  Sort of like a dated class photo -- awkward and embarrassing.  The eye chart pic is cool though.


You know what might have worked in an ironic sort of way?  A picture of a drag strip.

The Beach Boys 20/20
(http://dragracingonline.com/agent1320/2014/04/ChrisKaramesines_KennySafford-1960.jpg)

But, lose the dude, and put her starting the race.

(http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTEzMVg5NzQ=/z/dQ8AAMXQkl9RZ4Xb/$T2eC16FHJGYFFkye9bD3BRZ4(,yyZg~~60_59.JPG?set_id=8800005007)

The Friends back cover is in line with what I thought should've been the front cover for TWGMTR.  I have to believe that, going into it, The Beach Boys likely knew it was going to be their final studio album.  A setting sun on the Pacific would have been very appropriate.

At least the music inside is good. 

Nah! They were the class of the "summer of 68/69!" :lol

It's just "automatic!"  :thewilsons

Yes, a sunset would have fit on TWGMTR, but almost too much so.  A little too preloaded.  I do like the TWGMTR cover artwork -- but it suffers from what I feel most modern album artwork suffers from -- a lack of dimension and/or depth.  Everything created on a computer is flat.

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d5/The_Beach_Boys_-_That's_Why_God_Made_the_Radio_Album_Cover.jpg)

In the end, this pattern would have made a nice liner image.  But for a late career cover -- this is actually above par.  Most late-career covers blow. Blow bad.

I don't really think Pet Sounds is an "OK" cover, I've just learrned to live with it, kind of like one learns to live with a dent in the fender of their car. As I said, it could have been so much more. I wasn't implying that Capitol should have known the future in terms of what was to follow the Today album, but rather meant that the Today album cover is such a boring cover, and the complete opposite of cool, unlike the music inside. But the worst BB cover, IMO, even worse than Pet Sounds? The Beach Boys' Christmas Album. In one word: dorky.

While I really like my drag-strip/w girl idea (making one now!) -- a good compromise could be a yearbook metaphor.  Maybe crop their mugs off the cover and make it a mock yearbook.

(http://www.goldminemag.com/wp-content/uploads/BeachBoys_2020.jpg)

(http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~kygenweb/schools/boone/bchs/1969/page183.jpg)

We're all entitled to our opinions, but to me, this cover is average at best.  I agree with you it would've been a better liner image. 

Is Al praying for sales on 20/20?

Al's actually praying that 46 years after the release of the record, people on internet message boards won't spend a ton of time and energy arguing over whether or not 20/20 is a true Beach Boys album or some kind of hodgepodge/compilation/etc. 

He may also be praying that Charles Manson doesn't notice that Dennis reconfigured Cease to Exist. 

Maybe what we need is a board contest here: don't like a cover? Make a better one! And we all vote on the results.

Decorating a tree is on a Christmas album is dorky? It can't be the clothes they are wearing, can it? That was a decent up to date style for 1964. Or is this a in hindsight 2015 observation?

I also really love the TWGMTR cover. It has a High LLamas-/Heavy Blinkers vibe that I really like

Yes, you're probably right -- average at best.  It didn't strike me, but it was pleasant.  But I'm kind of weighing it against what it could have been.  I was expecting something embarrassing -- so I liked that it was subdued (although too subdued) yet still stylish.

But yes, nothing spectacular.  

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d5/The_Beach_Boys_-_That's_Why_God_Made_the_Radio_Album_Cover.jpg)



They really could have had some fun with this...

(http://www.the60sofficialsite.com/images/Radio%20Dial.jpg)
(http://images.thetruthaboutcars.com/2012/03/car_radio.jpg)
(https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/03/79/8a/03798a4f8c93f7279ac9f7068c125745.jpg)

Yeah, I like this one.  Classic.  It's a Christmas album.  It's the mid-sixties.  Innocent, perfect.  Santa on a surfboard, now that would have been dorky.

(http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_400/MI0003/240/MI0003240770.jpg?partner=allrovi.com)

Can't think of a BB album cover I don't really care for, except perhaps Love You, which just doesn't amount to anything. Most of them are great,in fact. Love the suggestion above for TWGMTR! Beatles, I never really thought about those too much.

My least favorite album cover is 15 Big Ones. While the concept is fine for 1976 and all, the pics used are just God-awful, except for Dennis. I can't believe the Boys let that get by them.

I like that it's original, and kind of like a quilt that grandma made - which fits with the quaint-nature of the music.  But not sure how "successful" it is in a classical sense.  It's unique, though.

(http://cdn.pitchfork.com/albums/593/homepage_large.04936104.jpg)

It's ugliness is its appeal, for me.  The connotation that they're "athletes," Olympic or otherwise, is met with the reality that they smoke 6 packs a day.  :lol

(http://st.jetsetrecords.net/product/thumbnail/3/a/0/3a06208e36a5ad704708d7fd83891b3e/raw.jpg)

Love it!  :smokin

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51aa6d%2BqCtL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

I don't know, Brian's hair needs a washing. Al's pic might as well be a bust. Mike & Carl both look like they need to take a crap. ;) Dennis' pic is great. I can't figure out why Dean or whoever didn't mess his up too.

 :lol

I think the Xmas album cover is a good cover for such an album.  It's green, shows the boys in sweaters decorating a Xmas tree.  

From Dean's Kittyhawk Chapter 1 (Spelling and grammar intact, btw... which drives my perfectionism bonkers!):

I was always frustrated by the fact that we as recording artists were more often than not, not in control of our own imagery.  Jan and I did gain control over what we wanted to do musically but when it came to the visual packaging of what we were creating musically we were constantly told by our record company, "You create the music, and we will independently create the graphic arts because we are professionals at packaging".  Say what?  This just didn't make any sense to me at all.  Jan and I were making conceptual music, what in the world did some fifty year old farts in the art department that were use to designing Julie London albums know about specialized concept albums.  You guessed it, absolutely nothing.  The music we were making was all about very visual things that most of the young people of that day were very interested in.  Our music needed to be complemented by very strong visuals, our album covers should have been the supporting cast and they were, in my humble opinion, not even close.

I take that to mean that at least in the 60s (and obviously anytime before) musicians didn't even have say over their printed material unless it was specifically in their contract, and also that this was something of a rarity since print was usually the last thing on a young, emerging musician's mind.  Hence sixty thousand different pictures of the boys holding a surfboard, regardless of what songs were featured.

Let's skip ahead to Chapter 2:

With my new business card in my hand plus a sample of Jan & Dean and a Mamas & Papas souvenir concert book that I had designed with my graphic design professor while still at USC, just before Jan's accident, I went to see my old buddy, Brian Wilson.  Brian's mother and father in-laws lived on Sierra Bonita Street, right down the street from my design studio.  Mae Rovell, Brian's mother-in-law was a great cook so I figured that even if I got turned down for any graphic design work I would end up with a great meal.  I don't know if my pitch worked or if he just felt sorry for me, but he gave me my first design job, and I got the home cooked meal as a bonus.  I designed a trade ad to advertise The Beach Boys follow up to "Good Vibrations" which was a song called "Heroes and Villains".  I turned in the original art work, (which looked a lot like the "Sergeant Pepper" album cover by the way), to the record company and I eagerly waited to see my first design job appear in Billboard Magazine.  It never appeared and why was that?, they said they lost it....... something smell fishy here?  This was my first little wake up call, illustrating to me that record company art departments wanted nothing to do with freelance graphic designers if they could help it.  This art department counted on Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys, being way to busy writing, arranging, singing and producing hit records to follow up on something so trivial as a missing "Heroes and Villians" one color trade ad and they guessed right.

In shorter words- if it ain't in the contract, screw the musicians and take advantage that musicians are busy people.

The first half of Chapter 5 is about 15 Big Ones.  (The second half is about Pacific Ocean Blue.):

My old friends The Beach Boys left their old record company, Capitol Records and found a new home at Warner Bros Records.  While they were at Capitol they had blessed little control over their packaging.  Starting over with a new company they could make all sorts of new demands, not the least of those demands, asking for more control over their imagery and packaging.  They were now free to call me.

The first package we did together was to coincide with The Beach Boys 15th anniversary.  The folks at Warner Bros suggested the title of Fifteen Years of Gold or something like that.  I thought that sounded to pompous, to serious to corny.  My idea was to down play the 15 years part, be more humble but still make the point.  So I suggested the title "15 Big Ones" and suggested putting 15 songs on the album.  Mike Love thought that we should take into account that it was a Olympic Year and that we should try to incorporate the five interlocking Olympic Circles somehow.  Sounded like a really cool idea to me.  I sketched it out in full color.  The five Olympic rings screamed to be done like neon and I had always wanted to create a logo for The Beach Boys that looked like neon, kinda like the neon that you would see at the typical drive in hamburger joint.  I had always loved the Bobs Big Boy logo and it was made in neon.  Seemed like a perfect fit to me, The Beach Boys and Bobs Big Boy.

Gwah!  My fingers twitch every time I have to type "a" instead of "an".


This one is also one of Dean's designed covers.  But none of the chapters actually talk about it.  It's just in the portfolio and gallery.

I suspect this is nothing new to some of you.  But judging from some of the posts in this thread, it'll be new to a few.

I get the design; neon, Olympic rings, etc.. I don't get why they used the photos that were used. Again, except for Dennis' photo, the rest are terrible. I can't even imagine who approved using those photos, let alone Dean using them in the final product.

Pet Sounds is strange, iconic now yes, and a nice pic of the band - particularly for goat lovers, but jeez.
They make this great album, but then feel shy about being "pretentious" and so throw the jokey cover on there?
Self effacement can be great, but Pet Sounds deserves a cover worthy of its contents.   I imagine a cover with studio shots of the band working on the album, that would have been cool and not pretentious at all.
Anyone here ever design an alternate cover for Pet Sounds - one that is totally different from the actual cover?
I like there first several albums covers, Smiley, W. Honey, even Friends (though that could have been better). 20/20 is alright, Surf's Up is cool....

From Chapter 5:

I had admired the air brush work of a guy that was designing posters for surf films.  He had even done one poster that had type done like neon.  His name was Jim Evans.  So I hired him to convert my design work to look like neon.  He did a awesome job.  I needed to do new photos of The Beach Boys.  Brian had not taken photos with the rest of the guys in quite a while.  To keep the visual continuity, each guy was photographed individually, with the same background and the same lighting.  To keep the sharpness and the detail we shot these in the 4x5 format.  Each Beach Boy had at least 20 or more shots to choose from.  It was always important to me that the recording artist got to pick out his or her favorite photo.  It was their body of work that this picture was going on, I wanted them to be really happy with the photo.  We shot these photos at my beach volleyball partner's studio.  Dana was a big time fan.

They chose their own photos from among 20.  Makes you wonder what the other 19 looked like, eh?

I'm surprised by the negative comments on the Love You cover! It's one of my favorites! Surf's Up, Wild Honey and Love You are my three favorites. Holland is interesting. Surfin Safari is cool. Speaking of SS, when I'm not looking at it, my brain remembers them facing the other way for some reason. Sunflower is ok, but there is a photo of them sitting in a field in a straight row I like better. One that I don't like at all, but love the music is 'So Tough'.

Incredible! Thank you for posting all the info. Much appreciate it.