In commemoration of its 25th anniversary, Orange Crate Art — Brian Wilson's 1995 collaboration with Smile co-writer, Van Dyke Parks — will be reissued on June 19th via the Omnivore imprint. Orange Crate Art, which featured Wilson layering dozens of vocal lines of Van Dyke's nostalgic and pictorial look at California, will now feature a previously unreleased cover of “What A Wonderful World,” along with two other tracks — as well as an instrumental bonus disc of the entire album.
Parks spoke to Rolling Stone about the Orange Crate Art reissue and recalled, “I’d started with the title tune. I didn’t have to call Central Casting. Coincidentally, I knew the man who could pronounce 'Orange,' the way it was meant to sound. And not how they pronounce it on Miami Beach. That is precisely why I asked Brian to be the voice of America. And in this, he is. As for me? I arranged this album and wrote songs. Brian opted to coast and just unpack as a vocalist. He honored me that way.”
When we last caught up with Van Dyke Parks, he looked back to the 1966 when he and Brian Wilson began in earnest to create the music that became the Beach Boys' legendary Smile project: “I was 24 when I worked for Brian Wilson. I knew nothing about lyrics. I knew nothing about popular music, but I did my best. To me, it was a great success for a couple of kids in their mid-20's to be able to hear their music in the face of the fact that their are so many musicians of superior ability, who never get to hear a damn note.”
