The Smiley Smile Message Board

I've been a BB fan for many years and I just realized this version of this song existed. I always thought those "alternate" versions of Love You songs on "Brian Loves You" were exactly the same mixes as the album versions except just in crappier quality. I just realized recently those were the original Brian mixes for the album I guess. Did Billy Hinche sing this version of "Honkin Down The Highway"? Was that his original intent for this song? I wonder it was Al's idea to sing it and not Brian's.. I like Al's version a lot but I think I far prefer Billy's version of the song. He sings it with much more feeling than Al does, who just sounds kind of awkward. Billy really gives it an awesome, even kind of powerful vocal that enhances it. Too bad he didn't sing any other Beach Boys tunes.

He did if you count Mony Mony.

Where can I hear this?

I thought I read somewhere that it was Ed Carter singing it? It does sound like Billy though.

It was definitely BH

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPM5r4Wok-0

I definitely prefer Al's vocal and the released version. Got more bite. The Casio synth solo here is pretty meager.

Agreed. Billy's a good singer and does a perfectly serviceable job, but Al is great. We need all the leads we can get from him, and "Honkin'" is one of my three favorite tunes from Love You.

I love the original version of course, but that alternate vocal is nice to have.. Kinda strange how it wasn't always sung by Al to begin with but BH does a great job on it. Just wonder if this is part of the original "Brian" mix of Love You before Carl got to it. I like that cheesy organ solo or whatever it is. It just adds to the charm of the record.

By the way I must say it absolutely blew my mind when I saw that Al redid "Honkin'" for his album a few years ago. WITH Brian on it. WITH the moog synths. Just amazing, totally recreated/updated the original sound. I wish he did more songs like that.

The clip that ORR linked says the BH version is a demo.  Nice enough, but Al does the better lead.  Also the album version has a lot more power.

I heard Billy's vocal before Al's when I started getting into the group in the late 80s so I always thought of that as 'the' version.  Still enjoy it. :-D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdhua948tV8

This version's louder and needs way more hits (because it's my video).  Check it out, if just for all the Billy-centric BB picture I put in. :)


Oh, and give me Billy's version over Al's any day.  Al's take is "folksy" enough to begin with.  Add in the gosh darn lyrics and I could never take it seriosuly.  I was blown away when I finally heard the earlier version.

Much better sounding, thanks for putting that up.

Ultimately, having the lead sung by the best vocalist in The Beach Boys was the right choice, IMO.

Nice! I "liked" it for sure, awesome video. I can't tell if the audio is better quality than what I have or not but either way yeah I love this version. I don't dislike Al's version on the LP at all but I just really like Billy's voice and feel like it fits really well. He ends up kinda sounding like a combination of early 70s and late 70s Brian. And he puts a lot of feeling in the vocal for such silly words. I feel like Al does a nice 'hiccupy' type vocal that is different, not any worse, but I have been preferring this alternate version lately.

He could if there were more songs like that in the catalog to remake.  ;)

I actually prefer Billy singing this song. Not that there is really anything wrong with how Al sang it. I just think it's more suited for Billy's voice. Although, I hate the "try, try" and "got, got" lines.  ::) Other than that I think Billy does an awesome job. It would have been interesting if the group had allowed some backing group members to occasionally have a spot on a Beach Boys album. Particularly Billy, Jeff Foskett, and Bobby Figuroa.

Thank you, Phoenix! Must admit, I never heard this artifact. Kind of groovy, but lacks the energy of the LY cut (and what Jay said about "got, got", sounds really grating), Al's voice fitted more imo. That's not to say there's sth. wrong with Billy, I just think he does better on slow songs. F.ex., on his self-written "One In a Million" - beautiful, subtly positive tribute to Dennis with neat key changes & nice falsetto lines. As for pictures, there's some cool (rare) stuff, Brian looks great at 0:44.