The two concerts, held at the Honolulu International Center Arena on August 25 and 26, featured a rare appearance from Brian Wilson, marking his only shows with the touring group between 1965 and 1970.

Commentators have highlighted Lei'd in Hawaii for offering unique reinterpretations of the Beach Boys' hits, notwithstanding the substandard sound quality.

[1] Their concerts in the United Kingdom, while selling out, were met with mixed reviews, a contrast from the high acclaim that British critics had bestowed upon them during the previous year.

"[7] According to music journalist Domenic Priore, the Lei'd in Hawaii concerts were the band's "attempt to make up for their non-appearance at the Monterey Pop Festival".

[8] Biographer Steven Gaines states that "the Beach Boys and their wives [went] to Hawaii for three weeks, to shoot a promotional film to be released in conjunction with the upcoming Smiley Smile album".

[16] In Priore's description, some of the footage captured during this epoch shows the group "romping around the idyllic island in paisley, aloha shirts and Jantzen sportswear with their wives and girlfriends".

[12] Wilson would never again sing "Heroes and Villains" before a public audience until 2001, for a Radio City Music Hall tribute concert held in his honor.

[18] Upon their return to Los Angeles, the Beach Boys decided that the set was not suitable for release due to its poor sound quality, particularly with respect to the vocals, and the band's substandard performance.

While they still put together a pretty good package of rock, I suspect The Beach Boys will soon follow The Beatles in concentrating on recordings and eliminating live concerts altogether.

[18] On September 11, 1967,[17] the band went to Wally Heider Recording in Hollywood and attempted to rerecord the entire performance as a "live-in-the-studio" album with the intention of inserting an audience response track later.

[19] Production lasted until at least September 29, as the band rerecorded many of the same songs that they performed in Hawaii, as well as a cover version of the Mindbenders' "The Game of Love".

[17] On October 13, 1967, the company announced that the Beach Boys' next release would be Wild Honey and offered a preliminary tracklist, even though many of the songs had yet to be recorded at that point.

[23] Portions of the Lei'd in Hawaii recordings were released piecemeal through various compilations and reissues, including Rarities (1983), Concert / Live in London (1990), Endless Harmony Soundtrack (1998), and Hawthorne, CA (2001).

[26] Biographer Peter Ames Carlin said that the studio sessions "have some nice moments", but afforded special attention to Love's "Heroes and Villains" rant.

[19] Priore felt that the "interesting part of the project was the rearrangement of older material, such as 'California Girls', which took on a beautiful, subtle vocal sound backed by Brian Wilson's organ.

"[8] Conversely, Pitchfork's Jesse Jarnow opined that while "it is a joy to hear the original Beach Boys do 'Heroes and Villains' in all its barbershop weirdness", the stripped-down quality of the performance "most definitely would not have passed the Monterey acid test against the likes of the Who and Jimi Hendrix".

[27] Uncut's David Cavanagh concurred that if the Beach Boys had appeared at the Monterey Pop Festival in this configuration, it "would have been catastrophic", opining that "the gigs they recorded in Hawaii weren't impressive at all [...] Dennis's drumming is wobbly, and Carl's guitar solos – in an era of Hendrix and Garcia – are a ham-fisted embarrassment.