The cycle's complete

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Brian Wilson isn't the only one who's been haunted by the long shadow of "Smile," the barrier-breaking song cycle he famously left unfinished in May 1967 as mental illness clamped a chokehold on him. The almost mythical collapse of "Smile" -- only the truncated single "Heroes and Villains" was salvaged immediately from the wreckage -- claimed a second victim, Van Dyke Parks, the hip young lyricist who'd been collaborating with Mr. Wilson on the ambitious album.

"I lived nearly 40 years with the infamy of an unfinished project," Mr. Parks says now.

Mr. Parks went on to build a charmingly eclectic career as an in-demand musician, songwriter, record producer, arranger and composer of more than 20 film scores, from 1978's "Goin' South" to last year's "The Company."

But even after eight albums of his own, he lived with being best known for fanciful words he wrote at age 22 for Mr. Wilson that have never -- until now -- been heard as originally intended.

Imagine the Beatles shelving "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" within weeks of completion, and you have an idea of the Beach Boys after their tormented creative leader abandoned "Smile."

The album's release in summer 1967 was supposed to be the Beach Boys' triumphant rejoinder to "Sgt. Pepper" in their friendly duel of musical one-upmanship with the Fab Four. The Beatles' famous concept album was itself a musical riposte to the 24-year-old Wilson's 1966 "Pet Sounds," which had been spurred by his competitive need to trump the Beatles' "Rubber Soul."

"I'm adjusting to it," Mr. Parks, now 61, says over the phone from his Los Angeles home.

What he's adjusting to is the reality that 37 years later, "Smile" arrives in stores Tuesday. Or rather, "Brian Wilson Presents 'Smile,' " a new studio recording of the masterwork Mr. Wilson once envisioned as "a teenage symphony to God."

Mr. Wilson, who turned 62 in June, is taking "Smile" out on a U.S. concert tour after a well-received London premiere in February and a series of other dates in Europe. The tour rolls into the Warner Theatre on Oct. 10.

"When I walked out for good," Mr. Parks says of that day in mid-April 1967, "Brian was headed to a psychological collapse. You can condemn me for that, but there was nothing I could do."