Album Review:

With no substantial hits since ‘Little Honda,’ the Hondells’ second album was merely called The Hondells, without reference to any particular song. This final album on the Mercury label picks up where Go Little Honda left off, and the opening track, ‘Black Denim,’ makes it clear that amidst the changing music scene, the Hondell-sound was not going anywhere.

​

With a great lead vocal from Chuck Girard, ‘Black Denim’ is still heavily influenced by the Beach Boys. ‘Night Rider’ features a French horn, and ‘My Little Bike’ is a good piece of early 1960s pop. However strong the opening tracks, like its predecessor, the Hondells’ second album is bogged down by too many instrumentals (though because of the layout of the songs, the flaw is less noticeable). ‘The Rebel (Without a Cause)’ is a solid enough track, while the sullen ‘Lonely Rider’ is a nice breath of air between up-tempo vocal numbers. Brian Wilson even submitted his own ‘My Buddy Seat,’ which has an inventive melody line and a great hook. Allegedly the Wilson track also features the Beach Boy singing along with the group, as well as Terry Melcher and Bruce Johnston of Rip-Chords fame doing background vocals. ‘You’re Gonna Ride with Me’ is a resilient Usher-Christian track, followed by yet another composition from the duo, ‘Lay It Down.’ The last two Mike Curb instrumentals on the album, ‘Cycle Chase’ and ‘The Sidewinder,’ are unneeded, and the sentimental ‘He Wasn’t Coming Back’ seems to be in a bad key for everyone involved. The closing track, ‘Honda Holiday,’ is handicapped by its short run time of 1:35 and feels like a rejected television commercial.

Overall, The Hondells is an improvement on the original, even if it's just to say; “we’re still here.” Evidently, record buyers weren’t as enthused as it failed to replicate the same sales success as its precursor and while the Hondells would continue to record until 1970, no other albums appeared.