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'Smile': Greatest Record Never Heard

Brian Wilson performs his long-awaited album <em>Smile</em> in Paris.
PIERRE ANDRIEU/AFP/Getty Images
Brian Wilson performs his long-awaited album Smile in Paris.

In late 1966, Beach Boys legend Brian Wilson created what some consider his most glorious single ever, "Good Vibrations." For a long time thereafter, all was silence and rumors. In fact, Wilson was working quietly with lyricist Van Dyke Parks on what he hoped would be his magnum opus, a vast, abstracted suite called Smile.

But some of his fellow Beach Boys were vehemently opposed to any deviation from what had become their lucrative signature sound. Wilson — depressed, drugged out and increasingly out of touch with reality — scrapped the project and became a recluse.

Still, fragments from Smile sessions surfaced on Beach Boys albums and a raft of bootlegs. Over the years, those in the know have hailed the work as an imaginative breakthrough. Now, nearly four decades later, the public is finally getting a chance to hear the most celebrated album never released. Wilson is taking a 45-minute concert version of Smile on a European tour. Reviewing the London premiere, a critic for The Guardian called it "the grandest of American symphonies." Tim Page reports on the history of Smile.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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SOMOS CONNECTICUT es una iniciativa de Connecticut Public, la emisora local de NPR y PBS del estado, que busca elevar nuestras historias latinas y expandir programación que alza y informa nuestras comunidades latinas locales. Visita CTPublic.org/latino para más reportajes y recursos. Para noticias, suscríbase a nuestro boletín informativo en ctpublic.org/newsletters.

The independent journalism and non-commercial programming you rely on every day is in danger.

If you’re reading this, you believe in trusted journalism and in learning without paywalls. You value access to educational content kids love and enriching cultural programming.

Now all of that is at risk.

Federal funding for public media is under threat and if it goes, the impact to our communities will be devastating.

Together, we can defend it. It’s time to protect what matters.

Your voice has protected public media before. Now, it’s needed again. Learn how you can protect the news and programming you depend on.