1967: Capitol's Failed "Psychedelic" Cash-In. Or how the Beach Boys' failed SMiLE crushed Capitol's effort to "Capitalize". Ahh, the “psychedelic” debate of 1967…had The Beach Boys completed their “SMiLE” album and released it before The Beatles “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”, would The Beach Boys be seen as the champions of the psychedelic vinyl race, with the Fabs being mere “pretender”s? But we know that history turned out different. Although Brian Wilson released his own version in 2004, as “Brian Wilson Presents Smile”, many fans wanted an official release of The Beach Boys’ version. Flash forward to 2011…Capitol finally announces the release of “SMiLE”, although they have changed the release date twice. What few people know is that there is a Capitol double record from 1967, that is even rarer than the notorious Beatles “butcher” cover…”The Beatles Vs The Beach Boys”!
When “Sgt. Pepper” was released on June 1st, 1967 to rave reviews and sales, the executives at Capitol took notice – and had an idea: this new psychedelic fad could generate tons of sales for the label. Wasn’t the pending Beach Boys’ “SMiLE” also psychedelic? With both the Beatles and Beach Boys on the Capitol label, why not create a double album of both records? It would be a sure-fire cash-in! Capitol marketing came up with “The Beatles Vs The Beach Boys”, which would contain both of the new records by the bands, with a gimmick of letting the listener “keep score” on which they liked best. The cover would parody 1964’s “The Beatles Vs The Four Season”, which had been released dubiously on the Vee Jay label. Since Vee Jay had been a legal headache for Capitol, now would be the time to get revenge at the expense of Vee Jay! The covers were all printed, and Capitol eagerly awaited the completion of “SMiLE” to finish the project and have it in record stores. Then Capitol started hearing rumours that the “SMiLE” project was being cancelled – didn’t Derek Taylor announces that “SMiLE” has been "SCRAPPED" on May 6, 1967? But wasn’t Brian Wilson still recording tracks for “SMiLE” after Taylor’s announcement?
The second week of June, Capitol was finally informed that The Beach Boys had indeed cancelled “SMiLE”, but that the band was working on a new album, tentatively titled, “Smiley Smile”. Although a few promo copy covers of “The Beatles Vs The Beach Boys” had been sent to retailers, they soon received a recall letter from Capitol. The June 14th letter promised a new cover and new Beach Boys’ album to be included in the revised album. Capitol had also originally planned to give away promo copies of the double album at the three-day Monterey International Pop Music Festival on June 16th, 1967. But the June 14th recall killed the planned promotion. Plus, there were other worries for Capitol. A rumour had started that The Beatles, “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” was a veiled acronym for the drug LSD. It was quickly noticed that The Beach Boys, “Love to Say Dada” could also be construed to be the same! As a sort of “damage control”, Capitol decided that the revised artwork would NOT list the song titles, but merely the album cover artwork. Learning that “Smiley Smile” was finally completed, Capitol set the release date of “The Beatles Vs The Beach Boys” album for Sept. 18, 1967.
With a new release date set, Capitol went into overdrive to get the product ready for release. Instead of printing up new copies of the cover, many factory workers simply glued the new inserts onto the old covers. (This created instant collectors items, as many fans later “peeled” the inserts off to unveil the original cover) On Sept. 18, 1967, “The Beatles Vs The Beach Boys” was finally released to coincide with the release of “Smiley Smile”. However, given the promise of the majestic “SMiLE”, the reviews for “Smiley Smile” paled in comparison and sales were the lowest in Beach Boys’ history. Plus, the “summer of love” was over and tales of “psychedelic hype” were all over the media. Consumers already had copies of “Sgt. Pepper”, so Capitol was overwhelmed with return copies of “The Beatles Vs The Beach Boys”. Today, original copies of “The Beatles Vs The Beach Boys” occasional surface on the collector’s market, and surpass the value of original copies of The Beatles’ “Yesterday…And Today-butcher cover”.
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