The New Disney+ Beach Boys Documentary Finally Revealed What Happened To The Infamous Smile Tapes

Summary Brian Wilson's perfectionism led to the shelving of the "Smile Tapes" and a difficult period for The Beach Boys.

"Pet Sounds" was Brian Wilson's deep and emotional response to "Rubber Soul" by The Beatles. "Pet Sounds" then inspired their album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."

Despite initial backlash, "Smiley Smile" showed a different side of The Beach Boys but struggled to find its place in the music scene until years later.

The new Disney+ documentary, The Beach Boys, chronicles the band’s rise to fame, their highs and lows, and their return to success and icon status with their extremely successful and well-known catalog. However, there is one Beach Boys’ album that didn’t receive much love when it first came out, and The Beach Boys reveals why. Songs by The Beach Boys have been used in many movies to great effect, from 50 First Dates to Fantastic Mr. Fox. Partially because of this, their music has stood the test of time.

With The Beach Boys’ music playing a role in projects like Space Force, it was only right for their story to be told through film, with interviews from the surviving members, archival footage, and commentary from famous fans, producers, and journalists. The band is no stranger to being on camera, with The Beach Boys making multiple cameos on Full House. In 2024, with their older age and the sad and rapid decline of band leader Brian Wilson’s health, it was the perfect time to revisit them and their story. The Beach Boys documentary doesn’t shy away from their struggles either.

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Brian Wilson Was Experiencing Creative Difficulty With The Beach Boys

Brian Had A Different Vision For Their Album

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In 1966, The Beach Boys put their stamp on history with what’s widely considered their most iconic album, “Pet Sounds.” Yet, “Pet Sounds” wasn’t an instant success and was met with mixed reviews and limited commercial success in the United States. Instead, it was a hit in the United Kingdom, where The Beatles heard it and were inspired to create “Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.” Ironically, “Pet Sounds” was a response to The Beatles’ “Rubber Soul.” The Beatles also had a Disney+ documentary on their Get Back sessions.

For years, The Beatles and The Beach Boys battled back and forth, with mutual respect between the bands. Paul McCartney and Brian Wilson frequently inspired each other to be better. In his 2021 Hulu music documentary, McCartney 3,2,1, he praised the Beach Boys and spoke about their influence on The Beatles’ harmony. With “Pet Sounds,” Wilson took a different, more emotional approach to their music that saw them start to shed their simple surfer boy image. When Wilson wanted to get even more experimental and deep for their follow-up to “Pet Sounds,” the band wasn’t fully on board.

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Brian Wilson Got Rid Of The Smile Tapes

Brian Wilson Shelved The Tapes & Threw Them Away

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One of the hardest parts about recording a follow-up to “Pet Sounds” for The Beach Boys was how much of a perfectionist Brian Wilson was. The Beach Boys was mainly a family band, with Brian’s bandmates including his brothers Carl and Dennis Wilson, who have both sadly passed, his cousin Mike Love, and their friend Al Jardine. They all recognized Brian’s talent and shared great things about him in The Beach Boys documentary, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t difficult to work with at times.

With the pressure to live up to the success of “Pet Sounds,” Brian became obsessive and controlling during the recording process. The result of this was the infamous “Smile Tapes.” The delays in recording -- with the song "Good Vibrations" alone taking months -- even led to payment disputes with their record label, Capitol Records. Eventually, it became clear to the other Beach Boys members that the “Smile Tapes” weren’t working, and Brian shelved and scrapped many of the incomplete recordings after a year of production.

Fortunately, some of Brian Wilson’s “Smile Tapes” survived, and the unfinished album "SMiLe" was released over time thanks to Brian and efforts from his dedicated fans. In 2004, Brian Wilson Presents Smile premiered in London, but the “Smile Tapes” will never be fully recovered. Wilson has often been painted as a troubled genius, and the “Smile Tapes,” The Beach Boys documentary, and the musical biopic Love & Mercy starring Paul Dano as Brian is proof of this.

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The Beach Boys Made Smiley Smile Instead

Smiley Smile Was A Negative Turning Point For The Beach Boys

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After a year of trying and failing to make a complete album, The Beach Boys still needed to finish the project that would follow “Pet Sounds.” When Brian declared that most of the original “Smile” tapes would be abandoned, they recorded the rest of the album in just six weeks at his makeshift home studio. This led to “Smiley Smile” having some unconventional, experimental, and disjointed sounds.

Upon its release, Brian credited the production to the group as a collective for the first time, likely because the outcome wasn’t what he wanted or had planned. The 1967 album was seen as “underwhelming” following the brilliance of “Pet Sounds.” For many, it felt like a step back into their old simple surfer party boy ways rather than a step forward towards what they’d unearthed with “Pet Sounds.”

With The Beatles switching up their sound, the rise of the Rolling Stones, and an emphasis on counterculture and revolution, The Beach Boys no longer fit the music scene at the time. This was a hard time for the band, as shown in The Beach Boys documentary, and it would take years for them to refind their footing with “Greatest Hits” compilation albums. As many critics and fans revisited “Smiley Smile,” it became a critical and cult favorite and an influential lo-fi album.