E-Paper
Grammys could put a smile on Brian Wilson's face
Brian Wilson, who is competing for two catagories at this year's Grammy, has been largely ignored by the Grammy fraternity. He hasn't won a Grammy despite hits like Who and Beach Boys.
Wouldn't it be nice if Brian Wilson finally won a Grammy?
The former Beach Boy will compete for two of the music industry's most coveted awards on Sunday, hoping to end one of the most infamous losing streaks in the event's 47-year history.
Along with influential rock acts such as the Who and Creedence ClearwaterRevival, the Beach Boys, in which Wilson was the main creative force, never won a Grammy. Their 1960s peers the Rolling Stones had to wait until 1995 for their first statuette.
The Grammys largely ignored the nascent rock revolution, preferring to reward acts like Frank Sinatra and the 5th Dimension.
Wilson, 62, bears no grudges.
"I just don't think the Beach Boys were that impressive of a vocal group to be nominated. They were a good group, but they weren't great," he said.
"I thought maybe I should have been nominated a little bit more as a songwriter, but I wasn't."
The Beach Boys did receive a nomination in 1966 for their No. 1 single "Good Vibrations," a tune many consider to be Wilson's crowning glory. But along with such worthy contenders as the Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby" and the Mamas and the Papas' "Monday, Monday," it lost the contemporary rock Grammy award to the novelty song "Winchester Cathedral."
Wilson's Smile
This year, Wilson has been nominated for Brian Wilson Presents Smile, a re-recording of a 1966 Beach Boys album that was never finished. At the time, Wilson envisaged Smile as a "teenage symphony to God," but he abandoned it as his drug abuse played havoc with his mental state.
Tunes from Smile, such as Heroes and Villains and Surf's Up turned up on later albums, and Smile took on a mythical status as one of rock's great lost works.
In 2003, Wilson and Smile lyricist Van Dyke Parks finally completed the project. Wilson and his band played Smile in its entirety for the first time last February in England.
Back in Los Angeles, he recorded the basic tracks for the album over five days in April. Released in October by the boutique Nonesuch Records label, "Brian Wilson Presents Smile" debuted at No. 13 on the US pop charts and has sold more than 300,000 units, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
