Mysterious Meishi Smile

"My face isn't able to smile," Brian Wilson confides to collaborator Van Dyke Parks in one of this comprehensive double-DVD set's poignant bonus interviews, "but my heart does. "Using vintage clips and the frank insights of Brian's friends and colleagues, writer/producer/director David Leaf (a longtime Wilson confidant and author of the pioneering history The Beach Boys and the California Myth) charts the music legend's spectacular rise to stardom and the troubling gestation and subsequent abandonment of the 1967 album widely anticipated as Wilson's artistic coup de grace…

It's difficult to object to anything about The SMiLE Sessions, considering the time and care invested into the entire package (which becomes yet more lavish with the varying Deluxe Editions available).

Contemporaries of the Beatles, along with other Liverpudlian rockers like Gerry & the Pacemakers and Rory Storm & the Hurricanes, the Remo Four were lost to the darkest corners of Merseybeat history, with only See for Miles' 1992 compilation The Best of Tommy Quickly, Johnny Sandon, Gregory Phillips & the Remo Four – a disc featuring singers the group backed, along with a handful of their tracks – being the only reissue to surface until Bear Family's 2010 Smile!, Peter Gunn…And More. Only one of the songs on that 1992 disc – a cover of “Peter Gunn” – is on this 2010 CD, which contains the entirety of their 1967 LP Smile!, released only in Germany, and singles surrounding the album.

The second of back-to-back solo albums cut in the early '80s, The Brightest Smile in Town presents a more balanced mix of vocal and instrumental tracks than its predecessor, Dr. John Plays Mac Rebennack. While it's fun to hear the great New Orleans pianist romp through "Box Car Boogie" and patiently work his way through the twilight blues of "Pretty Libby," the unexpected treats are the best: a heartsick version of Jimmy Rodgers's "Waiting for a Train;" a Doc Pomus cover, "Average Kind of Guy," that sounds like Randy Newman on a particularly good day; and "Marie La Veau," a highly syncopated bow to one of the Crescent City's many voodoo queens. By the time Rebennack ends Brightest Smile with two gorgeous instrumentals–a lovely take on Harold Arlen's "Come Rain or Come Shine" and "Suite Home New Orleans"–you're reminded just how encyclopedic his knowledge of American music is.

Slavic Smile was recorded in 1982, shortly after the Modern Jazz Quartet was reunited. On this album, the unique pianist of the MJQ, John Lewis pursued a different sound and approach from the legendary group, albeit with the same instrumentations and Connie Kay on the drum chair…

Few would argue that David Lee Roth's first solo EP was a complete comedy send-up, albeit a very successful one that gained him enough favor with the MTV peanut gallery to solidify his potential as a solo artist. When threat became fact, however, Roth was smart enough to know that show tunes set to flashy videos weren't going to cut it and wisely proceeded to surround himself with musicians of impeccable pedigree…