The Smiley Smile Message Board

Hey guys,

I recently finished "I Am Brian Wilson" and spent the better part of my day off yesterday putting together this 'soundtrack' to the autobiography. The following songs are arranged in the order in which they are discussed in the book; because of this you get a lot of interesting back and forths from early Beach Boys material to later Brian solo stuff. The one exception is "Wouldn't It Be Nice," which I felt would be the most fitting way to end the musical 'journey' on a high note.

I didn't include every song Brian name drops, choosing instead to include primarily the BW/BB songs that seemed the most important to Brian and other artists' songs that had the greatest impact on him during his childhood and as a songwriter. I was surprised by how well these songs, particularly those by other artists, flowed with one other. It's a long playlist, just shy of three hours, but really worth a listen in my opinion. 

Enjoy!

https://open.spotify.com/user/1227281520/playlist/5KkiazJdlrM4d53Gx9UbVE

What a cool idea. Thanks!

Great play list. Thank you for sharing!

Good stuff!

I'd also like to see "Brian Wilson's Jukebox" like they did with an old portable jukebox they found that John Lennon was carrying around in 1966, go through and discuss and dissect the records Lennon was listening to. That Wilson family jukebox stocked with all those classic Capitol sides from Sinatra, Les Paul, Nat King Cole, etc and other hits of the day would be a great topic in terms of the influences Brian had and which we heard come out directly and indirectly in his own music and arrangements. It's not all Chuck Berry and Four Freshmen that we hear in Brian's productions and songs.

I remember years ago on a previous board I was discussing the Les Paul multitracked "new sound" and that 50's jazz/pop which can be heard in Brian's own music, then it comes out in the book that those same records and artists were being played in the Wilson house when the boys were growing up. Yet as usual there were some people then with deaf ears and closed minds on those now-defunct forums who challenged those influences. Guess they were wrong after all.  ;D

Hello, Spotify doesn't work in this country, would you kindly write down the tracklist here? Thanks in advance.

Lovely stuff...but just wish you'd included "Mess of Help," which has lyrics called out like the majority of the songs in the playlist. A song that needs to be heard more often in order to showcase the full range of Brian's songwriting and Carl's often-underestimated achievements as the band's primart producer in the 1969-72 time frame.

Sure. Here you go:

01. "Easy To Be Hard" - Three Dog Night
02. "In My Room"
03. "Til I Die" (re-recording off "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times")
04. "When I Grow Up To Be A Man"
05. "Tenderly" - Rosemary Clooney
06. "Ivory Tower" - Cathy Carr
07. "Surfin'"
08. "Still I Dream Of It"
09. "Busy Doin' Nothin'"
10. "Cry" (off "Imagination")
11. "That Same Song"
12. "Be My Baby" - The Ronettes
13. "It's A Blue World" - The Four Freshmen
14. "Surfer Girl"
15. "Guess I'm Dumb" - Glen Campbell
16. "California Girls"
17. "Let Him Run Wild" (off "Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!)")
18. "My Obsession" - The Rolling Stones
19. "Marcella"
20. "Good Vibrations" (off "Smiley Smile")
21. "Heaven" - Carl Wilson
22. "Melt Away" (off "Brian Wilson")
23. "Don't Hurt My Little Sister"
24. "This Whole World"
25. "I'm Bugged At My Ol' Man"
26. "Graduation Day" - The Four Freshmen
27. "Do It Again"
28. "Time To Get Alone"
29. "A Day In The Life of A Tree"
30. "You Need A Mess of Help To Stand Alone"
31. "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times" (off "Pet Sounds")
32. "A Million To One" - Jimmy Charles
33. "Do You Wanna Dance" (off "The Beach Boys Today!")
34. "In The Back of My Mind" (off "The Beach Boys Today!")
35. "(The Wreck Of The) John B" - The Kingston Trio
36. "God Only Knows"
37. "Caroline, No"
38. "Gee" (off "The Smile Sessions")
39. "Heroes & Villains" (off "Smiley Smile")
40. "Surf's Up" (1966 piano demo)
41. "He Come Down"
42. "Good Time"
43. "Soul Searchin'" (off "Made In California")
44. "Let It Be" - The Beatles
45. "Catch A Wave"
46. "I'm Into Something Good" - Earl-Jean
47. "That Lucky Old Sun (Reprise)"
48. "Going Home"
49. "Rhapsody In Blue" - The Glenn Miller Orchestra
50. "The Like In I Love You"
51. "When You Wish Upon A Star" (off "In The Key of Disney")
52. "Isn't It Time"
53. "Summer's Gone"
54. "Forever" (off "Sunflower")
55. "The Last Song"
56. "Long Promised Road"
57. "Wouldn't It Be Nice"


Hi Don--I've inserted "Mess of Help" into the tracklist, between "A Day In The Life of A Tree" and "IJWMFTD," and it fits really well. Thanks for the suggestion.  :bw

Thank you! It's very nice of you to compile the playlist of Brian's favorites. I didn't know Jimmy Charles & only knew the Herman's Hermits version of "I'm Into Something Good". It's good to get acquainted with new names (Earl-Jean). The BBs songs do flow very well. I like the 1-2 punch of "When You Wish Upon A Star" & "Isn't It Time". In short, this is cool. :bw

    What's this? The Johny Ray hit?

It looks like he didn't attach name for BW/BBs songs (see the other titles).

The "Imagination" track.

Thanks so much! Now it's perfect!  ;)

If someone has time, it would be interesting to fill in all of the album correlations for the songs and see how they cluster. What makes this a really interesting list is how much territory it covers.

This is fantastic!

Precisely, by default these are BBs-related titles. If it was Johnnie Ray hit, you would attach the name.

Wasn't "Celebrate the News" in the book?

It was. But as I explained in my first post, I didn't want to include every single song that was mentioned in the book. "20/20" is well represented with both "Do It Again" and "Time To Get Alone" in the playlist.