The Smiley Smile Message Board

So, I just had a look at AGD's website and realized that I don't know which version of The Letter was supposed to appear on Wild Honey. There are sessions for the song done for Lei'd In Hawaii and a little later the new Wild Honey sessions again with The Letter. I always had in mind that the live version from Lei'd In Hawaii (and therefor the Wally Heider studio version?) would be included on Wild Honey in advance for the still planned live album. But then, why did they again record it during the Wild Honey sessions?
If there indeed was a new version cut for Wild Honey, has that one ever been released?

I talked to Brad E. about the version of the Letter that was on the Rarities LP in 1983. Here is what he said:

RF: The Letter sounds different than it does on the Wally Heider sessions. Is that just because the track has been mixed to mono with some reverb added?

BE: I think that's all there is to it, but that's a weird one in regard to trying to establish its origins. The tape that we found carried master number 58582, which (according to Capitol's sessions sheets) should have been a studio recording of the song cut Oct. 25, 1967 at Brian's house, right in the middle of the Wild Honey sessions. The fake live version of the song cut at Wally Heider's on Sept. 11 (during the session to record replacement tracks for that summer's Hawaii concert recordings) should have master number 58388. So, with no other information, we concluded what we had was the studio version of the song. Years later, when the Lei'd In Hawaii tape (actually from the Sept. 11 Heider session) leaked out, it included the same version of the song. Plus, the original liner notes for Wild Honey had turned up by then, and they indicated that a live version of the song from Hawaii (actually the Heider re-creation) was included in the album's original lineup -- which explains why Capitol had a copy of the song. All of this points to the fact that the version of The Letter included on Rarities is the Sept. 11 Heider recording. Still, I have to wonder about the fact that the tape we found carried the studio master number. Perhaps the two versions really are one and the same, except that the "studio version" had additional work done on it at Brian's home. Maybe that accounts for the difference in sound that you noted.

The version on Rarities sound like the Heider recording with overdubs.

A future official box set release of Wild Honey (mono + stereo remix, extractions where necessary) plus all Lei'd in Hawaii tracks + re-recordings has GOT to happen. Put 'em all out together. This is fascinating stuff.

If we're lucky it'll all end up being part of the December 2017 download festivities.

Thanks for the answers so far!



Box set? Not only that I don't think there's enough material to fill that out, it is almost impossible that an album as unimportant as Wild Honey will get that treatment. Don't get me wrong, it is my favorite Beach Boys album, but it's just not realistic.
A deluxe edition though is another game. That could very well happen. All of their albums should get a single release imo. The two-fer's were/are great and you get fantastic value for your money. But I think the albums should also be available on their own and in fact in recent years some of them were released as mono/stereo releases which I think was a cool move.

Unfortunately Wild Honey wasn't one of those albums and therefor I am currently compiling my own special edition of Wild Honey (this thread is one result of that).

That's exactly why Wild Honey needs to be paired with the Lei'd in Hawaii songs! At least those are a bunch of famous hit songs which it could piggyback off of. A 1967 rarities box. At least that is a very famous (and infamous) year in BB history, which could be a boon. Maybe it still won't happen, but one can dream...

You could easily make a two-disc Wild Honey "deluxe edition" if you disregard the session bootlegs or whittle them down to pieces a la Hawthorne. I don't think the entire album will ever get a full stereo remix because if it was going to, it would have been with the 2012 reissues. Mark Linett or Alan Boyd (can't remember which) said that many of the tracks are impossible to remix into stereo due to many elements being dubbed onto the "master."

Yes, a two-disc edition is possible. I'd be all for it but again, I don't think that will ever happen. We can be happy if we get a deluxe single CD edition of that album.

If we're lucky we might get that 2017 digital download release like the ones we got the last two years.

Extraction mixes when necessary! Just like they did with Good Vibrations, etc.

However, maybe no WH remix has yet been released if it was deemed that too large a percentage of WH tracks would need extraction mixes for them to be willing to release a stereo remix and proudly proclaim it as such on the packaging. Would it be like 50% for this album? I wonder if they are holding out in case more tapes are found in the vaults.

That would be cool.
Maybe they could include the Redwood recordings that Brian worked on at that time (Darlin' and Time To Get Alone).


Until then, my own CD-mix has to suffice...  :)

To be honest...I'm not huge on the whole "stereo remix" craze. The original muddier mono, the better.

"Wild Honey" is their best album.

I agree 100%!

It would make much more sense to couple Smiley Smile with Lei'd In Hawaii and Wild Honey with some live recordings from the tour that promoted the album (see A Vocal Element). Still, I don't think this is considered important or commercial enough for having high hopes.

Agreed. Darlin' aside, the stereo Wild Honey tracks sound horrid.

Personally, I see no reason to release anything from Lei'd In Hawaii -- everything releasable from those shows has been released; maybe "Hawthorne Boulevard" simply because it's a title that has shown up nowhere else (and is a cover of another tune, no?)...but man, what dismal-sounding shows those were....

Bill Cunningham posted this on Facebook. It's not the version from Made In California and I don't remember hearing it before... or is it just the mix?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gS-3LGqLNvs

That's the version from the 1983 Rarities album.

Ah cool. Thank you! Wish it was in better quality

The best quality you'll ever find is if you get the original 1983 vinyl. The CD just doesn't sound up to snuff.

The best sounding versions of both The Letter and With A Little Help is on the Covered By The Beach Boys CD. Searchlight ebay. Lots of copies there.