ESSENTIAL COMPILATIONS : PART FOUR

The Hondells were the outlet for most of Gary Usher's early records. Created during Usher's tenure as music director for the film The Girls On The Beach (which had cameo appearances by the Beach Boys), Gary heard one of Brian's new songs for the film "Little Honda" which he immediately thought was a hit record. But Brian wasn't planning to issue it as a single, so Usher decided to record his own version with producer Nick Venet at Mercury Records. He asked some professional studio musicians to cut the track, and released the single under the name The Hondells. The song was indeed a hit, and Usher had several other tracks recorded, using sidemen like Glen Campbell and members of the vocal group The Castells to help out. After the single hit the top 30 on the charts, other tracks were quickly cut for an album and the group The Hondells became a marketable name. The studio and touring personnel shifted throughout the groups' history, but the sounds and quality of The Hondells were consistently high. This disc, which chronicles The Hondells output for 1964, is great - a thick slice of car / motorcycle / drag music that sounds just as fun and vital today as when it was written. Favorites of mine include "Little Honda," "Ridin' Trails," "The Wild One," "Black Denim" and "My Buddy Seat." The sound is firmly in early Beach Boys mold, with songs sounding as if they could be b-sides or album tracks on Little Deuce Coupe or Shut Down Vol. 2. Where the Hondells veered away from other, similar groups is in their use of vocals - unlike other surf/drag groups, the

Hondells were primarily a vocal group, and Usher had a great voice in Chuck Girard (sort of a less-nasal Mike Love), and backup vocals provided by Usher, Glen Campbell, Joe Kelly, Richard Burns, Usher himself, and others. This fine compilation, available only as an import, sports a hefty thirty-six tracks (!) and excellent liner notes by Stephen J. McParland and is highly recommended.

A strange thing happened after the Hondells had their early success - Gary Usher gave them up. Having accepted a post at Decca Records, Usher handed the reigns of the Hondells over to producers Nick Venet and Mike Curb at Mercury, who continued to milk the Hondells' name and personnel, in the process turning away from the harder-edged sound that had defined them in their first recordings, and making them more "pop" oriented, with songs like "Ski Party" and "Winter A -Go-Go" trying to find a new sport for the Hondells to latch onto, and others like "You Meet The Nicest People On A Honda" (taken from a commercial jingle) or the bouncy "Follow Your Heart" showing off the slick, new sound that showed Curb trying to market the Hondells to the widest possible audience. But instead of washing out with

this sleeker, more commercial Hondells, some very interesting experiments occurred, with a wall-of-sound-ish "Sea Of Love;" an up-tempo "Endless Sleep" or the poppy "Do As I Say" (which has no involvement from the Hondells touring or session players) being cut and released under the Hondells name. Unfortunately, this caused Dick Burns, who was the only consistent member of the Hondells on the road, some tense moments, since he had no control over what the Hondells were singing or putting out on 45s. This musical pillaging of the Hondells name and sound continued throughout the 1960s, with the occasional single or commercial being cut and released, and their sound constantly changing as the studio personnel came and went. But the Hondells name continued to be used, and Gary Usher even returned for some sessions, cutting several tracks in 1966 and '67, with Randy Thomas on lead vocals, and pulling songs by Boyce & Hart ("Let's Dance On"), and John Sebastian ("Younger Girl") into the mix. Volume 2 in the series contains a lighter sound, but is almost as enjoyable as the first volume.

By the time ATM Records got to Volume 3 of their massive Hondells release program, the law of diminishing returns was beginning to take effect. Since The Hondells were essentially only session musicians and singers, all under the auspices of producers Gary Usher and Mike Curb, the same players showed up not only as the Hondells, but in different guises as well. So on this third volume you not only have "The Hondells" - you also have The Sunsets, The Four Speeds, Gary Usher and The Usherettes (who are better known to Beach Boys fans as The Honeys), The Competitors, The Go-Go's, The Devons, and a young guy named Don Brandon. And while the producers are able to create a different sound for each group, the songs (nearly all bearing the producing/writing stamp of Gary Usher) quickly begin to sound the same, song after song after song. Granted, the music is supposed to be juvenile, lightweight fun, but I got tired of listening to the same revving car sounds, with the same basic rhythm tracks over lyrics that don't dig very deep: "The Chug-A-Lug," "Playmate Of The Year," "My Little Beach Bunny," "Doin' The Swim" (a lame stab at creating a new dance craze) and (my personal favorite title) "Bustin' Buns." Or hearing car song after car song with no development of the genre: "R.P.M.," "My Sting Ray," "Four On The Floor," "Cheater Slicks," ""Wide Track," "Little Stick Nomad" and "The Ballad of Bonneville" are all pretty generic entries in the car/drag canon - but then many of them are simply re-recordings of earlier Super Stocks records; Usher had no compulsion against recycling old songs over and over again, but after a while it gets monotonous. But there are some good songs as well: I especially liked the songs by the Go-Go's, which have a nice bright sound compared to "The Competitors" who have a thicker production sound. And the opening tracks by the Hondells are fine, with alternate takes of "Sea Cruise," "Follow Your Heart," "Endless Sleep," "Let's Dance On," "Yes To You," and "Another Woman". This release, like all the others have exhaustive liner notes by Gary Usher biographer Stephen McParland, as well as pertinent discography, photographs and production notes.

Astoundingly, there were still LOADS of stuff in the vaults to put out on yet one more 32-track collection of Hondells material. To be fair, most of the tracks on this CD are not credited to "The Hondells" as such, but to the many permeations of the session players who revolved in and out of the group. The first twelve tracks on volume 4 are all credited to "The Ghouls" with Dick Burns doing most of the Boris Karloff impersonations, and a Beach Boys rip-offs present in the form of "Be True To Your Ghoul" and a Jan & Dean parody on "Little Old Lady From Transylvania." It's amusing once, and generally well-produced (I especially like the dreamy, unsettling instrumental "Dracula's Theme") but the album as a whole fits firmly into the "novelty" bin. Also included on this CD are a couple of takes of "School Is A Drag" from the Super Stocks, plus several cuts from a solo Gary Usher, including his most famous song "Sacramento," but also several rarities: "The Beetle," "(That's) Just The Way I Feel," "It's A Lie" and "Rave On." Usher usually took backing vocal duties on his productions, and for good reason: his voice just isn't up to par with other vocalists. The Indigos also show up on a couple of tracks - The Indigos were the original "touring" band for the Hondells, but these tracks are pre-Hondells outings, with "Get Up And Go" and "Inspiration" which are good for comparison with the early Hondells recordings; and even earlier Indigos tracks show up in the three Dick Burns and Bobby Fry numbers: "Daddy's Dice," "(Big) Molly," and "Crazy Blues" (credited only to Burns). The Hondells show up in only five tracks: instrumental versions of "Younger Girl," "All-American Girl," "My Little Bike," and "The Pack" and then in a live reunion which took place in 1981, and features an interview with Gary Usher and Roger Christian, and a ragged performance of "Younger Girl." A satisfying end to an illuminating series.

***** 5-Star Recommendation

With grateful thanks to Bret Wheadon at www.beachboys.com for this detailed review

Following on from the Hondells collection (above) is this set, compiled and issued during the same heady period (the '90's ??!), and although sadly not quite as 'definitive' this is still an essential addition ...

This 2-CD release pulls together all of the (known) Gary Usher sessions that resulted in product issued under The Superstocks collective banner. Virtually the same musicians, songwriters, vocalists as The Hondells … but what’s in a name ?

The three ‘official’ Superstocks albums (reviewed elsewhere) have since been re-issued onto CD by Sundazed Records, but this dual-disc set also adds the recordings featured on the Capitol collections “Shut Down” and “Hot Rod Rally” into the mix. Then on top of that we get a series of unreleased outtakes and demo’s tagged onto the end. A wonderful accompanying release to the Hondells set (and that of the recent Gary Usher “Barefoot Adventure” collection) … although I do feel the packaging could have been slightly more informative ...

A little harder to track down than most, but still worth the effort …

**** 4-Star Recommendation