Brian Wilson Presents Smile on AllMovie

As the primary songwriter and producer for the Beach Boys, Brian Wilson had already developed a reputation as one of the true visionaries of American pop music when, in 1966, he created Pet Sounds, a song cycle of love, growing up, and heartbreak that despite modest sales was acclaimed as a masterpiece (and was cited by Paul McCartney as an inspiration for the Beatles when they made Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band). That year, Wilson planned an even more ambitious follow-up, a "teenage symphony" called Smile. However, for a number of reasons, Smile was scrapped at the last moment (though jackets had already been printed for the LP), and it developed a reputation as one of the great "lost albums" of American rock. In 2004, Wilson and collaborator Van Dyke Parks belatedly revisited the Smile material, first with a series of concerts in which they presented the songs in their proper sequenced form for the first time, and then by re-recording the tunes for a Grammy-winning album. Brian Wilson Presents Smile features Wilson and Parks performing the Smile album in concert (with Wilson's band joined by an orchestra).