Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	96/100
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
The A.V. Club	A
Consequence of Sound	A+
The Guardian
One Thirty BPM	100%
Paste
Pitchfork Media	10/10
Rolling Stone
Ultimate Classic Rock

The Smile Sessions is a compilation album and box set recorded by American rock band the Beach Boys, released on October 31, 2011 by Capitol Records. The set focuses on abandoned recording sessions from their unfinished 1966–67 album Smile which – if completed – would have followed the group's 11th studio album Pet Sounds. It features comprehensive session highlights and outtakes, while the first 19 tracks comprise an approximation of what the completed album might have sounded like.

The compilation is the first and only package devoted to the 1960s Smile recordings originally produced by Brian Wilson, arriving after decades of public anticipation and numerous false starts. The project was led primarily by audio engineers Alan Boyd, Mark Linett, and Capitol A&R director Dennis Wolfe, with Wilson acting as a remote supervisor, assisting the engineers with some mixing decisions. Previously, Wilson had completed a solo album based on Smile in 2004, which Boyd, Linett, and Wolfe used as a blueprint for The Smile Sessions. Wilson later stated that while the compilation is "not a far cry" from his original vision, he prefers his 2004 version. It is preceded by the similar box set The Pet Sounds Sessions (1997).

The Smile Sessions received virtually unanimous critical acclaim upon release. It was voted number 381 in Rolling Stone's 2012 list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" and won the award for Best Historical Album at the 55th Grammy Awards.The Los Angeles Times encouraged its inclusion in "every library of American recording history," deeming it an essential learning tool for university composition departments, music professors, budding recording engineers, and composers.

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