The “Golden Hits Of The 60s” 

Main MenuConcept Refinement The Author..Wayne JancikGolden Age Of The 50sGolden Age Of The 60s1970s and There After

 

HONDELLS

“LITTLE HONDA”

(BRIAN WILSON)

Mercury 72324

No. 9    October 31, 1964

.

.

.

Gary Usher is the number-one unsung hero of the subgenre of rock’n’roll known as surf/hotrod music.

Just as BRIAN WILSON and the Beach Boys were preparing to lay down the entire foundation for this

California sound, Gary’s uncle introduced him to Brian Wilson.   Within days of theirmeeting, Usher and

Wilson created “The Lonely Sea,” which later appeared as a track on the Beach Boys’Surfin US.A. album.

Over the years, Gary and Brian would co-write “In My Room,” “We’ll Run Away,”and numerous others.

Usher’s solo surfer projects, released under his own name, all crashed on the shore.

Usher then picked up on the idea of fabricating groups by bringing together a clutch of musical friends in

the recording studio to lay down his tunes as he saw fit.    The finished product could then be sold off to

various interested record companies and credited to whatever performers the label wished.      Usher and

his recording pack included (at various times) Chuck Girard, Joe Kelly, Richie Podolor, Ritchie Burns, Jan

Berry, Glen Campbell, Bruce Johnston, Terry Melcher, and Brian Wilson.     This aggregate of friends

were thus the Four Speeds (with the lead vocals being handled by Dennis Wilson), the Super Stocks, the

Wheelmen, the Revells, the Knights, the Ghouls, the Silly Surfers…  and the Hondells.

With the immediate success of  “Little Honda,” the pressure was on to put together a touring version of the

Hondells to take the hit on the road.     Ritchie Burns, who was on the actual recording as a background

singer, was enlisted to front a “Hondells.”    As the Hondells’ first album was about to be released, a group

still did not exist–for the photo on the LP’s cover, Ritchie, who was working days as a bank teller, had

three other tellers at his bank pose for the photos.

The Hondells were much more successful than anyone had imagined.     There were    tours, “The Dick

Clark Show,” “Shindig,” and movies like Ski Party (1965), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), and Beach Ball

(1965).   More singles were issued, including “My Buddy Seat” (#87, 1965) and “Younger Girl” (#52, 1966),

the latter a cover of the Critters’ hit.

By the seventh single, the touring company had rehearsed sufficiently to enter the recording studio.

Randy Thomas, with folk-rock leanings, had sung lead on the JOHN SEBASTIAN tune “Younger Girl,”

and did likewise on their last Mercury  release, BOB LIND’s “Cheryl’s Going Home.”    Usher and Burns

took the “Hondells” name over to Columbia,  and later to JIMMY BOWEN’s Amos Records Iabel, where

a few more 45s were released.    By then, however, the summer sun had set on the surf/hot rod sound, and

the group’s efforts at folk-rock were generally unconvincing.   In 1970, Gary Usher packed up the

Hondells” name placed it into cold storage.

Gary Usher died May 25, 1990.