| Wild Honey | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | December 18, 1967 (1967-12-18) | |||
| Recorded | September 26 – November 15, 1967 | |||
| Studio | Beach Boys andWally Heider, Los Angeles | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 23:54 | |||
| Label | Capitol | |||
| Producer | The Beach Boys | |||
| The Beach Boys chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Wild Honey | ||||
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Wild Honey is the thirteenth studio album by the Americanrock bandthe Beach Boys, released on December 18, 1967, byCapitol Records. It was the group's first foray intosoul music and was heavily influenced by theR&B ofMotown andStax Records. The album was the band's worst-selling at that point, charting at number 24 in the US. Lead single "Wild Honey" peaked at number 31, while its follow-up "Darlin'" reached number 19. In the UK, the album peaked at number seven.
The album's sessions began immediately after the recording ofLei'd in Hawaii, a failedlive album, and the release ofSmiley Smile, their previous LP. LikeSmiley Smile,Wild Honey's core instrumental combo consists oforgan,honky-tonk piano, and electric bass. The Beach Boys were inspired to regroup as a self-contained rock band, partly in response to critical assertions that they were "ball-less choir boys".[1] They also purposefully distanced themselves from the prevailing rock trends of the time, which had been typified bypsychedelia and high-scale recording or thematic conceits.
It was the second album to credit "the Beach Boys" as producer. At his request, bandmateCarl Wilson began contributing more to the recording process, a trend that continued on subsequent albums.Mike Love also returned asBrian Wilson's main songwriting collaborator for the first time sinceSummer Days (And Summer Nights!!) (1965).
Wild Honey presaged aback-to-basics approach that was subsequently adopted by the Beach Boys' contemporaries, includingBob Dylan andthe Beatles, and it is credited with pioneering theDIY pop genre. Most critics initially disregarded the record, but after the mid-1970s, a greater appreciation formed around its simplicity and charm, and has received retrospective critical acclaim with many citing it as one of the band's finest works. In 1979, the track "Here Comes the Night" was redone by the group as adisco single. In 2020,Wild Honey was ranked number 410 onRolling Stone's list of the “500 Greatest Albums of All Time”. A remixed and expanded edition, titled1967 – Sunshine Tomorrow, was released in 2017.
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The Beach Boys' previous LPSmiley Smile, released in September 1967, peaked at number 41 on USBillboard charts[2] for what was their worst performing album to date.[3] A controversy involving whether the band was to be taken as a serious rock group had critics and fans divided, as journalistGene Sculatti wrote at the time, "the California sextet is simultaneouslyhailed as genius incarnate and derided as the archetypical pop music copouts."[4] The unfinished album thatSmiley Smile came to replace,Smile, had acquired considerable press, andCapitol Records was still interested in putting the album out. In July 1967, an internal memo circulated around Capitol Records that discussed imminent plans to follow upSmiley Smile with a 10-track version of the originalSmile, but this never came to fruition.[5]
Instead, the group traveled to Honolulu and attempted to record a live album, titledLei'd in Hawaii. There, Wilson intimated to a reporter that he enjoyed the contemporary "pop scene" and acknowledged that, even though "the Beach Boys are squares", he did not feel personally hurt by such a reputation, citing the band's past successes and the enjoyment they get from recording.[6] However,Carl Wilson later said thatWild Honey was partly conceived as a response to criticisms against the band for "sounding like choir boys". He recalled, "there was one review that said Brian actually sounded likeMickey Mouse. That really tore him up."[7] Upon their return to Los Angeles, in September, the group decided that the recordings were not suitable for release and attempted to redo the project as a live-in-the-studio album.[8] After this, the band recorded the material that formedWild Honey.[8]
Meanwhile, two days after the release ofSmiley Smile, Carl had produced some recordings for the songwriterStephen Kalinich, who later became a collaborator for the group, and the songwriter's partner Mark Buckingham. All of the tracks remain unreleased.[9] In October,Murry Wilson, the band's original manager, made his recording debut with the albumThe Many Moods of Murry Wilson, with one track composed byAl Jardine and produced by an uncredited Brian.[10][nb 1]
Wild Honey was very simply music to cool out by. Brian was still very spaced out, though I seem to recall he'd given up acid by that time. [...] But we all really dugMotown, so Brian reckoned we should get more into a white R&B bag. I also recall around that time the band, and Brian in particular, getting criticized very heavily for sounding like choir boys.
Wild Honey is asoul album that mixespop andR&B styles.[14][nb 2] According to Mike Love, the band made a conscious decision to be "completely out of the mainstream for what was going on at that time, which was allhard rock/psychedelic music. [The album] just didn't have anything to do with what was going on."[16] Brian said, "we decided to make a rhythm'n'blues record. We consciously made a simpler album. It was just a little R'n'B and soul. It certainly wasn't like a regular Beach Boys record."[17] It was recorded mostly atthe band's private studio—located in Brian's home—and may be retrospectively viewed as the second installment in a consecutive series oflo-fi Beach Boys albums.[18] The recording sessions lasted only several weeks, compared to the several months required for their 1966 hit "Good Vibrations".[19] Musicologist Christian Matijas-Mecca noted that "while the album's sparse production aesthetics and stripped-down sonic palette are deceiving, the album is arranged with an attention to detail and tonal clarity."[20]
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The album differs in many ways from previous Beach Boys records.[19] Unlike the band's previous R&B outings—which typically consisted ofChuck Berry-derived riffs—most ofWild Honey drew on the emotive soul music associated with theMotown andStax Records labels.[21] Edwin Faust fromStylus Magazine wrote that its music focuses "simply on catchyhooks, snappy melodies and a straight-upboogie-woogie feel".[22]Lenny Kaye, writing forWondering Sound, felt that its "R&B leanings" may be attributed to Mike Love and Carl Wilson's vocal roles on the album.[23] Carl said that his R&B side had "always wanted to come out. I have this massive collection of R&B records. When we were doingPet Sounds, I'd go home and put on my Stax andAretha stuff. It's always been a big part of my life."[24]
Wild Honey contains very little group singing compared to previous albums, and mainly features Brian singing at his piano.[19] MusicologistDaniel Harrison writes that its "simple songs" lack the "enigmatic weirdness" and "virtuosic mesmerizers" present inSmiley Smile, although they feature the same production approach and similar core instrumental combo of organ, honky-tonk piano, and electric bass.[25] The piano was slightly detuned, which Brian said made it "more like a twelve-string guitar, to get a more mellow sound. [...] I loved what it did to the sound of the record."[26] Only five tracks were recorded with assistance from session musicians: "Wild Honey", "Aren't You Glad", "I Was Made to Love Her", "Darlin'", and "Here Comes the Night".[27] Some sessions were held atWally Heider Recording in Los Angeles in order to accommodate the musicians with a larger recording space for overdubs.[10]
Bruce Johnston recalled, "we wanted to be a band again. The whole [Smile] thing had wiped everyone out, and we wanted to play together again."[19][nb 3] Harrison describesWild Honey as a self-conscious attempt by the Beach Boys to "regroup" themselves as a rock band in opposition to their more orchestral affairs of the past.[29] By this time, Brian had grown weary of producing the Beach Boys after having done it for several years, and so he requested that Carl contribute more to the process.[13][30] Brian stated that his brother "really got into [...] the production side of things" starting withWild Honey.[17] Moreover, Brian said, "People expected me to come up with great orchestral stuff all the time and it became a burden."[17] He is credited as composer or co-composer for 9 of 11 tracks, compared toSmiley Smile in which he held a songwriting credit for every track.[25] It was the Beach Boys' last album to be mixed inmono.[20]
"Wild Honey" was co-written by Mike Love from the perspective ofStevie Wonder singing it.[33] Session musicianPaul Tanner was recruited to play hisElectro-Theremin on the track.[10]
"Aren't You Glad" is a song that critics have compared to the style ofthe Lovin' Spoonful.[34][35] BiographerByron Preiss wrote that it "epitomizes" the album's "simple energy",[36] while magazine editorGene Sculatti says it "achieves aMiracles style smoothness via aBobby Goldsboro-type song".[4]
"I Was Made to Love Her" was originally recorded by Wonder, who had a number 2 hit with the song in July 1967.[37] A popular misconception is that Carl sings the phrase "son of a bitch" on this track.[38]
"Country Air" describes the scene of the sun rising over rural America. The group repeatedly harmonizes in the chorus, "Get a breath of that country air / breathe the beauty of it everywhere"."[39] It was cited by Brian as his "favorite cut on the record."[40] There is a technical anomaly with the master tape that caused the track to have a buzzing noise throughout.[19]
"A Thing or Two" is identified by Christian Matijas-Mecca as a "sibling" toSmiley Smile's "Gettin' Hungry". The vocal riff would be reprised in the group's 1968 single "Do It Again".[41]
"Darlin'" is a song that had been reworked from an earlier Brian Wilson/Mike Love composition, "Thinkin' 'Bout You Baby".[19] Initially, Brian had planned to give "Darlin'" (along with "Time to Get Alone") toThree Dog Night, then called "Redwood", before Carl and Love insisted that Brian focus his attention on producing work for the Beach Boys.[41] Redwood's version of "Time to Get Alone" was released on the 1993 compilationCelebrate: The Three Dog Night Story.[10]
"I'd Love Just Once to See You" prefigured the writing style that Brian would later explore in the next studio albumFriends.[19][43] Throughout the song, he sings about ordinary activities such as washing the dishes, before ending it with the line, "I'd love just once to see you / in the nude".[39]
"Here Comes the Night" is another soulful R&B song written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love. In 1979, the Beach Boys would make a near eleven-minute disco cover of this song for their twenty-third studio album,L.A. (Light Album).
"Let the Wind Blow" was the first composition recorded by the group that is in3
4 time from beginning to end.[citation needed] According to biographers Andrew Doe andJohn Tobler, it was composed primarily by Love and "rearranged" by Brian.[32][34]
"How She Boogaloed It" is one of the album's more uptempo songs.[19] It was the first original Beach Boys song (excluding instrumentals and cover versions) not to feature contributions from Brian.[19]
"Mama Says" is a chant that originated from an unreleased version of theSmile song"Vegetables". It was the first time a track linked toSmile was used to close a later Beach Boys album, the others being20/20 (1969),Sunflower (1970) andSurf's Up (1971).[19] Inexplicably, when the alternate "Mama Says" version of "Vegetables" was released,Van Dyke Parks' songwriting credit was not honored, and instead Love was listed as the song's only co-writer.[45]
Outtakes from theWild Honey sessions include the originals "Can't Wait Too Long", "Time to Get Alone", "Cool, Cool Water", "Honey Get Home", and "Lonely Days".[46]"Can't Wait Too Long" was released on the 1990/2001 two-fer reissue, while "Time to Get Alone" and "Cool, Cool Water" were released on subsequent albums20/20 andSunflower respectively. A solo recording of Brian performing theSmile song "Surf's Up" was lost and rediscovered several decades later at the end of the multi-track reel for "Country Air". ArchivistMark Linett stated: "No explanation for why he did that and it was never taken any farther. Although I don't think the intention was to take it any farther because it's just him singing live and playing piano."[47] This recording would see release on the 2011 compilationThe Smile Sessions. The band also recordedcover versions ofthe Box Tops hit "The Letter" (1967),Clint Ballard Jr.'s "The Game of Love" (1965), andthe Beatles' "With a Little Help from My Friends" (1967), as well as Johnston's demo for "Bluebirds over the Mountain".[48] TheNew York Observer's Ron Hart said that the significance of the Beach Boys covering "The Letter" as sung byAlex Chilton is "simply beyond comprehension [...] for that special kind of music nerd."[16]
On October 13, 1967, Capitol announced that the Beach Boys' next release would beWild Honey and offered its track listing, even though some of the songs had yet to be recorded at that point.[49][nb 4] Among its differences, "How She Boogalooed It", "Country Air", and "Mama Says" were not included, while "Cool, Cool Water", "Game of Love", "The Letter" (live version from Hawaii), and "Lonely Days" were. "Honey Get Home" was also listed, but crossed out. "The Letter" was to serve as a teaser for the forthcoming live album before the plans for the record were dropped.[49]
The image on the front of theWild Honey sleeve is a small section of an elaborate stained-glass window that adorned Brian's home in Bel Air.[50]
In the liner notes, friend Arnie Geller and the Wilsons' cousin Steve Korthoff wrote, "Honey, of the wild variety, on a shelf in Brian's kitchen, was not only an aide to all of the Beach Boys' health but the source of inspiration for the record,Wild Honey".[19] Three Dog Night singerDanny Hutton supported, "The vibe was still great. [Brian would] have me over and he'd suddenly say: 'I've got this idea, man!' Then he'd point to a jar of wild honey. 'That's it! That's what the album's gonna be called!' And the other guys were thrilled."[51]
Alternatively,Mike Love said he originated the title after finding a jar of honey in Wilson's cupboard.[10] He felt that the title was suggestive of both edible honey and "honey" as a term of endearment,[33] Wilson recalled in a 2012 interview, "People still think this record came about because of some wild honey I'm supposed to have kept in my kitchen, but I don't remember that being true."[17]
Lead single "Wild Honey" was issued on October 23, 1967, with a B-side taken fromSmiley Smile, "Wind Chimes". The single peaked at number 31 in the US and number 20 in the UK.[42] From November 17 to 26, the touring group embarked on their fifth annualThanksgiving tour of the US, with set lists that included four songs from the upcoming album: "Wild Honey", "Darlin'", "Country Air", and "How She Boogalooed It". KeyboardistDaryl Dragon and bassist Ron Brown supported the band on stage.[52] On December 15, the band performed their only studio-televised live performance of the year at aUNICEF Variety Gala in Paris, for a program titledGala Variety from Paris, which also featured several other celebrities, includingMaharishi Mahesh Yogi.[53]
Wild Honey was issued in the US on December 18, accompanied by the single "Darlin'" (backed with "Here Today" fromPet Sounds).[50] It was released at a contrast to the psychedelic music that occupied the record charts, and incompetition with the Beatles'Magical Mystery Tour andthe Rolling Stones'Their Satanic Majesties Request.[50]Wild Honey became the Beach Boys' lowest-selling album at that point and remained on the charts for only 15 weeks.[19] "Darlin'" peaked at number 24 in the US, as didWild Honey. When the single was reissued in January with the B-side "Country Air", it peaked at number 11.[54] In March,Wild Honey was released in the UK, where it peaked at number 7.[55]
LikeSmiley Smile,Wild Honey was viewed by contemporary critics as an inconsequential work,[1] and it alienated audiences whose expectations had been raised by the hype generated forSmile, although received better reviews than Smiley Smile and was considered in some parts an improvement.[19] The group remained effectively blacklisted by the music press, to the extent that reviews of the group's records were either withheld from publication or published long after the release dates.[9] Writing in his 1969 bookOutlaw Blues,Paul Williams summarized thatWild Honey was "a work of joy [...] new and fresh and raw and beautiful", and said that while the album's boogie woogie piano riffs were, "in their own way, as inventive as Brian's more textured records [...] we expected more (from Brian) than we would expect from any other composer alive, because the tracks we'd heard fromSmile were just that good.Smiley Smile was [...] a confusion [...] andWild Honey is just another Beach Boys record."[19]
Rolling Stone reviewed that the Beach Boys regained their better judgement after the "disaster" ofSmiley Smile, although their use of "pre-existing ideas and idioms" onWild Honey is less satisfactory and original than their earlier work: "It's kind of amusing that the Beach Boys are suddenly re-discovering rhythm and blues five years after the Beatles andStones had brought it all back home".[35]Jazz & Pop'sGene Sculatti wrote: "[the Beach Boys] have the audacity to fool around with r&b, a territory indeed alien to them. Surprisingly,Wild Honey works well. It isn't the least bit pretentious, it's honest, and convincing."[4] In a column forEsquire,Robert Christgau wrote that the album "epitomizes Brian Wilson", including the song "I'd Love Just Once to See You", which "expresses perfectly his quiet, thoughtful, sentimental artistic personality."[57]Billboard welcomed the band's return to form after the "avant-garde"Smiley Smile, but was critical of "How She Boogalooed It" as "far below the group's quality" and predicted that "I'd Love Just Once to See You" would not receive airplay.[58]
Disc & Music Echo awarded the album "LP of the Month" and wrote that it was the band's best sincePet Sounds. The magazine concluded that "Others who, like us, felt Brian Wilson was becoming bogged down in his complex arrangements can relax and listen to the most refreshing sounds for many months."[59] In a 1968Crawdaddy! article,David Anderle reported thatthe Doors'Jim Morrison considered Brian Wilson "his favorite musician" andWild Honey "one of his favorite albums. [...] he really got into it."[56]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [60] |
| Blender | [61] |
| The Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [62] |
| MusicHound Rock |  [63] |
| Pitchfork | 3.5/10[64] |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [65] |
| Sputnikmusic | 3.5/5[66] |
| The Village Voice | A+[67] |
LikeSmiley Smile,Wild Honey was later reevaluated by fans and critics who highlighted the record for its simplicity and charm, particularly after the LP was reissued byWarner Bros. in 1974.[68] In his 1971 review ofSurf's Up,Rolling Stone's Arthur Schmidt referred toWild Honey as "a masterpiece", "the most underrated" of the band's "post-surfer LPs", and "the last time they truly rocked their asses off, one cut after another."[69] In a 1976 retrospective guide to 1967 forThe Village Voice, Christgau feltWild Honey is "so slight" but "perfect and full of pleasure". He argued that, "almost without a bad second", the album conveys "the troubled innocence of the Beach Boys through a time of attractive but perilous psychedelicsturm und drang. Its method is whimsy, candor, and carefully modulated amateurishness, all of which comes through as humor."[67][nb 5]
CriticGeoffrey Himes called the record "10 wonderful celebrations of everyday life and a terrific Stevie Wonder cover. Wonder, though, never sang odes to clean air and refreshing wind or made boyish jokes about seeing a naked woman or brushing one's teeth."[72] Record producerTony Visconti listedWild Honey as one of his 13 favorite albums and said that "I still refer to this record as a benchmark in the same way that I doRevolver."[73] In 2020,Rolling Stone ranked the record at number 410 on its list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time".[74] It was also ranked second onRolling Stone's 2012 list of the "Coolest Summer Albums of All Time" list, with the editors praising the record's "hedonistic rock & roll spirit", "humor" and "pensive depth".[75][76]
Less favorably,Richie Unterberger wrote in his review forAllMusic that, apart from "Darlin'", "Here Comes the Night" and the title track, most ofWild Honey was "inessential". He found the music "often quite pleasant, for the great harmonies if nothing else, but the material and arrangements were quite simply thinner than they had been for a long time."[60] Sommer wrote that the album's original mono mix suffers from being "flat and peculiar".[28] In the lyrics tothe Beta Band's 1999 song "Round the Bend",Wild Honey is hailed for its "funny little love songs" although considered "probably not as good as something likePet Sounds".[77]
In a negative review,Pitchfork critic Spencer Owen said only "one or two" songs succeed and the majority ofWild Honey is "not pretty" because of its R&B vein as "interpreted by white surfer boys", including "a Stevie Wonder cover sung with as much faux-soul as Carl Wilson could have possibly mustered".[64] Writing in hisEncyclopedia of Popular Music,Colin Larkin pairs the album with the "scrappy"Smiley Smile as two "hastily released" works that show how the Beach Boys' music had "lost its cohesiveness", with Brian Wilson's reduced involvement.[78]Noel Gallagher, who considers the Beach Boys to be "the most vastly overrated band in the history of popular culture", named "How She Boogalooed It" among the group's only "six good tunes".[79]
In the wake ofWild Honey, numerous contemporaries of the Beach Boys adopted a similar back-to-basics approach, includingBob Dylan (John Wesley Harding),the Band (Music from Big Pink), the Beatles (The Beatles), and the Rolling Stones (Beggars Banquet).[80]Uncut's David Cavanaugh remarked that despite the poor critical response afforded to the album at the time of its release,Wild Honey heralded rock trends of the late 1960s and effectively pioneered "apost-psychedelic music while theSummer of Love was still in full swing. And wouldn't you know it, The Beatles' 'Lady Madonna' would get the credit."[81] Author Mike Segretto echoed, "Ten days before Dylan got all the credit for popping the psychedelic balloon withJohn Wesley Harding, the Beach Boys had done it first withWild Honey."[82]
Similarly, music journalistTim Sommer characterized the album as boldly subverting "rock's expansion into pompous avenues of volume, psychedelia and lyrical pretension" and called it a precursor to albums such asthe Kinks'Village Green Preservation Society andthe Byrds'The Notorious Byrd Brothers (both 1968).[28] Editors atRolling Stone credited the LP with starting "the idea of DIY pop".[74]
In 2017, a complete stereo mix ofWild Honey was released for the first time on the rarities compilation1967 – Sunshine Tomorrow. The set also includes numerous session highlights, alternate takes, and live renditions ofWild Honey tracks in addition to other unreleased material recorded during theSmiley Smile andLei'd in Hawaii era.[83] Several months later, the compilation was followed with two more digital-exclusive releases:1967 – Sunshine Tomorrow 2: The Studio Sessions and1967 – Live Sunshine. They include more than 100 tracks that were left off the first compilation.[84]
All tracks are written byBrian Wilson andMike Love, except where noted.
| No. | Title | Lead vocal(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Wild Honey" | Carl Wilson | 2:36 |
| 2. | "Aren't You Glad" | Mike Love,Brian Wilson andCarl Wilson | 2:15 |
| 3. | "I Was Made to Love Her" (Henry Cosby,Sylvia Moy,Lula Mae Hardaway,Stevland Morris) | C. Wilson | 2:05 |
| 4. | "Country Air" | group | 2:19 |
| 5. | "A Thing or Two" | Love, C. Wilson, and B. Wilson | 2:40 |
| Total length: | 11:55 | ||
| No. | Title | Lead vocal(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Darlin'" | C. Wilson | 2:11 |
| 2. | "I'd Love Just Once to See You" | B. Wilson | 1:48 |
| 3. | "Here Comes the Night" | B. Wilson | 2:42 |
| 4. | "Let the Wind Blow" | Love, B. Wilson, and C. Wilson | 2:18 |
| 5. | "How She Boogalooed It" (Love,Bruce Johnston,Al Jardine,Carl Wilson) | C. Wilson | 1:56 |
| 6. | "Mama Says" | group | 1:04 |
| Total length: | 11:59 | ||
| No. | Title | Lead vocal(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 23. | "Heroes and Villains" (alternate take) (B. Wilson,Van Dyke Parks) | B. Wilson | 3:00 |
| 24. | "Good Vibrations" (various sessions) (B. Wilson) | instrumental | 6:57 |
| 25. | "Good Vibrations" (early take) (B. Wilson,Tony Asher) | C. Wilson with B. Wilson | 3:03 |
| 26. | "You're Welcome" (B. Wilson) | group | 1:11 |
| 27. | "Their Hearts Were Full of Spring" (Bobby Troup) | group | 2:33 |
| 28. | "Can't Wait Too Long" (B. Wilson) | B. Wilson with C. Wilson | 5:34 |
Credits per Craig Slowinski.[27]
The Beach Boys
Additional musicians
Undetermined credits
Production and technical staff
| Chart (1968) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| UK Albums Chart[50] | 7 |
| USBillboard 200[50] | 24 |
| Chart (2025) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Greek Albums (IFPI)[86] 2001 reissue | 27 |
