From mid-June to early July, Carl and Rieley retrieved the "Smile" multi-tracks from Capitol's vaults, primarily to locate the "Surf's Up" masters, and attempted to repair and splice the tapes. Brian joined them on at least two occasions. Afterward, the band set to work on recording the song at their private studio, located within Brian's home. Brian initially refused to participate in the recording of "Surf's Up" and insisted that Carl take the lead vocal. The group attempted to rerecord the song from scratch. "But we scrapped it", Rieley later said, "because it didn't quite come up to the original." An unsuccessful attempt was also made to mashup Brian's 1966 vocal to the instrumental track. According to Linett, a tape showcasing this effort still exists in the group's archives.