The Smiley Smile Message Board

Listen to this track by Charlie Hilton called “100 Million”… starting at 3:03 until the end of the song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzGRXlL5-3k

Notice how the repeating wordless vocal melody from Brian Wilson’s “Melt Away” (starting at 2:30) has basically been lifted (different key, but same exact vocal idea and cadence). Please note: this is the exact vocal melody part in “Melt Away” which was incorrectly missing from the 2000 reissue CD pressing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBTsx3J_0JU

Was this a coincidence? I wonder how many other examples like this by other artists are out there? Many, I would tend to think…

This song nicks the melody from Forever, see 0:35...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlWLc8V_-SE

Combustible Edison's "Vertigogo" shares some melody with Passing By.

There is a song called ..hooked on a feeling... Not the BJ thomas version.. A later version by some one else..That has accapella breaks and back ground vocals directly influenced by SMILE.. Who ever recorded that must have owned BB boots..

I hope i got that right.. Because if you ever heard the song you knew the band had heard smile.. Was it 3 dog night ??.. I dont remember im sorry..

The band was called Blue Suede, and from what I remember reading (correct me if I'm wrong please!), apparently they had listened to SMiLE boots prior to recording. The most notable reference to SMiLE being the indian-chant vocals at the beginning and break of the track, obviously inspired by Do You Like Worms.

thanks for filling the rest in for me.. yea the indian chant.. the vocals on that are really good except there is no  high B W part at the top..  Influenced by smile and a big hit..!!

That is super cool. I will have to check this out!

Hold on, though.  The Blue Swede (sic) version (1974) borrowed the "ooga-chaka" chant from the earlier cover of "Hooked On A Feeling" (1971) by pop paedophile Jonathan King.  It's not really clear whether he stole it from Smile or not; I suspect he didn't, but Jonathan King's head is not something I've ever really wanted to get inside.

ELO's Across the Border cops the melody line from Heroes & Villains... Out of the Blue... 1978.

It's got lyrics, so doesn't really fit this thread... but I thought it was pretty obvious back in the day.

Going by this article about the song (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2010/04/stage.html):

"The story goes that the geniuses behing Blue Swede's take got their inspiration from one of the much bootlegged snippets of the Beach Boys' "Smile" album, which had been shelved amid much internal and external resistance to Brian Wilson's grand sonic experiment. Blue Swede latched onto one piece of tribal-like vocalizing and ran with it in reimagining Thomas' recording."

There are quite definitely similarities between the intro of the John King version and the Blue Suede version, but the older version of the song definitely featured much less harmonies. I think I only heard one or two voices doing the "Ooga-Chaka" part. But the Blue Suede version features full group harmonies. Maybe they used Do You Like Worms as an inspiration to fully expand the intro into something similar to the Beach Boys? I'm really not sure to be honest. Were any SMiLE bootlegs even floating around in the early '70s?

"All You Need Is Love" sounds inspired by "I'm Waiting For The Day". "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" sounds inspired by "All You Need Is Love". "The Winner Takes It All" sounds inspired by "Happy Xmas"