The Honeys Collection

Fans of the Beach Boys will definitely be interested in this collection from the Honeys, a girl group trio including Brian Wilson's wife Marilyn, plus her sister Diane, and their cousin. Signed to Capitol, thanks to Wilson, most of the Honeys sessions were supervised by Wilson himself, occasionally with Capitol's in-house producer Nik Venet. The Honeys Collection brings together 26 tracks covering the group's early- to mid-'60s singles (and several backing vocal dates on records by other artists), plus two tracks from a 1983 comeback LP. The first phase of the Honeys was as a surf group ("honeys" was a term used either for female surfers or the girlfriends of male surfers), and their first single, "Surfin' Down the Swanee River," was produced by Brian Wilson from an idea for a novelty take-off on the folk classic "Swanee River." Fortunately, the group soon moved on from surf novelties to embrace the classic girl group sound of Phil Spector -- a big influence on Wilson professionally -- and the bulk of the Honeys' best material is in this grandiose vein, high-drama songs like "Raindrops," "The One You Can't Have," and "He's a Doll." Besides the value for Beach Boys fans, the solid production muscle behind the trio results in some great examples of '60s girl group pop. The compilers also added several tracks with backing vocals by the Honeys, including the early Glen Campbell gem "Guess I'm Dumb," written and produced by Wilson himself. ~ John Bush, All Music Guide