Brian Wilson ‘SMiLE’ Book Due from Veteran Beach Boys Author

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A new book, Smile: The Rise, Fall & Resurrection of Brian Wilson, written by veteran Beach Boys biographer—and close friend of the musician—David Leaf, will be published by Omnibus Press on April 15, 2025. The book, as its subtitle notes, charts the inception and ultimate failure to materialize of the Beach Boys’ planned 1967 SMiLE album, which was originally scheduled to follow the group’s landmark Pet Sounds. Instead, due to various circumstances including Wilson’s fragile mental health, the artist abandoned the project midway and it became the source of countless rumors until, nearly four decades later, Wilson revived the project and released it as a new solo album. Since then, music from the original SMiLE sessions has been released when Wilson successfully returned to recording and performance. The book is available for pre-order in the U.S. here and in the U.K. here, where it arrives on April 3.

From the publisher’s announcement: On February 20, 2004, Brian Wilson walked onstage at London’s Royal Festival Hall to unveil his long-delayed masterpiece—the Holy Grail of Rock—Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE. It was a night that that exceeded all expectations.

UCLA student David Ghesser and UCLA adjunct professor David Leaf speak with legendary songwriter Brian Wilson, co-founder of the Beach Boys. (Photo courtesy of UCLA)

SMiLE: The Rise, Fall and Resurrection of Brian Wilson is an oral history of that journey, chronicling the music’s creation, near-death and rebirth. It looks closely at the events of 1966-1967 and 2003-2004, as well as including an anthology of brand-new essays about SMiLE, combining to provide a ‘fly on the wall’ account of events leading up to that fateful night. That instantly legendary performance in 2004 in turn led to the recording of Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE, a worldwide tour and the rebirth of an artistic soul.

Drawing upon the author’s in-depth interviews with Brian, his collaborator Van Dyke Parks, Brian’s band (especially Darian Sahanaja), close friends, family and so many others who were part of the trip, David Leaf tells how Brian Wilson rose to greatness, almost fell off the edge of the Earth, then unexpectedly came back to reclaim his place as one of the most influential musicians of the twentieth century.

The original proposed SMiLE album cover

There are two Beach Boys narratives. One is about a family band and their greatest hits, an amazing body of work the group primarily recorded between 1962 and 1966. Those records, composed, arranged and produced by Brian Wilson, have brought joy to the world for over six decades.

This book is the other story. SMiLE is the story of a genius revealed.

“SMiLE, in its most evolved form, would not have been an album reality were it not for the pivotal gifts of impresario David Leaf to ignite the multi-media campaign,” said Wilson collaborator Van Dyke Parks in the book’s pre-publication promotional material. “It took diplomacy, tireless vision and the ability to bring others together in reframing my constitution-with the success of sincerity and conviction. Hats off David.”

Says that announcement about the author, David Leaf is an award-winning writer, director and producer. He published the seminal The Beach Boys and the California Myth in 1978, which was recently published in an updated edition entitled God Only Knows. While writing this classic biography, David Leaf developed a friendship with Brian Wilson which remains strong to this day. Leaf, who is a professor at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music in Los Angeles, has also been involved with print and film projects covering John Lennon, the Bee Gees, James Brown and Harry Nilsson.

Watch Brian Wilson and his band perform “Good Vibrations” at the 2004 SMiLE premiere in London