The Aeroplane Flies High

According to Tom Moon, writing for Rolling Stone, "Aeroplane is the Pumpkins’ Anthology 1, a cutting-room-floor companion piece to Mellon Collie that provides insight into Corgan’s extraordinary creative outbursts. He has said that Mellon Collie was a transforming experience for the band, and Aeroplane shows how much the Pumpkins are still willing to take chances. And here’s the scary part: There is no filler here. These supposedly second-string tracks are keepers. Aeroplane has its indulgent moments; the very exercise of anthologizing this material is megalomaniacal. But the ballads are as gorgeous as anything Corgan has ever written. The box also has small, ruminative pieces that are jarringly thoughtful and blasts of guitar riffage straight outta the corporate-rock ’70s."[3]

In 2013, the Smashing Pumpkins issued a 6-disc deluxe version of The Aeroplane Flies High, which Spotify classified under the band's "compilations" section[4] According to Ian Cohen, writing for Pitchfork, "[t]he Aeroplane Flies High is not a beloved obscurity, nor is it a canonical album celebrating a milestone anniversary. It’s not even an album: it’s a widely available, 16-year old collection of B-sides from a double album. Granted, the Smashing Pumpkins' Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness was more judiciously edited than the title would lead you to believe. It was a 28-song double album all the same, and now Aeroplane nearly quadruples in size with 90 additional tracks on top of its original 33, with a bonus DVD to boot."[5]

All tracks are written by Billy Corgan, except where noted.

The "Pastichio Medley" is a medley of riffs from a variety of sources recorded after Siamese Dream and before the completion of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. It features "The Demon", "Thunderbolt", "Dearth", "Knuckles", "Star Song", "Firepower", "New Waver", "Space Jam", "Zoom", "So Very Sad About Us", "Phang", "Speed Racer", "The Eternal E", "Hairy Eyeball", "The Groover", "Hell Bent for Hell", "Rachel", "A Dog's Prayer", "Blast", "The Black Rider", "Slurpee", "Flipper", "The Viper", "Bitch", "Fried", "Harmonia", "U.S.A.", "The Tracer", "Envelope Woman", "Plastic Guy", "Glasgow 3am", "The Road Is Long", "Funkified", "Rigamarole", "Depresso", "The Streets Are Hot Tonite", "Dawn At 16", "Spazmatazz", "Fucker", "In the Arms of Sheep", "Speed", "77", "Me Rock You Snow", "Feelium", "Is Alex Milton", "Rubberman", "Spacer", "Rock Me", "Weeping Willowly", "Rings", "So So Pretty", "Lucky Lad", "Jackboot", "Milieu", "Disconnected", "Let Your Lazer Love Light Shine Down", "Phreak", "Porkbelly", "Robot Lover", "Jimmy James", "America", "Slinkeepie", "Dummy Tum Tummy", "Fakir", "Jake", "Camaro", "Moonkids", "Make It Fungus", "V-8", and "Die".

"Rachel" bears a similar sound to, and is apparently an early version of, the Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness song "X.Y.U.".[6] As well, "Disconnected" is an as-yet-to-be-completed instrumental version of "The Aeroplane Flies High (Turns Left, Looks Right)".[7]

A full version of "U.S.A." was released on 2011's reissue of Siamese Dream; full versions of "Feelium", "Knuckles", "New Waver", "Zoom", "Phang", "Blast", and "Speed" were released on 2012's reissue of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness; and full versions of "Milieu", "Jackboot", "Rings", "The Groover", and "Star Song" were released on 2013's reissue of The Aeroplane Flies High.

"Tonite Reprise" is a solo acoustic version of "Tonight, Tonight" with slight alterations to the lyrics. It also appeared on the vinyl version of Mellon Collie.

The Smashing Pumpkins

• Billy Corgan – vocals, guitar, piano, production, liner notes, mixing, illustrations
• James Iha – guitar; vocals on "...Said Sadly", "A Night Like This", "The Boy", "Believe", and "The Bells"; production; engineering; mixing
• D'arcy Wretzky – bass guitar, vocals on "Dreaming" and "The Bells", production, engineering, mixing
• Jimmy Chamberlin – drums

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[8]
Consequence of Sound	[9]
Entertainment Weekly	B+[10]
Rolling Stone	[11]

Additional musicians

• Keith Brown – piano
• Bill Corgan, Sr. – guitar solo on "The Last Song"
• Dennis Flemion – instruments on "Medellia of the Gray Skies"
• Jimmy Flemion – instruments on "Medellia of the Gray Skies"
• Nina Gordon – vocals on "...Said Sadly"
• Chris Martin – piano
• Eric Remschneider – cello on "The Bells"
• Adam Schlesinger – piano on "The Bells"

Production

• Andy Chase – engineer
• John Craig – illustrations
• Pual Eledge – photography
• Flood – production, engineering, mixing
• Jeff Lane – mixing
• Tommy Lipnick – engineering
• Jeff Moleski – engineering, mixing
• Tommy Moleski – engineering
• Alan Moulder – production, mixing
• J. Nicholas – mixing, mixing assistant
• Frank Olinsky – art direction, design
• Neil Perry – mixing
• Claudine Pontier – engineering
• Russ Spice – engineering
• Howie Weinberg – mastering
• Martin White – engineering
• Yelena Yemchuk – photography, "Zero" cover art