10 Lost Albums From Famous Rock Musicians

Of all the missing or abandoned albums from across musical history, none come close to the infamous trainwreck that was SMiLE by The Beach Boys.

The 60s rock icons were fresh off the release of Pet Sounds, regarded as one of the best albums of all time, so expectations were sky high for what was coming next. Unfortunately, due to various legal issues and Brian Wilson's crumbling mental state, SMiLe would never leave the studio.

The story of this album is too long and wild to be told fully here, but here's a small example of what was going on. A few days after the recording of a song called Fire, the building across the street from the studio burned down. Wilson was so paranoid at this point that he thought he had somehow caused the accident and abandoned the song entirely.

Imagine trying to work under those conditions.

Some songs like Heroes and Villains and Good Vibrations eventually made it out, and a slimmed-down version called Smiley Smile was eventually finished, but as for the original SMiLE album, that will remain one of the most fascinating "What ifs?" in all of popular music history.