The Smiley Smile Message Board

I recently strolled down to a record store and I found this gem for about $8. I'm not so good with records soa ny information will help.
Some questions I have are:
- Is this an original?
- 1st edition?
- Are they rare?
- Anything else you can tell me?

They aren't rare. If it's in nice shape, that's a fair price.

If it's on Reprise, made in the USA and has an textured cover printed in Surf City, USA - it's likely from '77.

You can check the run out codes on Discogs (there were approx 2 prints in '77, I believe) to help determine if a first pressing.

Discogs also lists off the international versions from '77 as well as other label reissues.

It should also have come with an inner sleeve with a we love ya Brian portrait/tribute on 1 side and a collection of gig shots on the other.

If there is a Capitol/UME label on the cover, that's the 2014 reissue.

Grrrrrrreat record!  The '77 edition has a very subtle bottom end edge over the 2014, specifically in relation to the synth sounds, imho that is.

I can post some pick but I don't know how to!

I'm also 99% its a '77 because the texture of the sleeve is like construction paper, and its not glossy
(http://i61.tinypic.com/ab6rrr.jpg)
(http://i58.tinypic.com/e6emmp.jpg)
(http://i59.tinypic.com/2mc5zsw.jpg)
(http://i57.tinypic.com/2djwdjm.jpg)
(http://i62.tinypic.com/1q06sh.jpg)

I have one exactly like that too.  Picked it up in a second hand vinyl store a few years ago (pre-2014) and it really looks as though it's had VERY little play time.  Pressed in the USA (Made in Surf City, etc.) and sounds absolutely great!  

I've just had a look at the catalog number and compared it to the info given at Discog.com and it is indeed a Reprise MSK 2258 from 1977.   ;D

That appears to be what is called a "cutout."  When the record label was done promoting a title, they deleted, or "cut it out" of the catalogue.  They would then sell the leftover stock to wholesalers cheap -- like 50 cents a copy -- with the caveat that they were non-returnable / non-refundable.  In order to mark them such they normally have a punch hole or saw mark on the cover.  Yours has a saw mark at the top of the cover.  I remember these being in the bargain bins in Kmart and Woolco for as little as $1.00 apiece in the early '80s.  I literally could have bought dozens of sealed MIU, LOVE YOU, 15 BIG ONES, HOLLAND, and SURF'S UP cutouts for $1.00 each ($2.00 for PET SOUNDS / CARL & THE PASSIONS), all the way up until the mid/late 1990's when "record stores" started to phase out the format and go all-CD.

As to value, the saw mark detracts from the value.  A still sealed non-cutout LOVE YOU would go for $15-$20; a still sealed cutout for around $10, and an open cutout for less than that.

Lee

A large number of cut outs of a given title were, of course, a good indicator of how poorly an album had sold, compared to record company expectations. From my personal experience with BB albums, I saw dramatically more Love You cut outs than any others. Again in my personal experience, the record that come out in first place in that regard was the 1978 soundtrack album to the movie Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Lee, just curious how the type of cut out indicator might affect value. This record has the vertical saw line, while others might have an album cover corner sawed off, which seems more obvious and thus less desirable to me. Since it's more obvious, does a sawed corner typically reduce value further? How about a drill hole? Those can vary widely in how obvious they are, and they never look as cleanly done as a band sawed cover, but they can also be less obvious if parts of the album cover, which are pushed aside during drilling, are pressed back into the drill hole.

I would agree that the less "invasive" the cutout mark, the better. I've paid good money for sealed Capitol LPs with a small drill hole.  Cut corners are probably the worst.

Lee

On the one hand, while cut-outs can be a disappointment or deal breaker to anyone wanting the whole kit and kaboodle.

On the other God bless those maimed beasts (when they're priced right) - as a young fan, there were a whole load of BB (and other artist) LPs I would never had heard were I left to the mercenary prices & postage of the collectors circuit (as relative to my $5 a week pocket money, on the off chance I actually completed my chores).

The other good thing about a sealed cut out would be the vinyl is mint, unplayed and unaffected.  Something desirable, especially for the pressing of PS/CATP.

Lee, you could have made a fortune stockpiling those over the years to sell now!

Who says I didn't? ;)  I think at one time I had 7 or 8 still-sealed HOLLAND cutouts (with the EP, but without the picture sleeve), 3 or 4 SURF'S Up, 2 or 3 LOVE YOU, 2 or 3 MIU, and a couple of CATP/PS.  I'm down to 1 or 2 of each.

EDIT: I just checked my "spares" rack and I found:
1 still-sealed SURF'S UP cutout
(all the HOLLANDS are gone; must have sold them all off)
2 still-sealed 15 BIG ONES cutouts
1 still-sealed LOVE YOU cutout
1 still-sealed MIU cutout
1 still-sealed GOOD VIBRATIONS - BEST OF THE BEACH BOYS cutout
1 still-sealed MADE IN USA cutout
1 still-sealed AMERICAN SUMMER (RCA Record Club hybrid of ENDLESS SUMMER and SPIRIT of AMERICA).  The RCA Club's overstock eventually showed up in retail stores.
1 still-sealed BE TRUE TO YOUR SCHOOL (Capitol '80s compilation)
1 still-sealed AMERICATHON Soundtrack cutout
1 still-sealed GOING PUBLIC cutout
1 still-sealed La Grande Storia del Rock Vol 12 - Beach Boys (Italy, but showed up in U.S. cutout bins)
1 still-sealed SUMMER CRUISIN' (Japan compilation w/ Obi)
1 still-sealed BEST OF THE BEACH BOYS (UK reissue, but showed up in U.S. cutout bins)
1 still-sealed TIME LIFE PRESENTS THE BEACH BOYS 1962-1967 2LP box set

Plus I'm probably 2 or 3 deep in VG+ and VG copies of each album.  I really need to sell off some stuff...

Lee

I'm glad you had the foresight to snap these up!  I should have known you would!  ;D

At those prices well worth doing.  There are not many of them going around sealed nowadays.

I was unaware of and didn't see American Summer until a couple years after it's release, in a used record store. Until I found out it had been an exclusive RCA Record Club release, I couldn't figure out where it had come from and why I had never seen it before. Prior to reading your post, never realized that it contained only songs from Endless Summer and Spirit of America, but it was mainly the lesser known songs from each, although it contained one of my top 3 BB songs of all time, Please Let Me Wonder. That song brings back some incredible memories, as I was a teenager when it was released.