THAT'S JUST MY OPINION
BY HANK A. HONIG

THAT'S JUST MY OPINION
By Henry A. Honig

As a child of the sixties, I was looking forward to seeing the Beach Boys perform on Good Morning America, July 5. I have spent the past quarter of a century in various parts of the entertainment business, and I am well aware that personnel change in music groups, particularly rock groups with 30 plus years of history. However, while watching, I realized that only one original Beach Boy was still in the group, and that not only upset me but caused me to do some thinking.

The original group, The Pendeltons, was made up of three Wilson Brothers, Carl, Dennis and Brian, their cousin, Mike Love, and two friends, Al Jardine and a kid who disappeared after the first album. They changed their name to The Beach Boys when Capitol Records gave them a contract, and the rest was history.

Brian Wilson went through a myriad of mental breakdowns, and fell under the influence of a psycho guru for a while. As a result, he spent several years sitting in a sand box and contemplating his ever expanding navel. Although he has returned to a more normal mental condition, he rarely performs with the group.

Dennis Wilson was killed in a tragic diving accident in the 1980s, and brother, Carl, died of a heart attack in the '90s.

During Brian Wilson's original breakdown, a fellow named Glen Campbell joined the group. He went on to do other things, but I didn't have to tell you that. His replacement was Bruce Johnston. Johnston's previous claim to fame was as a side man for The Captain and Tenille. He has remained with the group ever since.

This takes us to Al Jardine. Jardine and Love have had a series of legal disputes that resulted in their seperation. The final settlement allowed Jardine to perform Beach Boys music, but not call his band The Beach Boys. Why? Well, it was reasoned that since Love was the closest thing to a Wilson, the name should be his. Johnston elected to stay with Love, and he and Love now perform with a group of assorted musicians, including Love's teenage son, Brian, as The Beach Boys.

This is not a unique situation.

Back in the day, a group of back up singers for Neil Sedaka, called The Tokens, recorded a song called Tonight I Fell In Love on the small Warwick label. It shot to number 1, and RCA bought their contract. That led to the release of the mega-hit, The Lion Sleeps Tonight, a cover of Pete Seeger's African folk song, Wimoweh. The Tokens, made up of 4 guys with the last names of Margo, Margo, Medras and Siegel, were later joined by a 5th guy named Venieri. After a string of hits, they formed their own label and began producing songs for groups like The Happenings. Then came the oldies circuit, and eventually the disputes. The settlement led to two groups of Tokens, one on the East Coast led by Jay Siegel and another on the West Coast led by Mitch Margo. The rest of the guys are no longer involved. As a result, when you see either of these groups, you are only seeing one original Token.

Rock and Roll has a terrible reputation for mistreating performers. Artists names were frequently owned by their record labels, which sold the names to the highest bidders. As a result, when you see The Shangrilas (Remember, Walking in the Sand) and The Buckinghams (Kind of Drag), you are seeing a bunch of kids perform who were not even alive when the hits were made. To further demonstrate the fraudulent nature of this deception, let me share a story regarding the Buckinghams.

About 10 years ago, I attended an oldies concert featuring the Buckinghams, or at least a bunch of 20 somethings claiming to be the Buckinghams. During the introduction to the song, Susan, the lead singer stated that they were going to, "Sing a song that we recorded in 1968." A member of the audience screamed out, "You weren't even born yet in 1968!" And therein lies the problem.


I like music of many genres, and I don't mind hearing a cover of a great song. However, when I am told that I will be seeing the original group, that's what I expect to see. The original members of the Shangrilas sued the promoter who had purchased the group's name from their record label and was sending out several groups of similar sounding teens to perform as the Shangrilas over 20 years after the original group had disbanded. Their contention was that they had been the one's who recorded the original songs, and the public was entitled to know that they were not getting what they had bought, the original product, just an imitation. The originals won the suit.

Similarly, when jazz singer, Phoebe Snow, sued Columbia records over Columbia's claim that the record label owned the artist's stage name, she, too, won. Snow was then able to sign with a new label and record under the name that had brought her fame.

At this point, you may be wondering why I am dealing with a matter that, in the general context of the world, is rather unimportant. The problem here is that it is not unimportant. It is a clear demonstration of the path that our business leaders have taken over the past several years that brought us to where we are today in business. Enron and Worldcom thought nothing of defrauding the public. Why should they in an environment that routinely accepts all types of fraud on a regular basis. When it is OK to defraud artists of the fruits of their works by not paying them royalties or OK to defraud the public by presenting imitations as originals for decades, then it becomes also OK to defraud the public by cooking the books.

Certainly, it is not a new thing. Some years ago, Crazy Eddie, a New York Electronics dealer, was convicted of overstating its inventory in order to drive up the company's stock prices. It was done all the time. Eddie Antar, the President of Crazy Eddie, just happened to get caught and go to prison.

I am not a great fan of either President Bush. However, I am pleased at the stand the current occupant of the White House is taking regarding corporate fraud. He is demanding serious jail time for corporate executives who deliberately defraud the public when it comes to their earnings. This is particularly impressive as many of these corporate swindlers were the President's biggest campaign contributors.

And that stance by the President is giving me Good Vibrations.

But That's Just My Opinion.