Wild Honey is the thirteenth studio album by the American rock band the Beach Boys, released on December 18, 1967, by Capitol Records. Recorded between September and November, it was the group's first foray into soul music, influenced by the R&B of Motown and Stax Records, and their second album to credit production collectively to the band. It continued the lo-fi style of Smiley Smile.
Following the recording of an attempted live album (Lei'd in Hawaii), the Beach Boys had been inspired to regroup as a self-contained rock band, partly in response to critical assertions that they were "ball-less choir boys", and purposely distanced themselves from prevailing rock trends. Brian Wilson ceded some of his role in the production to Carl Wilson, a trend that continued on subsequent records. Mike Love also returned as Brian's main songwriting collaborator for the first time since Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!) in 1965. Wild Honey became the band's worst-selling album at that point, charting at number 24 in the U.S. Lead single "Wild Honey" peaked at number 31, while its follow-up "Darlin" reached number 19. Most critics dismissed or declined to review the album. In the UK, it peaked at number seven.
In later years, a greater appreciation formed around the album's simplicity and charm; it has been credited with presaging a back-to-basics approach adopted by contemporaries including Bob Dylan and the Beatles, and with pioneering the DIY pop genre. In 1979, the track "Here Comes the Night" was redone by the group as a disco single. In 2020, Wild Honey was ranked number 410 on Rolling Stones list of the “500 Greatest Albums of All Time”. A remixed and expanded edition, titled 1967 – Sunshine Tomorrow, was released in 2017 and contained the album's first stereo mix.
Background
The Beach Boys' previous LP Smiley Smile, released in September 1967, peaked at number 41 on US Billboard charts for what was their worst performing album to date. A controversy involving whether the band was to be taken as a serious rock group had critics and fans divided, as journalist Gene Sculatti wrote at the time, "the California sextet is simultaneously hailed as genius incarnate and derided as the archetypical pop music copouts." The unfinished album that Smiley Smile came to replace, Smile, had acquired considerable press, and Capitol 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 up Smiley Smile with a 10-track version of the original Smile, but this never came to fruition.
Instead, the group traveled to Honolulu and attempted to record a live album, titled Lei'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. However, Carl Wilson later said that Wild 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 like Mickey Mouse. That really tore him up." 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. After this, the band recorded the material that formed Wild Honey.
Meanwhile, two days after the release of Smiley Smile, Carl had produced some recordings for the songwriter Stephen Kalinich, who later became a collaborator for the group, and the songwriter's partner Mark Buckingham. All of the tracks remain unreleased. In October, Murry Wilson, the band's original manager, made his recording debut with the album The Many Moods of Murry Wilson, with one track composed by Al Jardine and produced by an uncredited Brian.
Style and production
Wild Honey is a soul album that mixes pop and R&B styles.; ; ; ; 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 all hard rock/psychedelic music. [The album] just didn't have anything to do with what was going on." 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." It was recorded mostly at the band's private studio—located in Brian's home—and may be retrospectively viewed as the second installment in a consecutive series of lo-fi Beach Boys albums. The recording sessions lasted only several weeks, compared to the several months required for their 1966 hit "Good Vibrations". 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."
The album differs in many ways from previous Beach Boys records. Unlike the band's previous R&B outings—which typically consisted of Chuck Berry-derived riffs—most of Wild Honey drew on the emotive soul music associated with the Motown and Stax Records labels. Edwin Faust from Stylus Magazine wrote that its music focuses "simply on catchy hooks, snappy melodies and a straight-up boogie-woogie feel". Lenny Kaye, writing for Wondering Sound, felt that its "R&B leanings" may be attributed to Mike Love and Carl Wilson's vocal roles on the album. 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 doing Pet Sounds, I'd go home and put on my Stax and Aretha stuff. It's always been a big part of my life."
Wild Honey contains very little group singing compared to previous albums, and mainly features Brian singing at his piano. Musicologist Daniel Harrison writes that its "simple songs" lack the "enigmatic weirdness" and "virtuosic mesmerizers" present in Smiley Smile, although they feature the same production approach and similar core instrumental combo of organ, honky-tonk piano, and electric bass. 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." Only three tracks were recorded with assistance from session musicians: "Wild Honey", "Aren't You Glad", and "Darlin'". Some sessions were held at Wally Heider Recording in Los Angeles in order to accommodate the musicians with a larger recording space for overdubs.
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." Harrison describes Wild 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. 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. Brian stated that his brother "really got into [...] the production side of things" starting with Wild Honey. Moreover, Brian said, "People expected me to come up with great orchestral stuff all the time and it became a burden." He is credited as composer or co-composer for 9 of 11 tracks, compared to Smiley Smile in which he held a songwriting credit for every track. It was the Beach Boys' last album to be mixed in mono.
Songs Side one
"Wild Honey" was co-written by Mike Love from the perspective of Stevie Wonder singing it. Session musician Paul Tanner was recruited to play his Electro-Theremin on the track.
"Aren't You Glad" is a song that critics have compared to the style of the Lovin' Spoonful. Biographer Byron Preiss wrote that it "epitomizes" the album's "simple energy", while magazine editor Gene Sculatti says it "achieves a Miracles style smoothness via a Bobby Goldsboro-type song".
"I Was Made to Love Her" was originally recorded by Wonder, who had a number 2 hit with the song in July 1967. A popular misconception is that Carl sings the phrase "son of a bitch" on this track.
"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"." It was cited by Brian as his "favorite cut on the record." There is a technical anomaly with the master tape that caused the track to have a buzzing noise throughout.
"A Thing or Two" is identified by Christian Matijas-Mecca as a "sibling" to Smiley Smiles "Gettin' Hungry". The vocal riff would be reprised in the group's 1968 single "Do It Again".
Side two
"Darlin" is a song that had been reworked from an earlier Brian Wilson/Mike Love composition, "Thinkin' 'Bout You Baby". Initially, Brian had planned to give "Darlin" (along with "Time to Get Alone") to Three Dog Night, then called "Redwood", before Carl and Love insisted that Brian focus his attention on producing work for the Beach Boys. Redwood's version of "Time to Get Alone" was released on the 1993 compilation Celebrate: The Three Dog Night Story.
"I'd Love Just Once to See You" prefigured the writing style that Brian would later explore in the next studio album Friends. 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".
"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 in time from beginning to end. According to biographers Andrew Doe and John Tobler, it was composed primarily by Love and "rearranged" by Brian.
"How She Boogaloed It" is one of the album's more uptempo songs. It was the first original Beach Boys song (excluding instrumentals and cover versions) not to feature contributions from Brian.
"Mama Says" is a chant that originated from an unreleased version of the Smile song "Vegetables". It was the first time a track linked to Smile was used to close a later Beach Boys album, the others being 20/20 (1969), Sunflower (1970) and Surf's Up (1971). 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.
Leftover Outtakes from the Wild Honey sessions include the originals "Can't Wait Too Long", "Time to Get Alone", "Cool, Cool Water", "Honey Get Home", and "Lonely Days"."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 albums 20/20 and Sunflower respectively. A solo recording of Brian performing the Smile song "Surf's Up" was lost and rediscovered several decades later at the end of the multi-track reel for "Country Air". Archivist Mark 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." This recording would see release on the 2011 compilation The Smile Sessions. The band also recorded cover versions of the Box Tops hit "The Letter" (1967), Clint Ballard Jr.'s "The Game of Love" (1965), and the Beatles' "With a Little Help from My Friends" (1967), as well as Johnston's demo for "Bluebirds over the Mountain". The New York Observers Ron Hart said that the significance of the Beach Boys covering "The Letter" as sung by Alex Chilton is "simply beyond comprehension [...] for that special kind of music nerd."