The Smiley Smile Message Board

Another tough one, but I'm definitely gonna go with Friends/20/20.
Totally in love with Friends. It's just so sweet.
And I like 20/20 more than Wild Honey.

Smiley & Wild Honey cannot be surpassed. They are just too weird to beat.

Thank you, but props go out to Buddhahat for making the awesome twofer polls!

That said, I really love Smiley Smile of course, but something about Friends speaks to me personally.
Brian being able to create such a fun album, filled with love, in the middle of his troubled life. That does it for me.

I went with Friends / 20/20. Friends is one of my favorite albums. I love the calming affect that it has on me. Great how it blasts you back into reality with the last track. 20/20 is proof that every good album does not have to be a Concept album. Good songs, sequencing and especially, performance can work just as well.

My thoughts exactly!

Yes, of course!
He's awesome!

Friends/20/20

I could really care less about 20/20 (as an album), but Friends *nearly* tops Pet Sounds in my book.

Do you like 20/20 or Wild Honey more?

That's tough!

Wild Honey is more cohesive, but there are far more high points on 20/20. I'll go with Wild Honey just because I love the feel of that album.

Carl definitely kicked some butt on that album.

This is much more difficult for me than the previous two-fer poll, but I'll have to go with Smiley Smile/Wild Honey because Smiley Smile is the album that made me a Beach Boys fan, and Wild Honey is possibly my favorite album.  It contains many of their most underrated songs, particularly "Aren't You Glad" and "Country Air," and "Darlin'" is one of their greatest top 40 songs.  Friends and 20/20 are both great albums too, though.

Aren't you glad is my favorite song on Wild Honey!
Or Let the wind blow.

Friends > Smiley Smile
20/20 = Wild Honey

I went with Friends/2020.

Gotta go with Friends / 20/20.  I really like all these albums and think they fall into a similar range of quality for different reasons, but I'd give the slight edge to both Friends and 20/20.  Friends is a consistently charming work while 20/20 has a number of really great, polished songs as they began to drift away from the more low-fi production style of this time.

Dead tie right now.
It's getting interesting!

Gotta go with Friends/20/20.
The run from the second side of 20/20, to Breakaway, Celebrate the News, We're Together Again and Ol' Man River just can't be beat.

This is a cruel poll.

Friends and Smiley are my two least favorite pre-Endless Summer BB albums and Wild Honey isn't too far from the bottom of my list but I'm actually a big fan of 20/20 so that one gets the nod from me.

Mine too.  It may even be my favorite song credited to B. Wilson/M. Love.

Smiley Smile/Wild Honey was the CD that first got me into the Beach Boys, so i gotta vote for 'em! But Friends and 20/20 are both great, great albums, and Celebrate The News is by some considerable distance my favourite 2-fer bonus track.

Indeed it is!

Has to be smiley/wild honey as 20/20 is just too patchy for me.

It was a great A-side, B-side 45 in 1969. I wore both sides out. I actually heard Break Away live (at my first Beach Boys show at Steel Pier in Atlantic City) before I ever heard the 45 or on the radio.

these are my two favorite twofers. SS/WH wins by an inch because I like 20/20 slightly less than the rest. The bonus tracks on Friends/20/20 are amazing, though. Breakaway, Celebrate the News, Ol Man River, We're Together Again, Walk on By...

One time I was drunk at a party (and I was 18 and the rest of the kids ranged from 15-17) and I tried getting everyone to sing a different part to the "bad luck no more"/"I got news for you there ain't no blues I got news for you" part and it nearly worked but everyone kept on laughing.

Friends all the way for me! Perfect album - even though Wild Honey comes pretty close.

I'm surprised the results are so tight.

Friends/20/20 are great records but SS/WH are far more consistent

Friends is pretty damn consistent. I agree that 20/20 isn't at all, really, although it's not a hodge-podge record like some seem to think. Besides the SMiLE tracks, (which were worked on and completed in the 20/20 time period, it's not like they pulled the tapes and released them as is), everything, even I Went To Sleep, was recorded after Friends was finished.

Though I voted for Smiley Smile/Wild Honey and stand by it, I would like to agree that Friends/20/20 has by far the best bonus tracks of any of the two-fers.  Not only because of "Breakaway" and "Celebrate the News" (one of their best 45s) but also because of "We're Together Again" and "Old Man River," two outstanding previously unreleased tracks.

Really beautiful song on both records, really calming..

Friends is a remarkable record, save the last two tracks.  20/20 is just so all over the place, it feels like a badly compiled compilation album

The sad thing is 20/20 could have been a much better album if they put a bit more thought into it

Friends/20/20 for me, its Dennis and the bonus tracks which swing it for me. Agree its a cruel poll, very hard to call, but I love the cohesiveness of Friends and the total lack thereof on 20/20, and the birth of Dennis as a songwriter is of enormous importance to me.

I went with Friends/20/20

Super difficult one, but whilst I love material on all four of the og albums, Friends is by far the best as an overall album, so that swung it for me.

It was only when I got Wild Honey on lp that I realised it is a pretty short and slight lp, despite some spectacular highs. Given that it's about 20 minutes long, two filler tracks is a bit much. The sequencing on 20/20 isn't great, but overall I prefer the material. I went to sleep and Time to get alone right next to each other is an error for me, as they both have the same sort of tempo and are in 3/4, and of course, the two smile tracks right at the end...I'd have gone with Prayer opening side two and cabinessence closing, maybe

Was this the first album not sequenced by Brian?

Smiley Smile/Wild Honey. Unified by their diametric opposition. Wild Honey has always been a personal fave...further up my list of BB LPs than the others. Short, yes, but sweet!! Carl's big chance, indeed.

But of course there is much to love on Friends/20-20, including the most mind-blowing BW composition of all, "Cabinessence."

I think Friends is a very consistent album - there's a very definate theme and feel throughout the record. I just wish they'd ended it with We're Together Again, which would've acted as a perfect closer and brought the whole 'friends' theme full circle.

As for 20/20, what it lacks in coherence it more than makes up for in quality. However i agree that with a little more thought it could've been even better. Mona Kani (a tremendous instrumental) in place of The Nearest Faraway Place (a mundane instrumental) would've been a good start!

wow, just voted and I was #50...made it straight down the line half/half

Was Mona Kani meant to have lyrics?

Not that I know of.

I like Friends a little more than Wild Honey, but I like Smiley Smile more than most things on this earth. SS/WH gets my vote.

Close that poll now while it's an exact tie!!  >:D

And I was #52 and it is tied again.

1. Friends
2. 20/20
3. Wild Honey
4. Smiley Smile

But I love them all!

Friends/20/20 for me.

Friends is possibly my 3rd or 4th favourite Beach Boys album and 20/20 contains about 5 of my favourite Beach Boys songs. Fell in love with the two-fer instantly but it took me a while to appreciate the albums on their own. Now I do and life's just great.

I went Friends/2020 because of Friends.

My prefered order is - Friends, Smiley, Wild Honey, 2020 - all gold

Friends
Wild Honey
20/20
Smiley

Anyone voting Smiley Smile in 4th place can just bloomin' get lost!!! You're just wrong!

No.
Opinions, dude.
Smiley Smile is a cool listen for me sometimes and I know it's revered by many here. Honestly though, there's this really scary vibe that I got the last few times listening to it (bar H&V and GV), and I am kind of hesitant to play it as much anymore.
Friends makes me happy. So I listen to that....

Of these I listen to LP's more than CD's so I see them as their own albums.
I like them all but to me Smiley is the least of the bunch. It's very cool but I like a lot of other albums better
Wild Honey
20/20
Friends
Smiley

I recall reading lyrics were written, possibly by Steve Kalnich but they weren't recorded as Dennis wasn't entirely pleased with them. The track very much sounds like what Brian was doing at the end of '65, in a way it sounds like the offspring of Three Blind Mice and Trombone Dixie. I like it a lot, but I think Bruce's instrumental is a little different from the rest of the instrumentals in the discigraphy, I can appreciate how it's something different and progressive for the band. I had it play before the extended 'Til I Die the other day and I was blown away by how good of a precursor it was to the song.

I went with Friends/20/20. While SS has several Smile songs on it (whether or not they'd be that way or not on Smile) for me it will always be "the bunt and not the grand slam". WH is "okay".
I've always thought 20/20 is a good album. ICHM is a personal favorite BB - Carl song and DOI shows the group could still make a good rocker after the Smile efforts. Al and Cottonfields always sounds good and add OP and Cabinessence and the whole thing it works for me. Putting Break Away at the end of the re-release clinches it.

Done. Any twofer with Smiley would win for me, even if the other option was Rubber Soul/Revolver/Sermon On The Mount.

Of course I voted for WH!

I voted for the Friends/20 combo, like any true fan and music appreciator would.

You two are insane

Fair point  ;D

I voted for Smiley Smile/ Wild Honey.

Friends is incredible, but 20/20 is easily the weakest of the bunch for me.

My vote goes to Friends and 20/20.

20/20 is a favourite of mine, Friends is great as well. Again, also love Wild Honey, but Smiley Smile drags it down a bit.

Friends-20/20 for me.  Smiley Smile is cool once in a while, but I don't really listen to it much, so Wild Honey is left to fend for itself.

I know a lot of people like it, but I think that Smiley Smile is the worst BB album of the 1960s (with the possible exception of Party). 

On that alone, I'm going with Friends / 20-20.  I think both are stellar albums. 

Wild Honey's a good album, but I think Friends really kicked off the Beach Boys second golden age.