"Heroes and Villains" is a song by the American rock band The Beach Boys, co-written by the group's leader Brian Wilson and lyricist Van Dyke Parks. Originally intended by Wilson to be the centerpiece of the ambitious but shelved album Smile, a re-recorded version of the song was released on Smiley Smile (1967). This version was also released as a single, with "You're Welcome" on the B-side, which charted at number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100.
In 2004 Wilson released a new version of "Heroes and Villains" on his solo album Smile, and in 2011 an extended mix compiled of abandoned 1966 and 1967 material appeared on the belated release of The Beach Boys' The Smile Sessions.
Read more about Heroes And Villains: Writing, Recording, Effect On Brian Wilson, Releases, In Concerts
Famous quotes containing the words heroes and/or villains:
“We talk about a representative government; but what a monster of a government is that where the noblest faculties of the mind, and the whole heart, are not represented! A semihuman tiger or ox, stalking over the earth, with its heart taken out and the top of its brain shot away. Heroes have fought well on their stumps when their legs were shot off, but I never heard of any good done by such a government as that.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Why do villains have so much influence? Because the honest people are terribly dense.”
—Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872)