wowbobwow OP t1_ivhk1re wrote
I dropped some donations at a local thrift shop today and (of course) popped inside to see what I might find. While I didn't take any new treasures home, this album cover gave me a good laugh: has there ever been a more thematically-specific band than The Hondells??
When I got home I did a little research and was even more amused by what I learned: “The Hondells" were a band that didn't exist - the songs were recorded by a revolving collection of studio musicians lead by producer and California surf-rock pioneer Gary Usher. The Hondells had a legit hit song with “Little Honda,” which was co-written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love from The Beach Boys (which is pretty obvious if you listen to it!), and then went on to record this whole album of Honda-themed odes to the SoCal motorcycle scene.
Bonus fact not found in the above-linked Wikipedia article: amusingly, because the actual music was all recorded by various working session musicians, during the handful of TV performances by “The Hondells,” the band was played by random guys who happened to be hanging around the studio at the time. They were all given a little time to learn enough of the lyrics to semi-convincingly lip-sync the songs while pretending to play their instruments. Good times!
ChevExpressMan t1_ivhu36w wrote
The group's second LP, titled simply The Hondells, was released only a few months after Go Little Honda.[1] The LP yielded a Billboard 100 single, "My Buddy Seat," written by Brian Wilson and Gary Usher, backed with "You're Gonna Ride With Me," written by Usher and Roger Christian. Mike Curb wrote four songs that appear on the LP, "The Rebel (Without A Cause)," "The Lonely Rider," "Cycle Chase," and "The Sidewinder." The remaining tracks consisted of "Black Denim," "Night Rider," "My Little Bike," "Lay It Down," "He Wasn't Coming Back," and "Honda Holliday.
"Interesting part is one of the writers (Mike Curb) later formed the "Mike Curb Congregation" which had a hit "Burning Bridges"
Thry also wrote several Disney hits.
It’s a Small World
When You Wish Upon a Star
Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo (The Magic Song)
The Bare Necessities
HobbesSkywalker t1_iviejaq wrote
Mike curb may have recorded those Disney songs, but he did not write them.
It’s A Small World
- the Sherman Beothers (Richard & Robert)
When You Wish Upon A Star
- Ned Washington & Leigh Harlingen
Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo
- Al Hoffman, Mack David, & Jerry Livingston
Bare Necessities
- Terry Gilkyson
ChevExpressMan t1_ivievlv wrote
Yes, probably he didn't write them, but members sang them.
HobbesSkywalker t1_ivifj7r wrote
I’m going to have to look for that greatest hits. I’ll bet they did a great job on all of those!
Texanakin_Shywalker t1_ivhqq16 wrote
They recorded two LPs and had a long list of members names. No, they didn't tour but I think they qualified as a band.
[deleted] t1_ivhzaz0 wrote
It's an interesting conundrum. The band existed, it was real people making real music, it just had fictional names and backstory.
It's not too far removed from 80s and 90s teen pop stars. By that time the industry "formula" for boy bands like NSYNC and female solo acts like Britney Spears was so polished and perfected, these singers might as well have been fictional. They were merely voices and faces holding up a largely imaginary popular persona.
Perhaps a more apt comparison would be the Gorillaz or Alvin and the Chipmunks. The music made by these "virtual bands" is real and performed by real musicians, but they disappear behind the animated personas of their fictional characters.
GrandmaPoses t1_ivi24zm wrote
The teen idol formula existed just about from the beginning of rock/pop. In the 50s and 60s Bobby Rydell, Fabian, etc. were young, pretty faces with passable voices (sometimes electronically enhanced) that could sell records. And television just made it easier: a couple of lip synced performances on American Bandstand and the record company was swimming in cash.
The packaging may have gotten slicker over time, but the idea has always been the same.
Long_Antelope_1400 t1_ivi7vsx wrote
I think K-Pop music and bands would be a good comp. A lot of those groups churn through the members while putting out music on the constant.
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