I'm making a Smile compilation playlist. What should the track order be?

Smile wasnt written as a piece in the classical sense, no, but it was definitely meant to near seamlessly transition between ideas, meaning it was meant to be an album heard continuously, much like Pet Sounds, rather than a collection of songs like earlier Beach Boys albums. The songs share common motifs and themes, so it is a continuous piece. I don't know why you're quoting me as saying "as it would have been" when I made pretty clear that I cared so little about the original tracklisting that I threw in Smiley Smile songs (I'd consider Smiley Smile something entirely different from Smile, the intent and method behind the new songs was different enough from the original album to justify this sentiment). Of course there's no Smile as it would have been, the order of the songs on the Sessions and Smile albums was optimized for live performances, it's not even close to the original tracklisting from promotional material, which in itself is missing songs. I foresaw a comment exactly like this, which is why I wrote that whole lengthy preface justifying what I was doing. I made sure to stress the fact that I didn't care because I wanted to avoid being condescended to like this when really I just wanted somebody to help me make a playlist for my friend. Now you have me acting like you. Thanks for the suggestions, though.

/r/thebeachboys Thread Parent