Beach Boys version of Smile album on the way

I take Beach Boys news with a grain of salt, particularly when it comes to rumors about Smile, the band's legendary, never officially released album of 1967. But in this case, details come from Al Jardine, a former member of the band:

Capitol Records plans to issue a Beach Boys version of Smile sometime this summer to begin the celebration of The Beach Boys’ anniversary. Smile is the Holy Grail for Beach Boys’ fans, so it will be good.

I don’t have many details on it, although we didn't do any new recording. I'm happy to see it finally come out. Brian’s changed his mind about releasing the material, but it was inevitable, wasn’t it? (Al chuckles)."

Beach Boys leader completed and released his own newly recorded version of Smile a few years back and it's marvelous. The Beach Boys, during the 60s and 70s, released various songs from the project and a few tantalizing fragments turned up in the 1990s Beach Boys box set. And there are tons of bits and pieces available on bootlegs.

So, putting together a "finished" version wouldn't be too terribly difficult, especially if you use Brian's new version as the template of how it should be organized. Of course, it could be done as a multi-disk set, too, including a "finished" version on CD and outtakes and fragments on additional disks.

I hope it happens!