The Smiley Smile Message Board

1) Celebrate the News

2) I'm So Young (flute version)

3) Old Folks At Home/Ol' Man River (would love to hear the arrangement live)

4) Let Him Run Wild (stereo, alternate take)

I only have the Smiley Smile/Wild Honey and Friends/2020 twofers.

1. We're Together Again
2. Walk On By
3. Can't Wait Too Long
4. Old Folks at Home/Ol' Man River

1. Celebrate The News
2. All Dressed Up For School
3. Walk On By
4. California Girls - Track

"Little Saint Nick" to the "Drive-In" melody
"Old Folks at Home/ Ol' Man River"
"Don't Back Down" alternate

Hands down...the Chuck Britz "single mix" of Heroes And Villains. Getting that out officially was epic.

Same 2-fer "Graduation Day" from Hawaii '67. Brian channeling Bob Flanigan and nailing the Freshmen sound. Terrific.

SmileyWild and Friends20 - sometimes I even feel those two bonus sets are their two best albums. If they were albums.

God yes! I bought the twofers as they were released  (a month or so apart if I remember) I was SO excited to get the SS/WH one as I was sure there would be some Smile material on there. Had to travel to another town to get it as they didn't have it where I lived. I had to track it down. I remember shrieking in HMV as I read the tracklisting and saw H&V alternate version and Cant wait too long (which was still considered a Smile track prior to this releaee). All those poodle permed Megadeth fans must have wondered what the hell was going on.

Had to take it to my girlfriends house as I didn't have  a CD player yet.

The excitement had built to fever pitch.

That version of H&V, wow. It certainly lived up to expectation and the promise of Smile. Hearing the familiar verses in a unfamiliar way, then the Cantina section coming in. Wow.......

Its hard to appreciate now, but this was the first new Smile material to come out since Surfs Up. It was  major event. It certainly lives as a  very fresh memory for me.

I miss life before the internet.

Ah, yes....I know that dilemma well. On one hand, you have researchers and archivists on your "friend list" on Facebook, and all the boots and out of print cd's and albums at your beckoned call. One quick click on e-bay or Amazon is all it takes to buy something. On the other hand, it takes away from the "experience" of searching for something.  There is something about sitting on the floor of a used cd and album store, and spending three hours looking through an unorganized mess only to find that gem you've been searching over a decade for. I remember a time in pre-internet days where you didn't know a recording had circulated(or even existed) until you bought it yourself on a cd you happened to find accidentally.

All the bonus tracks on the SS/WH 2fer but most of all "THWFOS" and "CWTL".

I still remember the first time I heard "CWTL" kick in after its a capella predecessor. It was like entering an entirely new world. It still sounds that way!

I'm nostalgic for those days too. I remember getting a Boston phone book and calling the video rental shops looking for a copy of "An American Band", because it was out of circulation and unavailable  ;D . Then there was Goldmine and Discoveries with all those listings and "send SASE for list" ads. I went through a lot of stamps. Beatle zines, record shows (where if you didn't have the cash, the less upstanding 'dealers' had cassette copies that ran a few ips too fast of the latest CD bootlegs, better than nothing.), the cool shops that had the actual silverdiscs for 25 bucks a pop. All that stuff - good times and the search was as much a part of the fun as finding what you were looking for. Navigating the Boston T to find certain shops, then there was one where the upstairs had the bins and if you went into their basement, it was literally stacks and stacks of LP's and 45's scattered around. Overwhelming. There was a shop around the corner from where I lived which would take in stacks of vinyl from people, and one morning I went there as they were opening. A stack of vinyls was on the counter, the guy said "help yourself" to my buddy and I, they weren't going to be putting them in the racks. It was mostly all original 60's and early 70's vinyl, I guess just not as high-quality condition wise as what the shop wanted to stock, so we helped ourselves. Multiple copies of original Rubber Soul pressings and other Beatle Capitol albums, 5th Dimension, Tim Hardin, I think BB's Greatest Hits vol 1 was in there, etc. Unreal. What a gift.

Getting a bootleg dub of Let It Be on VHS for Christmas 1989...that was cool!

But I can say that i shared the experience of hearing Heroes that first time when the "Cantina" section started up...That was a moment which could be called enlightenment mixed with ecstasy mixed with jaw-dropping awe. I couldn't get over the beauty of those first few bars and the melody Brian was singing. Knocked me out, changed me forever. I still have been trying to figure out how one goes about creating such a song that ebbs and flows and changes like that unused mix of Heroes had done so well.

"I Do" - such a knockout track.

That's a good point, some of the 2-fers made great standalone "new" albums in a way, especially when the albums themselves were more like bookends from the same era. I'd add the Today/Summer Days CD to that list. And later, it was great to have available the Sunflower/Surfs Up 2-fer where you could have all of those great Stephen Desper mixes together on one disc. Some fans disagree with the repackaging, but I thought the 2-fer series both Capitol and Brother were great products for fans even if the original vibe of having a single album wasn't there. I also think when they reverted back to single-disc reissues, it was a rip-off in terms of fans buying them. You would pay nearly the same for a half-hour of Wild Honey as fans just before had paid for well over an hour of Smiley Smile/Wild Honey complete with incredible bonus tracks.

No doubt about it.. the Heroes & Villains alternate single mix!  Holy hell did that blow me away.  To this day it is the definitive version for me, and I think it blows away all other versions.  At the time I hadn't heard any booted Smile stuff so my jaw dropped during the Cantina section and the fade at the end of the song.. oh my God that fade!!!  Overall it has a special "edge" to it that I feel is lacking in the official released version from 1967.

I also immensely enjoyed the Good Vibrations sessions.

LOVED All Dressed Up For School!  How was this not finished and released?  Totally rocks and should have been a single!

Stereo Pet Sounds! ;D

I remember, back in the 80s when I was discovering each Beach Boys album, when most were out of print and I had to hunt them down, every song was a bonus track.

Still regret selling all those hard sought out LPs when the twofers came out. Bad decision, most were the original monos.

But yes, the way those twofers were presented are still my definitive way of listening to those albums. A great rerelease package which heralded the rediscovery / reassessment of the Beach Boys

The twofers are great, they were quite a novel way to present the BBs huge catalog in an organized way to new listeners.

For me, too, the alternate H & V mix. As great as the rest of the song is, the Cantina section and the "Barnshine*" fade are simply sublime. I wonder what would have happened if THAT had been the 1967 single, though I guess it would have been "understood" even less. The world was not ready for such things. Now it's even less ready.
Close second, "Can't Wait Too Long".

* I'm not really sure if it's the correct name, but I love it... Barnshine, gives so much the idea. :)

Call me boring, call me a sheep seeking a herd, but there we have it: H&V.

I did like the alternate version of Let Him Run Wild on the Today / SDSN.

Also, though not rarities, I like that non album singles (ie. TLGIOK, Be True to Your School (Single), and Breakaway) were included.

I'll second that! Amazing track. It's a shame it wasn't released in the 60's.

I love "I Do" also; very underrated track.

"I Do" seems like the chorus comes up in the song quicker than in any other BB song I can think of; can anyone think of a chorus that is first heard in a song faster than this one?

I Get around starts with the chorus!

True dat :)  I guess my question was about a song that doesn't actually start with the chorus, going into a course as fast as this one does...

dance dance dance ?

Yeah, that's definitely another!

(To bring it back to the topic of the thread, the alternate Dance, Dance, Dance rules the school too.)

I always considered the alternate "Heroes & Villains" to be interesting and valuable, but not necessarily a revelation. Perhaps it was because the Smiley Smile/Wild Honey CD was my first Beach Boys album and I didn't have that historical context. But I agree the whole SS/WH twofer is fascinating listening, and the bonus tracks all have a seductive atmosphere to them that is unique to those recordings. It is interesting to think of them, as another poster pointed out, as the first  cache of Smile material released since Surf's Up.

But my 5 favorite BBs bonus tracks are all contained in the astonishing sequence at the end of Friends/20/20: "Breakaway," "Celebrate," "We're Together Again," "Walk On By," and "Old Folks/Ol' Man River."

Honorable mentions: "I Do," "Cindy, Oh Cindy," "TLGIOK," the live "Don't Worry Baby," and "Morning Christmas" (does that count?).

I actually consider the Today/SD and LDC/ASL bonus tracks mostly inconsequential (I guess the alternate vocal "Let Him Run Wild" is pretty nice), but I appear to be alone in this.

Yes, it should go to Unpopular Opinions thread. 10 points though for picking "Cindy Oh Cindy". :D

The bonus tracks most interesting to me are the previously unreleased ones, not the alternate Mix or alternate vocal versions.  So my favorites:

I Do
Can't Wait Too Long (was previously booted though)
Heroes and Villains (cantina)
Old Folks/Old Man River
Heroes and Villains (live Hawaii)

Can't Wait Too Long - anytime I put this one, it stays in my head for the rest of the week
Heroes and Villains - I really like this alternate version better than the released one
Land Ahoy - had a soft spot for this one ever since I heard it on the Rarities album

Cant Wait Too Long is amazing and probably my favorite. Its the best mix/arrangement that I've come across and I think the edits are perfect.

Definitely the original H&V on SS/WH 2-fer too. Some of the earlier posts about getting it when it first came out: wow I can only imagine the excitement. Back before internet it certainly was a lot more rare to come across certain things if you didn't live right near a large city. I depended on mom & pop record stores a lot back then.

Walk On By is beautiful, but I wonder why they didn't flesh out the whole song? Regardless its also great.

All Dressed Up For School was also a favorite, although there is now a superior mix on Made In California box.

Also Their Hearts Were Full Of Spring. It's not their best vocal performance or anything, but for some reason the 'Boys sound depressed and/or tired. Or maybe just high. But for some reason their performance is so sad and touching on this 1967 version.

I also always really loved "You're Welcome", despite how brief it is.

Don't Back Down alt version
Can't Wait Too Long
Let Him Run Wild alt version

I Do
I'm So Young alternate version
Can't Wait Too Long
Break Away (I prefer the new alternate version)
Celebrate the News