# In 1966, The Beach Boys began recording the follow-up to ‘Pet Sounds’. It took 45 years to release it

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/in-1966-the-beach-boys-began-recording-the-follow-up-to-pet-sounds-it-took-45-years-to-release-it/
- Published: 2026-10-31T03:00:00+00:00
- Updated: 2026-10-31T04:25:07+00:00
- Original publisher: Far Out
- Original article: https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/in-1966-the-beach-boys-began-recording-the-follow-up-to-pet-sounds-it-took-45-years-to-release-it/
- Topics: Music

## Key points

- Brian Wilson began work on *Smile* after *Pet Sounds*.
- Group tensions and other pressures left the album unfinished.
- Original sessions were released in 2011.

## Summary

In 1966, as The Beach Boys released *Pet Sounds*, Brian Wilson began developing *Smile*, an ambitious follow-up intended to extend the band’s studio experimentation. The album was never completed amid tensions within the group, Wilson’s worsening mental health and drug problems, and distrust from the record label.

The band reworked some of the material into *Smiley Smile* in 1967, while Wilson later revisited the songs for his 2004 solo version. In 2011, *The Smile Sessions*, assembled from the original recordings under Wilson’s supervision, gave listeners the closest available version of the planned album, nearly 50 years after work began.

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