In 1995, the Wondermints – a band that included Sahanaja as a member – performed a live cover of "Surf's Up" at the Morgan-Wixon Theater in Los Angeles with Wilson in the audience, who was then quoted saying "If I'd had these guys back in '66, I could've taken "Smile" on the road." Wilson rerecorded the song as part of his 2004 album, "Brian Wilson Presents Smile", with new string orchestrations arranged by himself, Parks, Sahanaja, and Paul Mertens. For the 2011 compilation "The Smile Sessions", Mark Linett created a new mix of the song that mashed up the 1966 backing track to the vocals from Brian's contemporaneous piano demo.