BIG AL's JOVIAL JUKEBOX #25: "Wild Honey" by THE BEACH BOYS, 1967

Albie's Note:  If you're old enough to actually remember honey coming in a tin can you're at least as old as me! 

That's the first thing I thought when I read the following on Wikipedia about this great Beach Boys tune from back in 1967:

"In a 1992 issue of Goldmine Magazine, Mike Love explained the idea for the lyrics of the song:

'Brian [Wilson] was doing this track with a theremin and we were doing the song. I went into the kitchen and we were in this health food thing and wild honey was all natural. So there's this can of wild honey and we're making some tea. So I said, I'll write the lyrics about this girl who was a wild little honey. And I wrote it from the perspective that that album was Brian's R&B-influenced album, in his mind. It may not sound like it to a Motown executive but that was where he was coming from on that record. In that particular instance I wrote it from the perspective of Stevie Wonder singing it.'"
 

I always liked this unusual song by the Boys, which was a Top 40 hit for them, reaching a respectable #31 on the Billboard charts.  It was definitely unusual for them, and not exactly surf music, but it still sounds VERY west coast to me... and I do hear the Stevie Wonder influence in there.   Sort of a similar sound to Stevie's "I Was Made To Love Her" which the boys actually covered on the WILD HONEY album that same year.

In any case, it was a joyous and energetic Rock and Roll song, with a perfect lead vocal by the late, great Carl Wilson.   The wild theremin and organ lines are just great, and to this day it is one of my favorite summer cruising songs.

That SoCal gal musta been a "wild li'l honey," indeed!

 

WILD HONEY

Brian Wilson and Mike Love

 

Mama I'm tellin' you as sure as I'm standin' here
She's my girl and that's the way I'm keepin' it now mama dear
No good will it do you to stand there and frown at me
The girl's got my heart and my love's comin' down on me
My love's comin' down since I got a taste of wild honey

You know she's got the sweetness of a honey bee
Wild honey

She got it on and stung me good yes sirree

With all the other stud bees buzzin' all around her hive
She singled me out single handed took me alive
Well can you, can you gonna take my life eatin' up her wild honey?

Oh mama she's sweeter
Gettin' sweeter
Sweeter, sweeter
Sweet

Wild honey

Let me tell you how she really got to my soul
It ain't funny
The way she make me wanna sing a little rock 'n' roll

There's nothing quite nice as a kiss of wild honey
I break my back workin' just to save me some money
So I can spend my life with her

Sock it to me wild honey
Honey wild honey she's mine
Honey wild honey she's mine
Honey bee

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PEACE