Whenever one hears the name The Beach Boys, songs about California, cars, surfing and girls come to mind.

In the mid-60's, the Beach Boys were second only to the Beatles as the premier pop group of their day, even besting the Fab Four in their native England on the pop charts. But whereas the Beatles are largely remembered for their numerous #1 hits and albums such as Sgt. Pepper, the Beach Boys are generally remembered only for their numerous singles of teenage surf anthems sung in four-part harmonies. The Beatles live on as the greatest pop group of all time, whereas the Beach Boys are condemned to the ghetto of nostalgic oldies radio and state fair gigs.

Although they rose to fame as a surf group, only one of the Beach Boys actually surfed. Dennis Wilson was the surfer and all-around daredevil of the group, whereas lead-vocalist and songwriter Brian Wilson was actually afraid of water.

As the top pop groups of their time, the Beatles and the Beach Boys were in direct competition, not just on the pop charts but musically as well. Upon hearing the Beatles' ground-breaking Rubber Soul album, Brian Wilson was determined to create an album that would compare to Rubber Soul in both vision and artistry.

The result of Brian's ambition was Pet Sounds. Most ardent rock listeners (and almost all music critics) recognise Pet Sounds as being one of the best pop albums of all time. Brian Wilson's place as the creative genius behind the Beach Boys was firmly cemented with this release.

Brian was the primary composer and producer on Pet Sounds, and had collaborated with ad-jingle writer Tony Asher to compose the lyrics. Pet Sounds was a somewhat radical stylistic change for the Beach Boys. Instead of surf music, we're treated to carefully orchestrated odes to love and life. Pet Sounds didn't sell as many copies as the Beach Boys previous albums at the time, since it lacked the commercial hit appeal of their earlier work.

There are absolutely no songs about surfing or cars on Pet Sounds. Love is the primary theme behind songs such as Wouldn't it be Nice, You Still Believe in Me, Don't Talk, and I'm Waiting for the Day. Caroline No is a song about loss of innocence, and I Just Wasn't Made For These Times is Brian's lament about living in a world he wasn't created for.

Paul McCartney was so impressed by Pet Sounds that he conceived Sgt. Pepper's in response. The Beatles next step in their game of one-upsmanship with the Beach Boys yielded them a rock classic, whereas the Beach Boys follow-up to Pet Sounds led them into gradual obscurity.

The planned follow-up to Pet Sounds was Smile, an album produced and composed by Brian while the rest of the Beach Boys were on tour (Bruce Johnson, a vocal replacement for Brian, had toured with the Beach Boys for the last two years). Smile's Americana themes and abstract lyrics were written with the help of Van Dyke Parks, a folk musician and session player with several excellent albums to his credit.

The Smile sessions were, for the most part, a playful and experimental group of songs that veered wildly into some comical, yet beautiful moments. Brian had his piano set-up inside a sandbox in his living-room and he had the entire crew don toy fire helmets for the recording of Ms. O'Leary's Cow. Songs like Vega-tables giddily extolled the virtues of our plant friends, while Heroes and Villians told the story of a happy family man looking back on his wild west days. Cabinessence was (vaguely) about railroads, and Do You Like Worms was about western expansion by colonialists. Smile's most beautiful tracks were the airy Wind Chimes, and Wonderful, a moving song about a young girl's loss of virginity.

Smile was supposed to be Brian Wilson's crowning acheivement, his "teenage symphony to God" and a work that was supposed to top Pet Sounds in it's majesty. But despite all of Brian's glorious intentions, the Smile album was never finished. The reasons for Smile's demise are not fully known, but it it surmised that a number of factors contributed to Brian's decision:

On the Pet Sounds and Smile sessions, the instrumentation was done by session musicians, while the rest of the Beach Boys contributed only vocal parts. Pop critics ascribed the "Monkees-syndrome" to the rest of the group, casting them as mere touring musicians who didn't even play on their own recordings. Beach Boys member Mike Love was reportedly unhappy with the group's non-commercial direction, and had possibly persuaded Brian to abandon his vision. Collaborator Van Dyke Parks left the project due to the group's squabbling, and Brian's heavy drug use and increasingly deteriorating mental state may have played a part as well.

The dichotomy between old and new was best exhibited by the Smile track Surf's Up. Despite the title's surf reference, the Van Dyke Parks-penned song featured intangible lyrics that were out of place with the Beach Boys traditional good-time ethos:

The diamond necklace played the pawn
Hand in hand some drummed along
To a handsone man in baton
A blind class aristocracy
Back through the opera-glass, you see
The pit and the pendulum drawn
Columnated ruins domino

Good Vibrations was released as a single in October of 1966, and was reportedly slated to be on Smile. It became their first and only number one hit and their best known song to date. It would also be their last big chart-topping record.

Smiley Smile, the album released in place of Smile, consisted mostly of reworked versions of Smile tunes. Heroes and Villains, Vegetables, Wind Chimes and Wonderful are a few of the Smile songs that were re-recorded for this album, although some of the songs, most notably Wonderful and Wind Chimes, were inferior to the original Smile versions. Although a somewhat jumbled and uneven record, Smiley Smile is a pleasant glimpse into what Smile could have been, and stands out as perhaps the oddest and most experimental of the Beach Boys official releases.

Smiley Smile was followed by the funky white-soul of Wild Honey. The Beach Boys were once again playing as a group, but were not nearly as innovative as they had been just a few years earlier. 1968 saw the release of Friends, which was perhaps the Beach Boys last great album and one of their most neglected. While war and social unrest plagued the country, and their rock contemporaries were singing openly in protest, the Beach Boys released a mellow, sunny album that seemed far removed from the social chaos of the time. Songs about healers and transcendental meditation convey the Beach Boys interest in spirituality, and Brian Wilson later claimed that Friends was his favorite album.

20/20 was an outtakes and covers collection released at the end of the 60's. While the material is mostly derivative and non-essential, the highlights of the album are the fleshed-out versions of Prayer and Cabinessence from the Smile sessions. The early 70's albums Sunflower and Surf's Up became die-hard fan favorites despite the fact that they have since been largely forgotten (Many of the 70's albums have been recently re-released on CD due to popular demand). While they were years past their creative peak, the Beach Boys still managed to write some excellent songs.

By the mid-70's the Beach Boys had evolved into a nostalgic live act, releasing several hit compilations and a few lackluster albums. Brian was only occasionally involved in the creative process, preferring to spend time in his California mansion eating, sleeping and masturbating. He spent the next few years under the round-the-clock care of Dr. Eugene Landy, a psychiatrist who eventually edged his way into controlling Brian's career and business matters. It took legal action by family and group members to finally pry Dr. Landy's grasp from Brian's life.

After his psychological recovery, Brian Wilson released several uninspired solo albums (including 1997's Imagination) and went back on tour, to generally enthusiastic reviews. Brian had been known to include some Smile tunes in his live sets, but until recently, the ultimate fate of the Smile sessions was unknown.

In late 2003, Brian's friends and associates convinced him to complete the Smile project. Brian teamed up with original lyricist Van Dyke Parks and re-recorded Smile with a new band and orchestra. The new and finished Smile was debuted live in London to enthusiastic praise, and the long-awaited album was released in late 2004.

A good number of original Smile tracks were released on the Good Vibrations box set, and several bootlegs of the Smile sessions exist as well. The rest of the Beach Boys late-60's and 70's recordings are currently available on CD as two-for-one bargains.