The Smiley Smile Message Board

Hi everyone,

I thought this might be a fun road to go down while we wait for Feel Flows!

Obviously, the singles are almost all amazing, but there were so many gems buried on the albums, many that I actually prefer to some of the singles.

I'm curious what some of your favorites are. I have MANY, but for starters:

Almost everything sung and/or written by Dennis
"Lana"
"The Rocking Surfer"
"Car Crazy Cutie"
"I Just Wasn't Made For These Times"
"Deirdre"
"Just Once In My Life"
"Matchpoint Of Our Love"
"Crack At Your Love"
"Where I Belong"
"Shelter"

This car of mine, Dennis takes a filler track and kills it with heartfelt vocal.

Some of my favorite album tracks that weren't singles or b-sides (as far as I know):

Your Summer Dream
Lonely Sea
Drive-In
Keep an Eye on Summer
Good to My Baby
Hushabye
Our Car Club
Busy Doin' Nothin'
Anna Lee, the Healer
Here Comes the Night
I Went to Sleep
I'll Bet He's Nice
Let's Put Our Hearts Together

Too many to name but I will name my favorite Beach Boy album track and one of the most underrated songs in their entire catalog that would be where I belong! Probably one of their last group masterpieces

I can also tell you that this is one of Al Jardine's favorite album tracks!

Amazing choice. I actually had this one in mind when I thought of this thread.

Sortaish Un/related: I was actually listening to Jan & Dean on shuffle while at work and "Rockin' Little Roadster" came on. That and the single mix of "My Mighty GTO" have always been two of my favorite non-hit tracks by any group ever, based on Jan's vocal on "Roadster" and Dean's falsetto during the chorus of "G.T.O." Something about those deliveries just hit emotionally for me. Just like Dennis' vocal on "This Car Of Mine."

There are many, but the first one that comes to mind is "Spirit of America." I love Brian's over-the-top vocal on that one.

I feel like so many of these have such great production in general, that the vocals are the thing that put them over the top for me. Similar to the Jan & Dean vocals I mentioned about, I would say likewise with some of the solo stuff. I love "Summer Means New Love," but Brian and Al's vocals have such a yearning to them that I actually prefer "Somewhere Quiet." I feel the same regarding the vocal on "Rainbows" by Dennis and "Let It Shine" by Brian.

I listened to that song just a couple of days ago. I always liked it very much and I know that it gets called a weak song or something to that effect, probably because of the twofer linernotes. But it is not a weak song. It's actually quite a good one, very melodious. Now, of course it was used as a filler. But that doesn't take away from it's qualities. For sure it is not a masterpiece, but I wouldn't be ashamed if I had written this tune. And yes, Dennis singing on it is really great.

"Time To Get Alone" (How and why was this not a single??? )
"I Just Wasn't Made For These Times"
"You Still Believe In Me"
"Cabinessence"
"Here Today"
"Lonely Sea"
"Little Pad"
"Aren't You Glad"
"Diamond Head"
"I Went To Sleep"
"With Me Tonight"
"Mountain Of Love"
"The Ballad Of Ole Betsy"

The Lonely Sea
She Knows Me Too Well
Aren't You Glad
Wake the World
Time to Get Alone
This Whole World
All I Wanna Do
Feel Flows
The Trader
Sweet Sunday Kind of Love
Full Sail
Keep the Summer Alive
Maybe I Don't Know
Where I Belong
Summer's Gone

I believe Kiss Me Baby and Let Him Run Wild we B-sides. If not, they should be on there.

We'll Run Away
I'm So Young
All the non-singles on Pet Sounds
Here Comes The Night (original version)
Be With Me
Time to Get Alone
All I Wanna Do
Leaving This Town
The Night Was So Young
I'll Bet He's Nice
My Diane

Solo:
Rainbows
There's So Many
Where Has Love Gone

Drive In has to be one of the very best album tracks from those early days, ditto In The Parking Lot. Both would have killed it if given the chance as singles IMO.

Great topic!  I agree with most of what has been written so far.  My two cents, setting aside the well-known stuff like Surf's Up:

-Surfer's Rule
-Country Air
-Looking At Tomorrow
-Hold On Dear Brother
-Little Bird
-With Me Tonight
-This Whole World
-Where I Belong
-All This Is That
-Don't Talk (Put Your Hand On My Shoulder)
-This Car of Mine
-Time To Get Alone

of course I have a hundred more, but these are a few of the relatively unknown songs that deserve a second listen