Surf's Up (song) - The Smile Sessons Composites

The Smile Sessons Composites

The 2011 box set of the Smile sessions features three different vocal versions of "Surf's Up" among several instrumental session highlights.

The first is a digital mashup of Brian Wilson's vocal track for his 1966 piano demo interspersed with the 1966 instrumental and 1971 backing vocals. In this version, Carl Wilson's 1971 lead vocal is also used to fill in a brief call-and-response gap left by the 1966 Brian Wilson vocal. This gap was originally meant to be filled by an instrumental overdub of some kind, but it was never recorded.

The second version is a 1967 vocal and piano demo by Brian Wilson recorded at his home studio during sessions for the Wild Honey album. This forgotten demo was found recently by accident while searching through the contents of tape reels, specifically at the end of the multi-track for "Country Air". For this demo, Wilson transposed the song one semi-tone lower and played it on a specially tuned honky-tonk piano. Besides these differences, the performance is almost identical to the 1966 demo.

Lastly is the most famously known 1966 solo piano/vocal demo, but remixed for stereophonic sound.