Good things come to those who smile

Historians must certainly agree that 1966 was a pivotal year. A most productively glorious indeed 12 months to gave birth to, in the twelve-inch, long-playing sweepstakes alone, the Rolling Stones' "Aftermath," "Face to Face" from the Kinks, Dylan's "Blonde on Blonde" and, as spring had barely turned to summer, both the Beatles' "Revolver" AND the Beach Boys' landmark "Pet Sounds."

If there was ever a more fertile and downright inspiring period in popular music, then I for one would certainly like to be made aware of it.

Now, concerning that lastly above-mentioned album in particular, its primary creator (as in composer / arranger / orchestrator / key vocalist AND producer), a just-turned-24-year-old wonderkid from the decidedly un-with-it Los Angeles suburb of Hawthorne named Brian Wilson, quickly dared to follow up THAT 1966 masterpiece with nothing short of his band's most influential single release ever: a groundbreaking three-minute, 34 slice of day-glo proto-psychedelia known as "Good Vibrations."

As difficult as it may be to appreciate after nearly four decades, "Good Vibrations" was instantly hailed (by Ike Turner to Paul McCartney, and most everyone of musical merit in between) as one of the greatest rock 'n' roll recordings ever made. In fact, as it topped charts the world over by Christmastime of '66, the words "genius" and "Brian Wilson" were suddenly being used increasingly within the same breath ...only to be anxiously followed with whispers of "and I wonder what he's gonna do NEXT!"

"I'm writing a teen-age symphony to God," is how Wilson most boldly replied at the time to such inquiries. "I'm doing the spiritual sound, a white spiritual sound. Religious music. That's the whole movement. That's where I'm going.

"It's going to scare a lot of people," Wilson promised. "Yeah, that's where I'm going. And it's going to scare a lot of people when I get there."

Sessions were duly booked at all four of his favorite studios about town, a beautiful choral prelude christened "Our Prayer" was recorded to open the album, now tentatively titled "Dumb Angel," then the Beach Boys (without Wilson) embarked on a whirlwind European tour after being named The World's Number One Vocal Group by London's prestigious "New Musical Express." Back home, lyricist Van Dyke Parks was enlisted to apply suitable verbal dimension to Wilson's increasingly adventurous tone poems while the Beatles' former press agent was hired to prepare eager listeners around the globe for the release of an album which, in the always brilliantly blunt words of Wilson's drumming brother Dennis, would be "so good it makes 'Pet Sounds' stink."

Then 1966 slipped into 1967, "Good Vibrations" was well on its way to selling a second million copies, Capitol Records ordered 400,000 album covers and full-color booklets printed to house the forthcoming album -- now enigmatically retitled "Smile" -- and gigantic ads were duly placed in all the music trade papers to announce its gala release, "coming soon."

But, as precious months continued to creep by with nary a fresh peep out of The World's Number One Vocal Group, questions were soon being asked. First, and in retrospect most damaging of all perhaps, Mike Love began asking Parks why he was being asked to sing refrains such as "over and over, the crow cries uncover the cornfield."

"Frankly, I don't know WHAT those words mean," Parks infamously replied, and soon after bolted from the project altogether.

Meanwhile, the Beach Boys launched a $225,000 lawsuit against Capitol (whilst at the same time negotiating to form their OWN record company), studio sessions were increasingly being disrupted as Wilson's own bandmates urged him to quit "fucking with the formula" which had, up to that point, awarded them an astounding twenty-three Top Forty-friendly hits, and then that June, just as the Boys bailed from a headlining appearance at the Monterey International Pop Festival, Capitol rushed out instead a little record called "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." Sensing his - and "Smile"'s - time had just passed him by, Wilson quietly retreated from the studio, from his band, and eventually from the entire world.

It seems that much ballyhooed teen-age symphony had ended up scaring its very creator the most of all.

Over the decades to follow however, "Smile" would just not wipe itself off the face of the earth. Even before bootleggers began hunting down, pressing, then distributing bountiful collections of original session tapes inside colorful mock-"Smile" sleeves, the Beach Boys had reconstituted and released several of the great lost album's key tracks, and continued to perform tantalizing segments of the opus on stage well into the 70s and beyond.

Acclaimed musical historian Domenic Priore lovingly compiled and published a 264-page scrapbook chock full of "Smile" clippings, notes, photographs and essays in 1988 and then, five years later, 20 full minutes of "Smile" were teasingly included within the "Good Vibrations: Thirty Years of The Beach Boys" box set.

Soon enough countless Internet sites and news groups began virtually appearing, solely dedicated to discussing, debating and yes, making available for download hours upon hours of additional long-thought-lost "Smile" recordings (which could then be assembled in various ways right there at home, leading only to countless further ruminations upon how pop's greatest puzzle could have - WOULD have - possibly been assembled ..."if only").

Yes, the symphony had entered its middle age as, without question, the most widely known unknown, unreleased album of all time.

Meanwhile, its chief architect himself had little if anything to say on the subject, other than to dismiss the entire project as being "unsuitable" or, even less convincingly, "too ahead of its time" ...as if such a caveat had ever concerned a creator the caliber of Wilson before.

Then, strange things began to happen. Wilson was overheard singing one of the most crucial "Smile" pieces, "Heroes and Villains," at an informal gathering of friends and family one Christmas, and then the song - along with its landmark companion piece "Surf's Up" - was actually performed in public as part of 2001's All-Star Tribute to Brian Wilson at Radio City Music Hall. In the wings, Sir George Martin led the assembled multitude in a rousing standing ovation.

Properly invigorated, and gently encouraged by his musical director and band leader Darian Sahanaja, Wilson spent the following months not only reacquainting himself with all three movements of his original masterwork, but preparing to perform it in its entirety on the concert stage prior to actually recording it anew. Why, even Parks was called in to provide lyrics for passages of melody left uncompleted in 1967, only to rightfully find himself right there in the audience alongside the ubiquitous Sir George (plus Paul McCartney, the Beatles' biggest Beach Boy booster ever) as "Smile" made its world debut this February past at, so appropriately enough, London's Royal Festival Hall.

Today, footage from not only this landmark performance but of the rehearsals and recording sessions themselves form the climax of the stunning new "Beautiful Dreamer: Brian Wilson and the Story of Smile" documentary, debuting Oct. 5 on Showtime. Expertly directed by Wilson's biographer and long-time friend and confidant David Leaf, this remarkable film also offers a wealth of previously-unseen vintage stills and interview footage from the original "Smile" sessions and participants, and even includes Wilson's haunting solo performance of "Surf's Up" for Leonard Bernstein, originally filmed as part of CBS Television's "Inside Pop: The Rock Revolution" special in 1966.

Also just released, and now available for the world to hear at long, LONG last on Nonesuch Records, "Brian Wilson Presents Smile" brings this entire tale to its conclusion. While the original Beach Boys' golden voices, not to mention the band's ingenious recording engineer Chuck Britz, are certainly to be missed by any listener of this CD even remotely familiar with the bona fide Sixties "Smile," it is astounding to realize this 47 minute modular song cycle not only sounds totally contemporary today, but at times somehow, positively, futuristic.

The mind - not to mention ears - must truly boggle then at what would have transpired had this music been unleashed on schedule in January of 1967, as opposed to 2004. I, for one, can only imagine.

But that's not all! This genuine "Smile" trifecta includes a five-week concert tour beginning on Sept. 30, during which Wilson and his band will bring the magic and the music to 23 cities throughout North America, before continuing the parade onward to the rest of the waiting world.

"It's quite a relief. We finally did it," Wilson recently exclaimed, finding it quite hard to believe even himself. "It was like a legendary kind of lost album for 38 years, and now the 'Smile' dream has been realized.