The Smiley Smile Message Board

These twofers are both amazing, solid works of art.
I'm just curious to see who would come out on top.
For me, I'm going with the Summer Days twofer, just because of that perfect side 2 of Today!

In my opinion Sunflower is a masterpiece and Surf's Up is a great record that has multiple weak songs on it. In my opinion Today! is a masterpiece and Summer Days is a great record that has multiple weak songs on it.

Whoa...History repeats itself.  :o

Absolutely!
Did you go with the Sunflower twofer, Mr. Stebbins?

Today/Summer Days, as I'm not that big a fan of Sunflower.

I did. Close call...Sunflower and Today are both huge in my life.

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Today/Summer Days

When I'll hear Summer Days and Today in stereo, I will perhaps reconsider, if only they re-vamped SU by WIBNTLA, 4J and Big Sur....

Went with Today/Summer Days. As Jon stated, Today & Sunflower are huge in my life, as well. As far as how much I like and listen to them, I rank Today #1, Sunflower #2, All Summer Long #3.

It seems that my votes are directly related to the amount of Brian Wilson's participation. So, guess where my vote goes? ;D

I like a lot of Surf's Up. Most of it, actually. But, for reasons covered extensively on this board, it will always be the most woulda/shoulda/coulda of Beach Boys' albums. Other than SMiLE, of course....

I love Today and Sunflower. But I think Summer Days is a lot better than Surf's Up, so a no brainer for me.

Sunflower & Surf's Up!

I chose Sunflower/Surf's Up... but now (three seconds later) I'm not so sure.

Well I prefer Today! to Sunflower (no Tears... on Today!, and nothing beats Today! side 2), but then I prefer Surf's Up to Summer Days... - so how the hell am I supposed to vote??

Do we include the bonus tracks? If The Little Girl I Once Knew (probably my all time favourite single, by anyone, ever) enters the equation then i'm voting for Today/Summer Days...

If "bonus tracks" were included my vote would be a strong yes for Sunflower/Surf's Up. The "Landlocked" sessions contain some of my favorite Beach Boys songs. Big Sur, I Just Got My Pay, Games People Play, Good Time, HELP is on the Way, Fallin' in Love (Lady), et cetera...

I love Today! and Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!) the latter's weaker tracks let it down in comparison to Surf's Up weaker tracks. Sunflower has to be my favourite Beach Boys album (I actually really like Tears, I don't understand the disdain towards it) and Surf's Up only realy "weak" track is SDT, which is kind of a mood killer but it fares better than Salt Lake City and Amusement Parks U.S.A. Don't get me wrong, Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!) is actually one of my favourites but is just edged out by the perfect Sunflower and the great Surf's Up.

I always laughed about the title Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!). I always think like the Beach Boys were offering Summer Days and then, to entice the audience and relieve their anticipation for Summer Nights as well, mention Summer Nights with excitement.

I find that the instrumental/backing vocal track to Tears is better than the actual released version (and it's first when you've heard that version, you can really appreciate the song). It's funny how taste differs though. To me SLC and APUSA are among the best tracks on 'Summer Days' - in fact, the only really 'weak' tracks would be You're So Good to Me and I'm Bugged at My Ol' Man , and I really don't mind those tracks.

On 'Surf's Up' however, I'm not particularly fan of DG(1957), SDT (STD anyone? :D), ADITLOAT, and songs such as DGNTW, LAT(AWS), and TALOYF are alright, but nothing in compared to the 'middle-of-the-scale' songs on 'Summer Days'. Taste will always be subjective, I guess ;)

I wish I could do Today/Sunflower, both are among my favorite albums.

Wow, I knew it would be close, but I didn't expect it to be an exact tie.

Today/Summer Days

I think summer Days is underrated by fans.

I went with Sunflower/Surf's Up slightly.  Today! may very well be the best album on there thanks to the gorgeous side two, but I'm very fond of Sunflower as well.  Summer Days is a good album but I find it a little more inconsistent as I do Surf's Up, and the highs of Surf's Up are hard to match almost anywhere.

I went with Today/Summer Days. Today is a fantastic concept album with it's two sides perfectly summing up the duality of Brian's song writing, and side two is obviously a close relation of Pet Sounds.

Summer Days is a comparatively weak record, true; but it does have some big guns. I mean California Girls, a much improved version of Help Me Rhonda and Then I Kissed Her, which, yes, is a cover, but there's something otherworldly about Brian's backing harmony and Al obviously sounds great on it! I really like Let Him Run Wild as well. The only tracks that really pull it down a lot for me are Amusement Parks USA and You're So Good To Me.

I've never been a big fan of Sunflower. Something about it just doesn't grab me in the same way as Brian's 60s work. Surf's Up does nothing for me, but makes me wonder what the BBs story would have been like if SMiLE had been finished and they hadn't spend the subsequent years slowly regurgitating SMiLE songs over the course of several records. Such a shame... ah well.

I second.  Even though I'm not terribly fond of "Then I Kissed Her" and "I'm Bugged At My Old Man," Summer Days shows Brian Wilson on top of his game in terms of production and songwriting.  Maybe it is slightly more uneven than Today!, but there isn't the huge gap in quality that we see on Surf's Up.  Even though "'Til I Die" is probably better than anything on Summer Days, most of the non-Brian songs are not comparable to his work circa 1965, even though they are valiant efforts by the other members of the band.

I don't get all the hate for You're So Good To me on this topic - that's like, one of my favourite songs (probably because it was on the original 'best of the beach boys')

Perhaps I should add that if I were to choose my favorite two-fer ever, I would probably either go with Smiley Smile/Wild Honey or Friends/20/20 rather than one of these two.

All of the above. 

I can't bring myself to pick one over the other.  It would be like trying to pick my favorite food.  Some days it's pizza, some days it's steak, some days it's enchiladas, other days it's stir fry.  Just depends on what I'm in the mood for.

Although "Don't Go Near the Water" is like discovering that somebody stuck olives on the pizza.  I just pick those off and throw them away, and everything's perfect!

I went for Today!/Summer Days, there isn't a song I dislike on either Today or Sunflower and Summer Days trumps Surf's Up by not having Take A Load Off Your Feet and Student Demonstration Time.

seconded.

Definitely Today/Summer Days for me. I love Please Let Me Wonder and Kiss Me Baby alone more than the whole of Sunflower/Surf's Up. They are 20% of the top 10.


I'm also surprised that people seem not to like You're So Good To Me. I never considered it one of the weaker tracks. Though the lyrics always make me laugh. It's like the least romantic, most self-absorbed love song ever.

And I LOVE I'm Bugged At My Ol' Man! Both because I think it's cute and because it is a unique display of Brian's insane vocal gymnastics.

Yeah, that's why I wrote 'weak'. Because really, both of those songs have their charm for sure - all though I think the other songs on the album are better. And while I love 'Til I Die and Surf's Up (all though I much prefer Brian's piano demo version of the latter to the album version), I think 'Summer Days' ends up being a lot better.

Without a doubt, Sunflower/Surf's Up.

All top-notch albums though!

Today! is my favorite BB album, though I may be the only one here who likes the first side better than the second.

SD/SN would be a much better album with a better track order. The three weakest tracks are hidden at the end of the album, so if I listen it through, I end up with a feeling of "not that good".

Sunflower is great, but I never thought Surf's Up was really good, so I vote for the 1965 twofer.

Without a doubt..  Today and Summer Days.

Love love love these albums.  Side one of Today rocks.  Beach Boy perfection.


I do love Sunflower as well, but Surf's Up doesn't resonate with me as much.  With all the great songs they had in the can at that point the tracklist could have been SO much better.  Sigh.

Twofer polls introduce a new element----bonus tracks----just to make things more difficult, lol. "Little Girl" is a huge and very tempting plus on the earlier twofer. Even so, my vote goes to the later one----that has Surf's Up on it. :=)

I go with Today!/Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!).

That second side of Today! is killer. I'd probably take "Please Let Me Wonder" over any song from Sunflower or Surf's Up.

Today!/Summer Days

Nothing from Sunflower or Surf's Up moves me as much as 'She Knows Me Too Well'. There's hardly another Beach Boys song with such melodic complexity as 'In The Back Of My Mind'.

Today! is nearly a perfect album...from the harmonies to the chord progressions, from the song themes to the structure of the album itself - it's a masterpiece.

That shows how different the perceptions of different brains are - I totally agree with you that Today! is a near-perfect album... but to me 'She Knows Me Too Well' is the third weakest track on it after Bull Session and "I'm So Young". Sorry! :-X

Really???!!! "I'm So Young" is one of my favourite Beach Boys track on any album----as you say, different brains, different perceptions... 

That deep bass rhythm coupled with the Boy's high harmonies...gah, it's heavenly. But to each their own :-D

I, for one, would love to see TTGA do one of his patented cross-album song comparison/ranking thingees for these two 2-fers. I think it would make for a fascinating list. I'd do it myself but I'd rather not steal his thunder.  :3d

I'm new here, but I'd like to speak to someone about making a formal request to have this poll removed from this board -and expunged from the history of the internet. Forever. :lol

I'm sorry but... I absolutely love almost everything The Beach Boys did between 1965 and 1973. 'Tis my favorite period and trying to decide on a favorite between two two-fers from my favorite period... One word: impossible. 

Today and Summer Days both landmark albums, Sunflower was pretty close, I never inderstood why Surfs Up sold so much better than Sunflower tho//