Wild Honey (album)

For other uses, see Wild Honey (disambiguation).

Wild Honey
Studio album by The Beach Boys
Released	December 18, 1967 [1]
Recorded	September 26 - November 15, 1967
Genre	Psychedelic pop, psychedelic rock, psychedelic soul
Length	23:58
Label	Capitol
Producer	The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys chronology
Smiley Smile (1967) Wild Honey (1967) Friends (1968)

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 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 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.

Front cover artwork

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.

Track listing

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

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. 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".

Early version

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:

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"

References

• 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

1. ^ Badman, Keith. The Beach Boys. The Definitive Diary of America's Greatest Band: On Stage and in the Studio Backbeat Books, San Francisco, California, 2004. ISBN 0-87930-818-4 p. 208
2. ^ Allmusic review
3. ^ Blender review
4. ^ Robert Christgau review
5. ^ Rolling Stone review