About The Honeys

There is more than one band called The Honeys. (1) The Honeys were a 1960s girl group who recorded for Capitol Records and were a kind of female counterpart to The Beach Boys. Beach Boy Brian Wilson served primarily as their record producer and chief songwriter. The Honeys (the name a slang term for a female surfing enthusiast) consisted of sisters Marilyn and Diane Rovell and their cousin Ginger Blake. Marilyn and Diane had met the Beach Boys when the boys performed at a Hollywood club called Pandora's Box in the early 1960s. Brian and Marilyn (who was still in high school) began dating and he brought the girls into the recording studio to produce their songs ("Surfin' Down The Swanee River", "Shoot The Curl", "Pray For Surf"), and included them as backup performers on Beach Boys records. The cheerleader voices on "Be True To Your School" were performed by the Honeys and the two groups sometimes shared the same concert bill. In 1964 The Honeys sang background vocals for Jan & Dean on the hit singles, "The New Girl In School", "Dead Man's Curve" and "The Little Old Lady from Pasadena". The Honeys' career faded as surfing music went out of vogue. Marilyn and Brian were married and became the parents of Carnie and Wendy Wilson who later found fame as members of Wilson Phillips. Marilyn and Diane later re-teamed as a duo called Spring (aka American Spring) during the 1970s. During the 1990s the Honeys reunited and performed locally around Hollywood and Los Angeles. An anthology CD of their music (including several Spring recordings) was also released by Capitol Records in 1992. (2) The Honeys were also a band from Sydney, Australia from 1987 to 1989. They released two 7" singles and an LP, "Goddess", on Sydney's Waterfront Records. A compilation of their complete recordings, "Ultimo", was released by Phantom Records in 1995. The band included Andrea Croft, Bruce Begley, Grant Shanahan, Brett Thomson, Michael Dalton, and Philip Rawlinson. They reformed and released a new album, "Star Baby", in 2007.