Wild Honey (album)

For other uses, see Wild Honey (disambiguation).

Untitled

Wild Honey is an album released by The Beach Boys in 1967. It was their eleventh studio album and sixteenth overall, and, as a group production, was the first Beach Boy album since Surfin U. S. A. not to be solely produced by Brian Wilson, who had gradually abdicated the band's musical leadership following the difficult sessions for the aborted Smile LP.

The closing track, "Mama Says", is a chant originally recorded for the abandoned Smile performance of "Vegetables". It was the first of several stray Smile tracks used to close a later Beach Boys album.

The title track became the advance single, a minor hit with only a short chart stay. Its follow-up, "Darlin' ", reached the US Top 20, while the album itself (the last Beach Boys LP to be released in both mono and stereo) reached #24 in the US and #7 in the UK. The track "Here Comes the Night" was later redone as a disco song in the late 1970s but was not a hit. "How She Boogalooed It", co-written by Al Jardine, Mike Love, Bruce Johnston and Carl Wilson, was the first Beach Boys non-instrumental original not to be written or co-written by Brian Wilson.

In 1990 Capitol Records reissued Wild Honey on a Beach Boys Double CD with Smiley Smile and bonus tracks including an alternate version of "Heroes and Villains" that contains the "cantina section", two incomplete versions of "Good Vibrations", "You're Welcome", "Their Hearts Were Full Of Spring", and "Can't Wait Too Long". This printing of the CD also included in depth liner notes by David Leaf, as well as previously unreleased Smile session photos by Jasper Dailey.

Front cover artwork

The colourful image featured on the front of the album sleeve is, in fact, a photograph of a small section of an elaborate stained glass double-window that adorned Brian and Marilyn Wilson's house in Bel Air. Although the Wilson family no longer own that property, the window itself was removed when they moved out and is currently to be found in Marilyn Wilson-Rutherford's present house.

Track listing

All songs by Brian Wilson/Mike Love, except where noted.

1. "Wild Honey" – 2:37
   • Features Carl Wilson on lead vocals
2. "Aren't You Glad" – 2:16
   • Features Mike Love [verses], Brian Wilson [verses and chorus] and Carl Wilson [chorus] on lead vocals
3. "I Was Made to Love Her" (Henry Cosby/Sylvia Moy/Lola Mae Hardaway/Stevie Wonder) – 2:05
   • Features Carl Wilson on lead vocals
4. "Country Air" – 2:20
   • Features group vocals
5. "A Thing or Two" – 2:40
   • Features Mike Love, Carl Wilson, and Brian Wilson on lead vocals
6. "Darlin' " – 2:12
   • Features Carl Wilson on lead vocals
7. "I'd Love Just Once to See You" – 1:48
   • Features Brian Wilson on lead vocals
8. "Here Comes the Night" – 2:41
   • Features Brian Wilson on lead vocals
9. "Let the Wind Blow" – 2:19
   • Features Mike Love, Brian Wilson, and Carl Wilson on lead vocals
10. "How She Boogalooed It" (Mike Love/Bruce Johnston/Al Jardine/Carl Wilson) – 1:56
    • Features Carl Wilson on lead vocals [long mistakenly credited to Jardine]
11. "Mama Says" – 1:05
    • Features group vocals

Singles

• "Wild Honey" b/w "Wind Chimes" (from Smiley Smile) (Capitol 2028), 23 October 1967 US #31; UK #29
• "Darlin'" b/w "Here Today" (from Pet Sounds) (Capitol 2068), 18 December 1967 US #19; UK #11. (UK B-side was "Country Air")

Wild Honey is now paired on CD with Smiley Smile, with bonus tracks from that period.

Early Version

An early lineup of Wild Honey was sent to Capitol Records during the Fall/Winter of 1967. If this version had been released, it would have been released as a Brother Records album distributed by Capitol. Its catalog number would have been "Brother ST-9003." If released, it would have had the following running order:

1. "Wild Honey"
2. "Here Comes the Night"
3. "Let the Wind Blow"
4. "I Was Made to Love Her"
5. "The Letter" (Cover of the Box Tops' hit)
6. "Darlin'"
7. "A Thing or Two"
8. "Aren't You Glad"
9. "Cool, Cool Water"
10. "Game of Love" (Cover of the Clint Ballard Jr./Wayne Fontana & the Mindbenders song)
11. "Lonely Days"
12. "Honey Get Home"

Sources

• Smiley Smile/Wild Honey CD booklet notes, David Leaf, c.1990.
• "Look! Listen! Vibrate! Smile!", Domenic Priore, c.1995
• "The Nearest Faraway Place: Brian Wilson, The Beach Boys and the Southern California Experience", Timothy White, c. 1994.
• "Wouldn't It Be Nice - My Own Story", Brian Wilson and Todd Gold, c. 1991.
• "Top Pop Singles 1955-2001", Joel Whitburn, c. 2002.
• "Top Pop Albums 1955-2001", Joel Whitburn, c. 2002.
• Allmusic.com

External links

• Wild Honey lyrics
• The Beach Boys Album Covers Site