Smile (occasionally typeset as
SMiLE) was a
projected album by American
rock band
the Beach Boys intended to follow their 11th studio album
Pet Sounds. After the group's songwriting leader
Brian Wilson abandoned large portions of music recorded between 1966 and 1967, the band recorded and released the dramatically scaled-down
Smiley Smile album in its place. Some of the original
Smile tracks eventually found their way onto subsequent Beach Boys
studio and
compilation albums. As more fans learned of the project's origins, details of its recordings acquired considerable mystique, and it was later acknowledged as the most legendary unreleased album in the history of
popular music.