The Smiley Smile Message Board

I was just wondering the story behind a few tracks that I haven't really seen mentioned much.  I figure this would be the place where people might know.

Bells of Madness - A woman sings most of it but Brian is there in the background and the end of the song.  An obvious shortenin' bread riff is heard in one section.

Black Widow - Undoubtedly an 80's or early 90's Brian track of some sort.

Dancing the Night - Mostly an instrumental but with one section that clearly has Carl and I think Mike on vocals.

Everything I Need - Another 80's or 90's Brian track with singing between Brian and a female vocalist.

I'm sure there are probably a ton of other little tracks out there and I've hardly even scratched the surface but if any of you something about these tracks I'd be grateful to hear what you have to say about them.

Alright...i can answer a few:

Bells of Madness or Fantasy is Reality has a lead vocal by Carnie Wilson (BW's daughter), I believe it's from a tribute album, cant remember who for off the top of my head.

I think Black Widow was part of the Gary Usher sessions from 86-87 era (I could be wrong on that), the song was reproduced into an even more 80s sounding song called Let's Do it Again.

Dancing the Night Away was from the Andy Paley sessions I believe (along with Soul Searchin' and You're Still a Mystery), I wanna say this was recycled into a Baywatch song (Baywatch Nights?)

Everything I need was written with PS collab. Tony Asher (I think!), there's a demo that's usually attatched to the Andy Paley sessions, but the official version is on Wendy/Carnie's Wilsons album...I think it was produced with Joe Thomas, right? There's a couple more Ashey/Wilson songs out there in this particular era, This Isn't Love came from that, and I think a couple others, I can't remember their titles off the top my head



btw, ask about more songs anytime, I can speak for myself when saying I love discussion on lesser talked about tunes or stories behind them

BOM aka FIR was off the Trios album which was featuring Rob Wasserman (I think that's his name)

Wasn't "Black Widow" one of the 1983 songs? Let me check my favorite BB resource:  Bellagio lists the session for Let's Do it again, but nothing for Black Widow. My understanding was the Black Widow came first, though.

Try looking on the  unreleased songs section, part 2 (BW songs).  ;D

Pardon my ignorance, but where might I go to find the unreleased songs sections? :angel:

And thanks for the responses, by the way.

Andrew has a very informative website with a lot of info such as this: http://www.btinternet.com/~bellagio/

Thanks, that's awesome.  If you don't see me for a few days it's because I'll be deeply involved in reading through that site. ^-^

I know what you mean   ;D


Back in high school and later in college, I had free printing and just printed out so many files on unreleased stuff, lyrics, articles, album reviews, etc....just pulled them out the other day...i have a separate file for smile.

Fantasy Is Reality (Bells Of Madness) is a collaboration between Brian (backing vox), Carnie Wilson (lead vox), and Rob Wasserman (acoustic bass), on Rob's Trios album from 1993. Commonly remembered as one of Brian's many uses of the Shortenin' Bread riff.

Black Widow dates from 1983, and a demo recording with vocals, piano, organ, and drum machine circulates. Brian wrote and produced the demo, then it was redone in 1986 during the Usher sessions and then again in 1987 during sessions for the self-titled album as Let's Do It Again.

Dancing The Night Away is a Brian/Mike collaboration done during the "reunion" period in 1995. It's commonly remembered as the straw that broke Carl's back, as after he put down a truly half-assed vocal, he walked out of the studio and called the reunion off.

Everything I Need is a Brian/Tony Asher collaboration from 1996, when the pair wrote a few songs together for the first time since 1966. There is a demo with Brian on vocals from around 1996, then the same demo with Brian, Carnie, and Wendy on vocals from a bit later, then a final released version on The Wilsons LP from 1997, with Brian featured on the bridge. Jeff Foskett did a great cover a few years back with Brian on backing vocals. IMO Jeff's version is the definitive one until and if Brian does a proper version.