The Smiley Smile Message Board

My Choice Would Have To Be "Wild Honey." The Colors and Flowers Definately Stand Out :)

1} Surfer Girl..2} Beach Boys concert..3} Sunflower..4} Surfs Up..5}Smile..6}Keepin The Summer Alive..7] Brother records Logo..I just find all these covers represent the band very well..BTW..The cover to SIP is good also + better than the music.

The Olympic rings of 15 Big Ones is kinda kooky but I like it. I have often wondered how they got the permission to use that logo ?

Surf's Up
Wild Honey
Surfin' USA
Little Deuce Coupe
Holland
Friends
SMiLE

In that order.

The only solo covers I like are POB. BWRG and BW88.

(http://991.com/newGallery/Beach-Boys-The-Beach-Boys-19-467898.jpg)

Because look at it.

smiley smile has an awesome cover i was considering getting parts of that cover tattooed on my forearm :)

Surf's Up, way ahead of the pack. Why? The mood it projects----it reflects the darker stuff on side two perfectly. And front and back are of a piece...

With Surfin' U.S.A. in second place...

Can't believe such a discussion is going on without mention of my BB Album Covers website !!  :lol
For those who haven't discovered it yet ... www.pipeline-operaglass.moonfruit.com
 ;)

1) Holland - It's artistic
2) Pet Sounds - Connects with the music in such a weird way
3) Wild honey - Unique colors

Holland, Ten Years of Harmony, Surf's Up, Wild Honey - all fairly artistic and very tasteful.

I like the early stuff as well, fits their music in a nice unassuming (and very 60s) way. Summer Days is a particular favorite.

I've always loved the cover for Smiley Smile. Fair enough, it's a massive Rousseau rip off, but I like Rousseau and I like the Beach Boys, so it's a great mix. It just fits songs like Fall Breaks and Little Pad too.

My favourite album cover is "Looking Back With Love".

Summer Days, with everybody except Al and Bruce looking badass on that yacht.

The best (in no particular order):

Surfer Girl
Pet Sounds
Smile
Wild Honey
Surf's Up


The worst:
Sunflower
Love You
15 Big Ones
20/20

this belongs to someone on this board i believe?
(http://images.yuku.com.s3.amazonaws.com/image/jpg/f982596b88afd65b31257299dad96703a1b8cde_r.jpg)


i like
All Summer Long
Sunflower
Pet Sounds
Love You
Endless Harmony

the 3D cover on the SMiLE boxset is an absolute masterpiece

Smiley Smile and Wild Honey are my favorites. and Surf's Up.

I forgot that someone already had that bee tattoo, I was thinking of getting that tattooed somewhere on me. I also want to get "The Smile That You Send Out Returns to You" tattooed on my arm.

Summer Days

Sunflower (the sleeve, as do the songs, exudes warmth and love)

L.A. Light Album



But also a note for the awful typography which spoils the wonderful Dennis image on POB.

wow that impressive :)..id rather get the flowers instead of the bee..but thats just me.

20 Golden Greats.

A majority of 1 (me) think the Carl and the Passions cover in 12" format only is one of their greats. Great piece of very US car art, but loses something in CD format.  Like KTSA; moody and evocative in large format.

That tatt' is amazing! :o

Stack-O- Tracks
Smiley Smile
Love You
Summer Days
Party
Holland

The worst to me is KTSA

i agree with u . it's major corny lol

They all have merit.  For some reason, when this question comes up, I always think of LA.   Maybe cause of the colorful postcard array.  Also liked KTSA when it came out.  Seemed really cool (NPI) at the time.  MIU isn't bad..at least the cover isn't.

Keepin' The Summer Alive is both really cool and really lame at the same time. It's a really cool concept, but then also paints the desperation they had going at the time to stay relevant. As an oldies act. Overall I like it, though.

yes la was a nice cover but the album was ughhhh :/

The Shut Down Vol. II cover is boss. The Boys looked like bad asses in the Capitol Records parking lot with Murry's white '63 Ford T-Bird, Dennis' '63 Corvette Stingray, and Carl's '64 Pontiac Grand Prix.

Great thread.  My faves are All Summer Long, Summer Days, Party -- all three for the candid shots.  Then Sunflower -- I love the cover photo of the band with the kids, and also the inside shots of the boys on the Hollywood backlot (Brian as Good Humor man).  Surf's Up is awesome and evocative.

The Holland cover photos are cool, but seem really disconnected from the music.  CATP is one of my favorite albums, but I think the cover hurt its reception (and still does).  It was the first sort of "retro" Beach Boys cover, and suggests "Kokomo"-style music -- which CATP most assuredly is not.

Yea, great cover. The Beach Boys had this west coast version of  Dion & The Belmonts thing going on in their music, hair dos and dress.

My three favorites would have to be Smile, Sunflower, and Love You. The latter in particular has grown on me over time -- it's the kind of design you could use today with very little updating. The little tiles are just great; it's like proto-pixel art.

*shakes fist at server*

'Friends'....it fits the album so well - it's very dreamy and mellow.

Close second is the 'Summer Days' album cover....it's an excellent photo - no other album cover really expresses the guys so well, imo.

Indeed. A true, ironic masterpiece  :hat.

More seriously - BB Today, Smile, Sunflower, LA Light Album, KTSA, Summer in Paradise. Yep, think BBs albums should be colourful lol.

Solo - GIOMH (Peter Blake of Sgt Pepper fame), POB, TLOS, ITKOD

FWIW, the Boys themselves seem to like Sunflower, or at least the inner gatefold. I have been fortunate enough to have various albums signed by all of the guys (save for Dennis) over the years. Without exception they all made some comment about the photos in the Sunflower gatefold.

20/20 because it signifies a point in time of my life when I realized that my favorite group was indeed still relevant and a whole new era of BB music was ahead and I was fully on-board. Also, it was the gateway to a future relationship with those pictured that I could never have imagined. What a rush just thinking about it.

the album 20/20 to me was awesome :)..but the cover was boring and seemed like something rushed.

Shut Down Vol. 2
Friends
Pet Sounds

...(Good Call, Mikie!)  :rock

Have always liked the cover of the 1966 Best of The Beach Boys LP, with photos from Pet Sounds vocal sessions.

No.

I like the Surfer Girl, Pet Sounds, SMiLE, and Wild Honey covers.

From a graphic design/artistry standpoint, there's a lot of interesting things going on with the Wild Honey and SMiLE covers.

Wild Honey - vibrant color
Smiley Smile - beautiful artwork

Also like the Smile cover for it's great lettering on top.

Favorite in terms of cleverness is the b00t w/the Smiley vegetation superimposed over an abandoned Smile Shop.

My favorite is Sunflower's cover. To me it somehow conveys that the band has once again found its footing.

That seems really cool, I've never seen that.

Best:

Smile
Smiley Smile
Friends
Surf's Up
Summer In Paradise
Best Of The Brother Years
back cover of the Warmth Of The Sun compilation
Marcella 7" from Spain
Here Comes The Night 7" from Italy

Worst:

What I Really Want For Christmas
Any post-1964 cover with a surfboard on it

(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_VIt42ZwDrR4/SQzywI0Mj9I/AAAAAAAAA7M/z46byRKe2oM/s400/beach+boys+-+smile+millenium+edition+front.jpg)

it is cool.

Gotta go with

(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Ban3oeI1ZaQ/SskY2b7ClnI/AAAAAAAABOQ/cVIrSR_FJc8/s400/beach%2Bboys%2Bsurfer%2Bgirl.jpg)

Always thought it was pretty cool, lol.

this is a strange yet fascination album cover :)
i wish someone fused wild honey and smiley smile 2gether i bet id look oddly beautiful.

Wow I like that for a cover. Kinda says it all really, how the glorious Smile Shop was closed and got all over grown with 40 years worth of weeds. Until recent times anyway.

Would love to see those!

Friends and Love You!

I LOVE "Love You", this whole amazing pixel art stuff before it all became cool, it's really great.
i think L.A. Album is quite nice also!
i will always have a special place in my heart for the Pet Sounds picture since it was taken in the San Diego Zoo and i'm from San Diego, so f- yeah!
i like the All Summer Long and Party! one, it just shows the band having fun and has a very 60's style to it, i love 60's style.
Sunflower is kinda the same as Pet Sounds : maybe not the greatest cover ever, but just seeing the band with their kids is really cute i think, a lovely picture.
Surf's Up has always somehow obsessed me: it's funny how the title that brings back the surf vibe, so you would expect an joyfull cover, yet it is their darkest..
i mean, i've seen many dark album covers before, but this one.. i guess the dark sky has something to do with it, it's somehow so sad..
i kinda like the one for That's Why God Made The Radio, the band's name bothers me but the rest is cool, could have been something that followed the SMiLE era you know?

But my all time fav, yeah definitely Love You i believe.


Yeah, exactly how i feel about it.

i forgot all summer long :) it's very teeny bopperish lol jk nah it's nicely put together with all the colors and the crew having fun they look like the enjoyed that photoshoot :)
and surf's up has a very creepy feel to it that i enjoy lol

Smiley Smile - love it! And Stack-o-tracks is a great group photo.

Ooooh no, I COULD I'VE FORGOTTEN SMILEY SMILE ?

I know why, because i'm not a fan of the album : it's not really an album for me, just the shadow of SMiLE.

But man, that artwork! i would take it over the SMiLE one anytime actually, yeah call me crazy, but it somehow fits more the psychedelic atmosphere imo.

Yeah, that and Love You are probably my favs! and not only my fav BB ones but part of my fav in general i think so.

  From the 60's:

     SHUT DOWN VOL 2, ALL SUMMER LONG, SMILEY SMILE, SURFER GIRL, PET SOUNDS

  From the 70's:

     SURF'S UP, CARL & THE PASSIONS, HOLLAND, GOOD VIBRATIONS-BEST OF THE BEACH BOYS

   From the 80's:

    TEN YEARS OF HARMONY

  From the 90's:

  SUMMER IN PARADISE


 From the 2000's:


 THAT'S WHY GOD MADE THE RADIO



 SURF'S UP is their all-time best cover, IMO