Sunday, December 2, 2007

Smile Artwork

I wanted to share with everyone the Smile album cover at very high resolution.

Click below to view.





9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey, thanks for the HI-RES cover scans Warnakey. Very nice indeed. And thanks for making all this cool unreleased Beach Boys stuff available too (especially the SMiLE goodies)...you're doing God's work! ;-)

By the way, do you know if any of the original SMiLE record sleeves that Capitol printed up have ever surfaced? Have you ever heard of anybody who's got one??? You'd think that there would be a few out there, surely? Personally, I live in hope of finding one on eBay. :-)

The Lexingtons said...

Oh yes definitely some of the sleeves exist. I know Frank Holmes lent some of his to exhibits or something along those lines. And when Smile 2004 came out i remember a photo of several fans holding their original record sleeves. I'm not sure how they got them, but some people have them hidden away.

Anonymous said...

Are you sure those original sleeves weren't reproductions? I know Frank Holmes was selling reproductions of the cover art and the booklet art from his website a while back.

Anonymous said...

I wonder why Brian is not pictured on the back of the album ? Was the photo taken at the start of his "confined to bed" period perhaps ??

Anonymous said...

Brian's "confined to bed" period is largely a myth, but he was pretty reclusive from about 1972 or 73 after the Boys got back from Holland until 1975 when Gene Landy was first hired to "help" Brian.

The pic on the back of SMiLE was taken in '66 or '67. It might just be possible that Capitol used a random picture of the boys for the record, without consideration for whether Brian was in it or not. The booklet that was supposed to go inside the sleeve had several pictures of Brian.

Anonymous said...

I've been looking for a high-quality image of the original Smile album for a LONG time. I thank you, sir!

Anonymous said...

It might just be possible that Capitol used a random picture of the boys for the record, without consideration for whether Brian was in it or not. The booklet that was supposed to go inside the sleeve had several pictures of Brian.

Brian was not a touring member of the band, and most publicity photos of the Beach Boys were done for touring purposes; the back picture was likely one of these publicity photos, since Bruce Johnston (Brian's touring replacement) is in the photo.

Craig said...

Hi there, I'm a HUGE fan of this unreleased album. I was wondering if anyone knew which font they used at the top of the cover? "The Beach Boys" and "Smile". Is there a font like that roaming around that someone made? or something close it? Any suggestions would be great, thank you. Peace...

Transcontinentalrailroadwarrior said...

I recently purchased the original Smile album cover + inserts from Frank. The lettering is Frank Holmes' work, not a font, unfortunately.



The album cover is very high quality, silk screened and numbered, with all of the flap/fold marks, etc. Beautiful.






Thanks for all of the wonderful Smile stuff, Mr. Warnakey!



Best,
Steve O