The Smiley Smile Message Board

... and is it possible to open it without breaking the tracklist sealing paper that runs from the lid down the back and on to the base?

Don't think so. At least I gave up trying...

I'm in --   it was only held on with tacky gum, like Mojo uses to hold CDs on its cover.

Sitting here laughing as I read this. Y'all are just like me.  I wonder how many people here are some form of obsessive?

There's a Louie Armstrong/Ella Fitzgerald three disc set (all their collaborations on Verve, complete) that I've got that comes in a blue hinged case with a tan band holding it together. The band has a nice printed design with titles and information on it.  The band is held in place by a photograph of Louie and Ella glued to it and the cover, on the front.  Instructions on the back say "Tear seal here to open package/ Please do not remove band."  Tear it, but then keep it on there. The Adrian Monk in me wanted to find the package designer and seal-club him.

i got the box too. is it supposed to open at the very bottom? it came right off as soon as i opened it, but i can't find anywhere else to open it from. it's fine if that's how it is, just seems like a very weird place to make the opening.

The Neil Young Archives is a pretty bad offender of this. The large book is in a slightly larger chamber with a just-the-right-size opening. Same thing with the poster, if I recall. I had to tear the insides apart to get these things out.

Thanks foer the warning -  I wsa about to work into the night to earn the money to buy that darned thing (and I'd have to do the same for the next fortnight to afford a Blu-Ray player too)! Maybe I'd be better off catching up on lost sleep!

Agree -  I had to look pretty close to find out where to open it -  it looks like the wood band around the centre should do it, but yes it's the base.

It's a nice packaging job but completely meaningless. The booklet's pretty but primarily pretty uninformative.  The music's outstanding -  some of the stereo mixes are worth having again! - but it would have made a nice 2CD set, all told.

Addition: if it had made a nice 2CD set, we'd still have moaned. It's our job as fans to moan!

This thread is funny!  I just got my box from amazon yesterday...and had the same thoughts!!!!

...not realizing that the outer label was fixed at both the top and bottom, I tried to open the box and almost pulled the bottom off!  Doh.  Easy, easy fix...but still.

Overall, having paid 32 bux for a $132 box-set, I'm quite very happy.  The packaging is gorgeous...looks and feels high-quality.  It's fun to thumb through the singles and pick a track.  It's a collector's treat.  Most importantly...the sound! These are hands down the best sounding versions of these tracks I have.  It would have been nice to have had the new stereo mix of "Don't Worry Baby" but those tapes were only recently discovered.  The only real downside is that it's not the COMPLETE Capitol singles!  It stops at California Girls... :'(

Including all the Capitol singles -- Good Vibes, Heroes and Villains, etc... would have made this a perfect little box.  But I guess I'll have to wait for a volume 2.  Will there be a Volume 2?  But then...I'll have to wait until that too gets mispriced by Amazon.   :smokin

Most likely you figured this out yourself, but I have this Ella & Louis package too.  The good news is the band slides off gently without damaging the other packaging.  At least it does on my copy.  The only bother is when I'm done playing it I remember to slide it back on before shelving the case.

so it's NOT supposed to open at the bottom??

There won't be, i guess - They released half of Pet Sounds on singles, then there's Little Girl, whatever the flip to that was (something off Summer Days, right?), Good Vibes, Heroes And Villains and You're Welcome, off the top of my head. Not much for a vol. 2..... which begs the question why they didn't finish it off?

Oh,, and for Brits with perhaps a little more cash to spare, the box is going for £60 on Amazon and Play....

I was dissappointed that they didn't include "The Little Girl I Once Knew" on the singles box set.

Does anyone know if a stereo remix of the single version is impossible? The one on Hawthorne is a different take, as far as I knew.

It isn't - I've heard a great-sounding, fan-made stereo version!

anyone?

It is supposed to open at the bottom. You can see how it works here:

(http://cdn.stereogum.com/img/gum_drop_images/beach-boys-singles-box-set.jpg)

The line on the main box is clearer here:

(http://www.beachboys.com/singlesbox.jpg)

And the set was formatted so there would be an equal number of Capitol singles for a follow-up box:

The Little Girl I Once Knew b/w There´s No Other
Barbara Ann b/w Girl Don´t Tell Me
Sloop John B b/w You´re So Good To Me
Wouldn´t It Be Nice b/w God Only Knows
Good Vibrations b/w Let´s Go Away For Awhile
Heroes & Villains b/w You´re Welcome
Gettin´Hungry b/w Devoted To You
Wild Honey b/w Wind Chimes
Darlin´ b/w Here Today
Friends b/w Little Bird
Do It Again b/w Wake The World
Bluebirds Over The Mountain b/w Never Learn Not To Love
I Can Hear Music b/w All I Want To Do
Break Away b/w Celebrate The News

That's 14 singles, just like the first box. They then switched to Warners/Reprise, and Break Away is a good ending point for the classic era anyway.

For some reason, i completely forgot about the rest of those singles..... durrrrr  :lol

Beautiful post claymcc.  Thanks!!!

Bring on vulome fuxing two!!!!! wooooohoooo!!!!  ( :afro

...Can I just add, that having now received the Singles box, that I so was not ever gonna buy -- how much I now enjoy not having a plastic jewel case anywhere near me as I listen to "Please Let Me Wonder."

Correction -- there are actually 15 singles and one bonus disc on volume 1. So we have to add the solo BW single of "Caroline No" to the second volume, thus reaching 15 singles for volume 2.

Someone clearly planned this in advance. Makes me wonder if we'll ever get a second box, though.

I want the second box too!  Complete with picture sleeves!

Yes! And a live version of Gettin' Hungry!

That would make a nice vol 2 singles box.  I imagine and hope they'd make it identical to the first one -- maybe volume two should be green and yellow or something -- rather than the red and yellow in vol 1...just to fit with the music!

But, like you, I wonder if we will ever see it.   :'(  When volume 1 came out, guys like me were really not happy about that price, and a lot of us -- maybe most of us, said "no dice."  132 bux is steep.  I'd pay 60, maybe 70...80's pushin' it....132 is outright.  I hope they don't kill volume 2 because of "lack of interest."  That's simply not the case.

Trust me, you don't want to hear one. The only two that exist were performed horribly.

Small problem - there's one more single - "Cotton Fields/The Nearest Faraway Place". Which was released after the first Brother-Reprise 45.  ;D

Also, if you include "Gettin' Hungry", which is credited to Brian & Mike, you should include "Caroline, No" even though it's credited to Brian Wilson.

I did post a follow up message after studying the original package again -- vol 1 has 15 singles and a bonus disc. If you include BW solo on Caroline No and stop at Breakaway, you also get 15 singles for a vol 2. If you include Cotton Fields, then I guess you kick out CN to get to 15.

I heard one, at least. It has a charming quality, I think.  :) But the mix wasn't that nice.

The above post sounds like a reference to August 25th, 1967 to me.

ARRRGH!  No, the damage is done.  On my copy, the loose (die-cut) photo of Ella and Louie is firmly glued to the band and also to the blue cover, binding them all together, so no sliding.  I even re-checked just now.  So I gently (and tearfully) cut the band, as instructed...set me back ten years of therapy.  A slap in the face to obsessives everywhere, just glad to know others here are the same way!

If the package designer ever moves to Atlanta, he can consider his lawn already trenched.

I just won the box set on ebay for £36 and I am rather happy! I did at one point say I wouldn't buy the box set but at this price I couldn't afford not to ;D

Sorry to hear.  Well, Verve does like to do that with their reissue packages.  Other equally f*cked packaging jobs are the Ella & Duke Ellington Paris concert box, and the Lester Young Verve masters, real irritating to juggle.

And then there's the Complete Verve Masters series, in the big tin cans, where the disc cases fold out like an accordion and the awkward shape means they can't be stored conveniently (I have the Charlie Parker and Billie Holiday ones). Just seems like Verve is thinking too much here. Oh, well, they're fun to look at, and definitely get an "A" for effort.

I like the recent Genesis boxes because they just slide into the CD shelves under "G", next to where the other Genesis discs were.

Amazon had a list once of worst DVD packages and I think the winner was a season of "The Munsters" in a package shaped like Fred Gwynne's head! You can also get the complete series of "The Flintstones" in a big replica of their car- what are you going to do with that? Roll it around the living room? I've gotta throw in a vote, too, for the new Woodstock box set- all variations I've seen, but especially the one with the mini-tambourine.

There are also those Simpsons ones where you can get them all as the characters heads..... nice  ::)

Talking of The Munsters isn't the theme tune the greatest theme song ever? It's creepy sounding surf rock and if I remember rightly written by someone signed to Capitol?

You are entirely correct.


I just looked it up, and it was written by Jack Marshall, father of Hollywood exec. Frank Marshall (whom I used to work for). Best version of it I've ever heard:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dXqMcx6geg

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41OiGkjr27L._SS500_.jpg)