The Honeys Collection

Honeys | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 26, 2001)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Collector's Choice
• ASIN: B00005J6ZD
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #79,563 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Shoot the Curl

2. Surfin' Down the Swanee River

3. Raindrops

4. From Jimmy With Tears

5. Pray for Surf

6. (Oly Oxen Free Free Free) Hide Go Seek

7. Three Surfer Boys

8. The One You Can't Have

9. In the Still of the Night

10. Love on the Run

11. I Want to Take a Trip to the Islands

12. Darlin' I'm Not Steppin' Out on You

13. He's a Doll

14. The Love of a Boy and Girl

15. Sacramento

16. Guess I'm Dumb

17. No Bobby No

18. It's the Thought That Counts

19. I Love You Much Too Much

20. Seven Days in September

See all 26 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

Everything this Brian Wilson-produced girl group ever recorded! Very highly regarded by surf and rock 'n' roll collectors and long out of print until now. 26 tracks including eleven unreleased tracks on this 2001 release.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Sweet Sound of the Honeys, July 8, 2001

By 

Lisa Marie Smith (Wilton, CT USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Honeys Collection (Audio CD)

"The Honeys Collection" is not just a must-have for Brian Wilson devotees, but a must-have for girl group lovers, pop aficionados, and for those who simply enjoy delicious harmonies accented by brilliant vocal arrangements that compliment, rather than compete with, the musical backing track. This collection really makes me wonder why The Honeys DIDN'T hit it big. It's painfully obvious that The Honeys had all the elements needed to have a high-charting single. The upbeat songs are full of energy, the slower songs full of emotion without coming across as sappy. I am amazed that tunes such as the Brian Wilson-penned "(Oly Oxen Free Free Free) Hide Go Seek" or "Pray for Surf" didn't crash (pardon the wave/surf related pun) into the top 20! By the end of the CD I was worried that the tunes from the late 60s and early 80s would be a horrible coda to an otherwise great disc, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that those last five songs were just as well vocalized and arranged as the earlier tunes where Brian, Gary Usher, and (believe it or not), Boyce & Hart were involved. I HIGHLY recommend this disc! It is a pleasure to listen to, a great addition to your "summertime" music collection. Plus, with its extensive Stephen McParland-authored liner notes and photos from the early 60s to 2000, you'll have an interesting read as you listen along and wonder why The Honeys didn't top the charts.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Have fun - surf with the ladies, August 24, 2002

By 

Peter Durward Harris "Pete the music fan" (Leicester England) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Honeys Collection (Audio CD)

The first group anybody thinks of regarding surf music is the Beach Boys. No women made it big in surf music, but the Honeys certainly deserved to. Some people think the Honeys only got as far as they did because one of them was married to Brian Wilson, but that's not how it happened. Brian was introduced to them when they were an unknown group. The relationship between Brian and Marilyn blossomed as a result of them working together.

The Honeys had great voices and harmonies, ideally suited to the surf music they recorded. They didn't cover any Beach Boys songs (or indeed anybody else's songs, unless you count their adaptation of Swanee river, titled Surfin' down Swanee river) but relied on their own material, and other songs written by others, including some by Brian.

This collection includes five tracks in which the Honeys provide backing for others, something they did a lot. One of these is Guess I'm dumb, in which Glen Campbell is the lead singer. Although he had been a studio musician with Phil Spector, he hadn't yet made it as a singer. This track has appeared on Glen Campbell compilations, but not often.

An earlier reviewer names some ladies who (he says) made better surf music than the Honeys - but the Honeys sang backup on their records too.

This is great fun music which you can enjoy all summer long - indeed all year long, just as you can with the Beach Boys' own music.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Honeys, from Surfer Babes to High Drama Girl Group, June 14, 2003

By 

Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Honeys Collection (Audio CD)

Produced by Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, the Honeys had a pretty good run in the early Sixties starting with songs like "Shoot the Curl" and "Pray for Surf." After all, "Honeys" beach lingo for female surfers (or at least it mean the girl friends of the surfers). The group consisted of sisters Marilyn and Diane Royell, along with their cousin Sandra Glantz who went by the stage name of Ginger Blake had replaced a third sister, Barbara, and necessitated the change from the Royell Sisters to the Honeys. "The Honeys Collection" has 26 of the best songs by this minor girl group from both their early days recording with Capitol and their later albums with Warners, when they moved from the novelty surf songs (check out "Surfin' Down the Swanee River") and became more of a traditional girl group under the influence of Phil Spector. The big hit here is "He's a Doll," written by Wilson, who married Marilyn Royell in 1964 when the song had some modest chart success. "Raindrops" "The One You Can't Have," "Guess I'm Dumb," and "Goodnight My Love (Pleasant Dreams)" are the other choice songs in the collection, which ends with a couple of tracks from a 1983 comeback album that went nowhere. The result is not a great collection but certainly worth listening to for fans of the Beach Boys as well as those who like the girl group sound in all its myriad forms. In fact, you probably have already heard the Honeys sing because they were back up singers for both the Beach Boys and Jan & Dean (they also recorded some songs as Ginger & the Snaps).