| Wild Honey | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by The Beach Boys | ||||
| Released | December 18, 1967 [1] | |||
| Recorded | September 26 - November 15, 1967 |
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| Genre | Psychedelic pop, psychedelic rock, psychedelic soul | |||
| Length | 23:58 | |||
| Label | Capitol | |||
| Producer | The Beach Boys | |||
| The Beach Boys chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | [2] |
| Blender | [3] |
| Robert Christgau | (A+)[4] |
| Rolling Stone | [5] |
Wild Honey is an album released by The Beach Boys in 1967. It was their thirteenth studio album and sixteenth overall, and, as a group production, was the first Beach Boy album since Surfin' USA not to give sole production credit to Brian Wilson, who had gradually abdicated the band's musical leadership following the difficult sessions for the aborted Smile LP. Despite this, the album is said to be primarily a Brian production.
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 first 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, or in this case duophonic quasi-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.
Contents |
The colorful 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 owns that property, the window itself was removed when they moved out and is currently to be found in Marilyn Wilson-Rutherford's present house.
All songs written and composed by Brian Wilson/Mike Love, except where noted.
| Side one | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Lead Vocals | Length | ||||||
| 1. | "Wild Honey" | Carl Wilson | 2:37 | ||||||
| 2. | "Aren't You Glad" | Mike Love/Brian Wilson/C. Wilson | 2:16 | ||||||
| 3. | "I Was Made to Love Her" (Cosby/Moy/Hardaway/Wonder) | C. Wilson | 2:05 | ||||||
| 4. | "Country Air" | group | 2:20 | ||||||
| 5. | "A Thing or Two" | Love/C. Wilson/B. Wilson | 2:40 | ||||||
| Side two | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Lead Vocals | Length | ||||||
| 1. | "Darlin'" | C. Wilson | 2:12 | ||||||
| 2. | "I'd Love Just Once to See You" | B. Wilson | 1:48 | ||||||
| 3. | "Here Comes the Night" | B. Wilson | 2:41 | ||||||
| 4. | "Let the Wind Blow" | Love/B. Wilson/C. Wilson | 2:19 | ||||||
| 5. | "How She Boogalooed It" (Love/Johnston/Jardine/C. Wilson) | C. Wilson | 1:56 | ||||||
| 6. | "Mama Says" | group | 1:05 | ||||||
Wild Honey is now paired on CD with Smiley Smile, with bonus tracks from that period. Bonus tracks include "Heroes and Villains (Alternate Take)", "Good Vibrations (Various Sessions)", "Good Vibrations (Early Take)", "You're Welcome", "Their Hearts Were Full of Spring " and "Can't Wait Too Long".
An early lineup of Wild Honey was sent to Capitol Records during 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: