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TRACK-BY-TRACK NOTES Set 1: South Swells (1960-1963) The Fireballs started as an instrumental band in the '50s, but had their biggest hit in 1963 with "Sugar Shack" after joining forces with vocalist Jimmy Gilmer. Except for The Ventures' "Walk-Don't Run," "Bulldog" is probably the best example of a record by a band from outside of California that strongly influenced the early sound and style of surf music. The Fireballs (their name came from the Jerry Lee Lewis hit "Great Balls Of Fire") were from Raton in northeastern New Mexico. They recorded at the Norman Petty Studios in Clovis, New Mexico (the same studio used by Buddy Holly & The Crickets). When "Bulldog" was recorded, in November 1959, The Fireballs were already in the national Top 40 with "Torquay," a Latin-flavored instrumental. "Bulldog" became their second hit, peaking at #24 on the national charts in February 1960. "Bulldog" was the first recording where the band used an electric bass guitar and the legendary Petty echo chamber. Petty built a 20- by 30-foot room in an attic. This chamber produced a guitar sound on "Bulldog" that came mighty close to the sound that would later become synonymous with surf music. In late 1960 and early 1961, four recordings were particularly important to the transition between late-'50s rock and early-'60s surf music: "Moon Dawg!" (The Gamblers), "Church Key" (The Revels), "Underwater" (The Frogmen), and "Mr. Moto" (The Belairs). Stylistically all these records were clearly surf music prototypes, but at the time no one connected them with the beach or the sport of surfing. The Gamblers' seminal and somewhat legendary 1960 recording of "Moon Dawg!" was produced by Nik Venet (who assembled the group, cowrote the song, and contributed the background "barking" vocals). Venet, a Capitol staff producer, also worked with Bobby Darin, and later produced the label's first sessions by The Beach Boys and the Stone Poneys with Linda Ronstadt. Rhythm guitarist Elliot Ingbar later became a founding member of The Mothers of Invention and bassist Larry Taylor became a founding member of the blues and boogie band Canned Heat. The Revels were from San Luis Obispo, California, a coastal town 225 miles north of Los Angeles. They recorded "Church Key," their second record, in the summer of 1960. It was literally conceived "on the spot" in a small studio at the corner of Santa Monica and Western in Los Angeles. They weren't having much success in the studio that day. Sax player Norman Knowles made a phone call to music promoter Tony Hilder, hoping for some helpful ideas. Guitarist Dan Darnold's joking around with his Gretsch guitar's vibrato bar caused Hilder to suggest a gimmick that gave "Church Key" its main hook. A vibrato bar (or "whammy" bar as it's also called - don't ask why) is a handle-shaped device attached to the bridge of a guitar that, when pushed or pulled, can lower and raise the pitch of the strings. This effect is heard at the beginning of each verse of "Church Key." The use of the vibrato bar to "bend" notes and chords became an integral part of the surf music guitar style. "Church key" was a slang term for a can opener, an indispensable device in the days before "pop-tops." The sound of a beer can being punctured by a church key can be heard at the end of the first verse and at the end of the sax solo. The female giggles belonged to Barbara Adkins, who became Hilder's wife. Both "Church Key" and "Moon Dawg!" were used with astonishing frequency in the repertoire of nearly every surf band (even The Beach Boys recorded "Moon Dawg!" on their first album). Much less is known about The Frogmen than about The Gamblers. However, "Underwater" made a respectable showing on the pop charts (#44 in Billboard and #34 in Cash Box) in April 1961. In a June 1992 interview with author Stephen McParland, Jack Andrews, the writer of the song, said that The Frogmen were a four-piece band from Culver City that he met at a party. He took them into American Recording and cut "Underwater." Andrews told McParland, "I shopped it to every record company in town and got booted out...by every [one]. Then my friend Joe Saraceno told me I should overdub something on it to make it more interesting, so I went back in the studio. H.B. Barnum had just done a session and he had a bunch of percussion stuff around. [Engineer Frank DeLuna] happened to pick up a guiro [Ed. note: pronounced "wee-ro," this is a Spanish percussion instrument typically consisting of a long-necked gourd that is sounded by scraping a stick over ridges cut into its surface] and he began making this croaking sound [with it] as we were playing the tape. I said, 'Hey, can you do that on mike?' and he said, 'Yeah, but who's gonna engineer it?' and I said, 'I will.' So he went out and played and I engineered. Then I took it out and shopped it again." Saraceno worked for Candix Records and helped get the record released on that label. According to Andrews, Saraceno also came up with the name Frogmen. Little is known about the band because the members were all under 18 years old at the time "Underwater" was recorded, and their parents kept them from actively supporting the success of the record by performing and touring. Of all the early transitional recordings between the instrumental rock legacy of the late '50s and surf music, The Belairs' "Mr. Moto" is arguably the most important. The group was from the southwestern part of Los Angeles County, an area known as the South Bay, which was an important pocket of teen surf band activity in the later months of 1962 and into 1963. Just north of the Palos Verdes Peninsula, this area included the communities of Redondo Beach, Hermosa Beach, Torrance, and Hawthorne (the home of the Wilson brothers, Brian, Carl, and Dennis). "Mr. Moto" (named after the late-'30s film detective played by Peter Lorre) was played in a minor key, uncommon for a guitar instrumental at that time but commonplace among surf instrumentals a year later. The record featured no bass guitar, a lack partly made up for by guitarist Paul Johnson's strumming technique. The Belairs (named for sax player Chaz Stuart's '55 Chevy) were still in high school when they pooled their money to make a professional recording. "Mr. Moto" was the first of five tunes recorded at the Liberty Records Studios in Hollywood...and all in one hour! A demo of the tune finally found a home at Richard Vaughn's small, independent Arvee Records. Responsibility for promoting "Mr. Moto" was given to one of the label's A&R men, Sonny Bono, still a couple of years away from meeting his singing partner and future wife, Cher. Johnson even played guitar on the couple's first recording together, "Baby Don't Go." National chart success eluded "Mr. Moto" although it was a local hit in Southern California during the summer of 1961. Johnson has said, "The summer of '61 was when the self-conscious concept of surf music came about, so obviously [earlier] records like 'Underwater' by The Frogmen and 'Church Key' by The Revels - as well as 'Mr. Moto' and 'Let's Go Trippin'' - couldn't possibly have been thought of as surf music when they were made. The surfers were going to these dances and saying, 'Man, this music sounds like riding a wave!' They started calling it surf music; they just laid claim to it. I specifically remember Lance Carson, a well-known surfer, saying 'You ought to make a record and call it "The Surfer Stomp." I brushed it off and thought, 'Yeah, somebody probably will do that,' but that wasn't where I was coming from." The sixth record released on his father's record label was Dick Dale's first instrumental recording, the first to feature the full band name, "Dick Dale & The Del-Tones," and his first chart hit. Considered to be the first distinguishable surf music record, "Let's Go Trippin'" is noteworthy because of Dale's motivation for recording it. As he explained to author Robert Dalley, "There was this one instrumental we were doing [at the Rendezvous Ballroom] and I really didn't have a name for it. So one night I asked the kids about it and they screamed 'Let's Go Trippin'' and started doing the surfer stomp to it." Apparently, the dynamics between band and audience, when it came time to deliver the music for the group stomp, were strong enough to convince Dale that the instrumental should be recorded. Nick O'Malley, Del-Tones rhythm guitarist at the time, recalls that "Let's Go Trippin'" was recorded on August 23, 1961. It entered the Billboard Hot 100 in November and stayed on the charts until the end of January 1962, peaking at #60. The first record to be nationally identified with the Southern California surf culture was "Surfer's Stomp" by The Mar-Kets. Much like Dick Dale's "Let's Go Trippin,'" it capitalized on a dance step that began with audiences at the Rendezvous Ballroom. The Mar-Kets (it was spelled "Marketts" on later releases to distinguish the name from another recording group called The Mar-Keys) were a studio-contrived group of musicians brought together by producer Joe Saraceno. The sound and style of the tune were a far cry from what Dick Dale & The Del-Tones were doing. In an interview with surf music expert Dan Forte for Guitar Player magazine, Saraceno recalled, "I was in a bar where everyone was doing a dance I'd never seen before. One of the girls said it was called the surfer stomp. So I wrote a song with that pattern in mind. I got [saxophonist] Plas Johnson, [guitarists] Rene Hall and Tommy Tedesco, [drummer Ed Hall], and the studio men, and we made the record." Saraceno joined the fledgling Candix Records label in 1960 as a producer. He created "Surfer's Stomp" along with a songwriting friend named Mike Gordon (half of the writing credit was given to a Mike Daughtry, a pseudonym for Gordon). The recording session was held in October 1961 and the record was pressed on Saraceno's own Union Records label rather than on Candix, for reasons unknown. Saraceno obtained a national distribution deal with Liberty Records. After its release on Liberty, "Surfer's Stomp" debuted at #95 in Billboard on January 13, 1962, and climbed into the Top 40 by the end of February. It was a sizable hit record that boosted Saraceno's career and provided the first national recognition for the musical style that became known as surf music. While Joe Saraceno was preparing to record "Surfer's Stomp," five young guys from Hawthorne who called themselves The Pendletones (after Pendleton shirts, an integral part of the fashion statement made by most surfers at the time) had just recorded a song called "Surfin." It was written by two of The Pendletones, Brian Wilson and his cousin Mike Love. Brian's brother, Dennis, who liked to surf, suggested that his older brother and cousin write a song about surfing. Of all The Pendletones - brothers Brian and Carl, cousin Mike, and Al Jardine - Dennis had the best understanding of the emerging surfing culture. Not only was he the only member of the group who actually surfed, but he also knew about the buzz that Dick Dale & The Del-Tones were creating. Surf music's first true anthem was "Surfin," created around the end of August 1961. The group auditioned the song for Dorinda and Hite Morgan, social acquaintances of the Wilson brothers' father, Murry. The Morgans' owned several small record labels, and were impressed enough with the audition to take the boys into a professional recording studio. On October 3, 1961, "Surfin" was recorded at the World Pacific Studios in Hollywood. Carl Wilson played an acoustic guitar, Al Jardine plucked at a stand-up acoustic bass, and Brian beat his hands on an upside-down trash can to provide the beat. They all sang on this primitive, yet innovative recording, which owed more to folk music and pop vocal harmony than it did to rock 'n' roll. Fortuitously, the Morgans played the tape for a friend at radio station KFWB in Hollywood. He, in turn, knew a producer at Candix Records who was preparing to record something called "Surfer's Stomp." The producer, Joe Saraceno, loved the song so much he played it for a business acquaintance, Russ Regan. Saraceno and Regan felt the song had hit potential, but didn't care for the name of the group. The two of them suggested "The Beach Boys." The Morgans pressed a small quantity of records bearing the group's new name on their X Records label around the first of November. Soon after, a distribution deal was made with Saraceno for a release on Candix. This release entered the KFWB Top 40 at #33 on December 29. Two days later, The Beach Boys made their first public appearance at a Ritchie Valens Memorial Dance singing three songs, one of which was "Surfin." On January 13, 1962, "Surfin" entered the Billboard charts at #118. It was listed as a "Local Single Breakout" (right next to The Belairs' "Mr. Moto"). After falling off the charts for several weeks, it reappeared at #93 on February 17, then #90, #83, #77, and finally peaked at #75 on March 24 before falling off the charts. In early 1962, surf music was poised to explode into the teenage youth culture throughout Southern California and reverberate into the national spotlight. Ray Hunt, the writer of "Paradise Cove," formed a teen band in 1960 called The Expressos. At one of their dances, they met Hawaiian entertainer Aki Aleong. Aleong was mostly known as an actor, and had appeared in the TV show Hawaiian Eye. Aleong took the band to Sound House Recorders in El Monte. Two instrumentals were recorded, "Wandering" (written by Ray Hunt) and "Teenage Express" (written by Aleong). Both were released on a little-noticed single in late 1960. The band and Aleong went in separate directions after that, but Aleong would turn up again a couple of years later in connection with a band called The Nobles (see Set 2 of this collection). After some personnel changes, The Expressos returned to the Sound House studio and rerecorded "Wandering" and another instrumental written by Ray Hunt called "The Ghost Hop." The band took the tapes to George Brown, owner of Demon Records and Titan Records. Brown agreed to release The Expressos' tunes but felt that the band's name should be changed to capitalize on the new surf "fad." Brown came up with The Surfmen, and also changed the name of "Wandering" to "Extasy." Realizing that the record might get more airplay if the A-side had a surf-related title, Brown changed it again, this time to "Paradise Cove." Since the Fender Reverb Unit had not yet appeared, it was too early for the sound that came to be identified with surf music. Yet "Paradise Cove," with all of the echo used on the recording, sounded distinctive and contributed to the growing musical association with the surfing culture. Ray Hunt's use of the guitar's tremolo bar to "bend" chords was a technique first used on records like The Revels' "Church Key," that soon became quite common. Two of The Surfmen went on to play with a couple of surf music's most important bands: drummer Tim Fitzpatrick recorded with The Lively Ones (represented by "Surf Rider" on this collection), and sax player Armon Frank joined Dick Dale's Del-Tones after "Paradise Cove" was recorded. The Sentinals were more of a rhythm & blues outfit than they were a surf band. Nevertheless, "Latin'ia" (pronounced "Lateen-ya") was a huge West Coast hit in 1962 and its instrumental nature gave it a de facto surf music identity. They also recorded two classic surf music albums in 1963 and 1964. The band formed in 1961 in the central California coastal town of San Luis Obispo. Norman Knowles, formerly the sax player and manager for The Revels ("Church Key"), offered to act as their manager. The Sentinals provided a training ground for musicians who were destined for bigger and better success: drummer Johnny Barbata joined The Turtles in 1967 and later play with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, then Jefferson Starship. Kenny Hinkle, who later played bass for The Sentinals, joined Terry Melcher and Bruce Johnston to form the short-lived group California Music in 1974. In 1966 The Sentinals added a keyboardist to the band for a brief time; his name was Mike Olson but he preferred the stage name of Lee Michaels. Michaels made his solo contribution to rock history with several albums and the hit record "Do You Know What I Mean." The Tornadoes were a family band, consisting of two brothers (Gerald and Norman Sanders), cousin (Jesse Sanders), and a friend, Leonard Delaney. The San Bernardino, California, group began as The Vaqueros. After adding sax player George White, they changed their name to The Tornadoes. "Bustin' Surfboards" was recorded at the Bill Locy Studios in Riverside in July 1962. The ocean sound effect on the record was from a tape San Bernardino radio station KFXM used it as a background for their daily surf reports. The fact that a radio station 60 miles from the nearest wave gave daily surf reports indicates a strong recognition of the surfing culture by mid-1962. The Tornadoes' first record received a moderate amount of national airplay. "Bustin' Surfboards" was recorded without the use of a Fender Reverb Unit, although some album tracks recorded soon after it feature the reverb. The device didn't become popular until Dick Dale & The Del-Tones released "Miserlou." Dick Dale & The Del-Tones released three singles in 1962, two of which gave surf music a certain validity that had only been hinted at by earlier recordings such as "Let's Go Trippin,'" "Bustin' Surfboards," "Paradise Cove," and "Surfer's Stomp." The first was "Miserlou," which provided the sound that came to be accepted by both musicians and fans as the sound of surf music. The second was "Surf Beat," which served to give the music's driving rhythm and power a name. "Miserlou" was the first widely popular record to feature the effect of a Fender Reverb Unit on the lead guitar. This was a new sound with infectious energy. Released in May 1962, it remains one of the classic rock instrumentals of all time (witness its use as title music for Quentin Tarantino's popular 1994 film Pulp Fiction). "Miserlou" was based on a Greek folk tune of the 1940s that had been musically reinterpreted over the years. A popular version was by pianist Jan August in the early '50s. Since Dale's heritage was Lebanese, and he had a fondness for Middle Eastern melodies, it was a perfect vehicle for him to flex his muscles on guitar. Dale reportedly incorporated "Miserlou" into his show after a fan asked him if he could play a melody on his guitar using only one string. He's been quoted as saying, "I still remember the first night we played it. I changed the tempo and just started cranking on that mother. And it was eerie. The people came rising up off the floor and they were chanting and stomping. I knew I'd tapped into some sort of power and that power was labeled surf music." If "Miserlou" wasn't enough to make surf music a household expression by the fall of 1962, "Surf Beat" surely did. It was Dales' pice de rÚsistance, a recording of unequaled proportion. The tune was perfect for dancing, with the right amount of reverb on the lead guitar, and a great drum track. "Surf Beat" firmly established Dick Dale as a major recording star on the West Coast. His performances drew thousands of people, and "Miserlou" and "Surf Beat" were chart toppers on nearly every local Top 40 radio station. By the end of 1962, everyone seemed to agree that Dick Dale was King of the Surf Guitar. The Fabulous Playboys' only release, "Cheater Stomp," is one of dozens of surf music recordings about which very little is known. Until now, its existence was relegated to the hands of record collectors and surf music historians. Yet it's one of the most exciting surf instrumental records from the time period. It was produced by Randy Nauert, who played bass guitar for The Challengers. Nauert recalls little about the band except that he played bass on the record. The rest of the lineup attended the University of Southern California, including lead guitarist Mickey Mills. The single was made as an anthem for a South Bay car club known as The Cheaters. Next to The Surfaris' "Wipe Out," "Pipeline" is undoubtedly the most widely recognized surf music recording. It sold more than a million copies and reached #4 on the Billboard Hot 100. With "Pipeline," surf music hit the big time. The Chantays were from Santa Ana, California, just a few miles from the Rendezvous Ballroom in Balboa. The band was started by guitarist Brian Carman whose brother Steve played sax with a popular group called the Rhythm Rockers (see Set 2). It happened the same way it did for scores of bands: high school friends pursued a common goal, and supportive parents tolerated weekend practices in the garage. Unlike many other bands at the time, they had a keyboard player. Until they acquired a small, transportable electric piano (a Fender Rhodes), they could only play wherever a piano was available. The band's big break came in July 1962, when they played for an outdoor dance at a mountain resort above San Bernardino. The Chantays enthralled the crowd and impressed DJ Jack Sands, from San Bernardino radio station KFXM. He was so affected by the young musicians' talent that he offered to manage them. The Chantays recorded "Pipeline" for a small Los Angeles label, Downey Records, in the summer of 1962. The tune was originally called "Liberty's Whip," inspired by the movie The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. However, after Spickard and Carman saw a Bruce Brown surfing film that featured the surfing spot on Hawaii's North Shore he dubbed the "Banzai Pipeline," the tune was renamed. The record shot up the charts and peaked at #4 nationally in May 1963. "Pipeline" was the first surf record to appear on the British pop charts (#16 in June 1963) and The Chantays were the first surf band to tour overseas. The record won the BMI Citation of Achievement Award in 1963 and was voted Record of the Year in Australia. Along with late-1962 recordings by Dick Dale and The Challengers, The Chantays' "Pipeline" is one of the earliest recordings to feature the sound of the Fender Reverb Unit. In early December 1962, a recording session took place that generated one of surf music's biggest successes and one of the few genre recordings in which both sides were chart hits. This was an amazing accomplishment considering that the band had been together only four months, and considering that "Wipe Out" was a studio afterthought - conceived on the spot so they would have a flipside for "Surfer Joe," the real reason they had entered the studio. The Surfaris were from Glendora, about 30 miles east of Los Angeles. The three guitarists - Jim Fuller, Bob Berryhill, and Pat Connolly - were only 15 years old, and drummer Ron Wilson was 17. Glendora photographer Dale Smallin agreed to manage them. After Wilson came up with the song "Surfer Joe," Smallin took the band to the Pal Recording Studio in Cucamonga. Pal was owned by Paul Buff, who described what happened in a 1982 interview: "I had a call from Dale Smallin, a friend I had last seen in the eighth grade in Glendora. Dale said he had seen my name as engineer/producer on some record and that he had a group he wanted to record. He brought his group over the next week and we spent an hour cutting two songs live on quarter-inch tape. One of the songs called for a breaking surfboard as the intro, so we went out in back and got some sticks for the sound effect. Dale also had a hideous laugh which he thought would be good on the front of the record." Bob Berryhill, The Surfaris' rhythm guitarist, recalled the session in a 1988 interview with Dan Jackson: "Well, basically we had gone to Tijuana a week or two before, just for fun, and Jim Fuller had a switchblade in his pocket. After we recorded the song, he wanted to name it so he said, 'Let's name it "Stiletto."' We clicked this thing on a microphone and it just went 'click,' no pizazz, no magic. So I got the idea of calling it something like 'Bustin' Surfboards.' I don't know who exactly said the words 'wipe out,' but the words came up. So I said, 'OK, let's break a board in front of the microphone.' I went out and got a cement-soaked board from somewhere outside and just cracked it over the mike and Dale Smallin, who was our original manager, let out a laugh and 'Wipe Out' came to be." At the end of the recording (the second of only two takes), Wilson lost control of the drumstick in his right hand. He finished the take by hitting the crash cymbal with his bare hand. When it was released nationally by Dot Records, "Wipe Out" was faded before the somewhat sloppy last verse. The original, full-length, version is presented on this compilation (see if you can determine the moment Wilson loses his drumstick). "Surfer Joe" was also shortened for national release. The second and fifth verses were edited out, but the original five-verse master of the song has been provided here. The fact that "Wipe Out," - an unplanned, studio-contrived composition - became a bigger hit than "Surfer Joe" is one of popular music's the many twists of fate. By June 1963, "Wipe Out" reached #2 on the national charts, and remained a hot seller for more than 16 weeks. As airplay waned, DJs turned the record over and began to play "Surfer Joe." Although it only peaked at #62, it kept the record selling through the end of summer. "Wipe Out" experienced a revival in 1966, when it was rereleased and climbed to #16. The band toured Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. "Wipe Out" won Record of the Year Award in Australia and the BMI Citation of Achievement Award. The tune continues to be used in movie soundtracks and commercials, and is undoubtedly one of the most influential pieces of music for rock drummers and guitarists. Richie Allen was a pseudonym for Richie Allen Podolor, a singer/songwriter/musician who was an important part of the Southern California recording industry from the late '50s, through the '60s and '70s. His first recorded appearance was playing guitar on "Dark Moon" by Bonnie Guitar (a Top 10 hit in 1957). He had several solo outings, but found greater success performing on other artists' recordings. One of the bigger hits of 1959, Sandy Nelson's "Teen Beat," featured Podolor on guitar. That project started a working relationship with Nelson that continued for several years. As a musician and producer, Podolor worked with Kim Fowley, Phil Spector, and Sandy Nelson. Imperial Records' prez Lew Chudd thought enough of Podolor's talents to sign him for solo singles under the name Richie Allen. While Podolor and Nelson were under contract at Imperial, surf music became a national fad. After some success with his Stranger From Durango album in 1962, Imperial asked him to produce a theme album to capitalize on the surfing craze. The result was "The Rising Surf," released in March 1963 and credited to Richie Allen & The Pacific Surfers. Other musicians on the album included Bill Cooper (rhythm guitar), Ray Pohlman (bass), Les Weiser (sax), and Sandy Nelson (drums). Cooper, Pohlman, and Weiser would go on to many creative surf and hot rod music projects with Gary Usher and others. Podolor also collaborated with Usher and produced such groups as Steppenwolf, Three Dog Night, Blues Image, and Iron Butterfly. The Lively Ones evolved out of personnel changes to The Surfmen (represented earlier in this collection by "Paradise Cove"). The name change has been credited to KFWB DJ Gene Weed, who felt that the band needed a new identity. He called them a bunch of lively ones on stage and the name stuck. In August 1962, they recorded their first two songs at Sound House Recorders. This record was the first of many surf singles and albums released on Bob Keene's Del-Fi Records label. The Lively Ones were the most prolific, with six singles and five albums. "Surf Rider" was their best-known recording and was used as the closing theme of the 1994 film Pulp Fiction. The melody was from a 1962 song by The Ventures called "Spudnik" and the track was featured on their album Mashed Potatoes And Gravy (referring to the current dance craze). The Ventures were as influential to surf guitar players as Dick Dale, and most surf bands had at least one Ventures song and one Dick Dale song in their repertoire. Surf music was primarily an instrumental medium, perpetuated by as many teen bands who found it easier to create music without singing. The genre of instrumental rock that began in the late '50s not only established the tradition but also validated it as an acceptable approach to popular music. Still, there was a vocal element to surf music: songs about the actual practice of surfing. Many of these were attempts to duplicate the harmony style of The Beach Boys or the heavily orchestrated works of Jan & Dean. An interesting vocal surf recording in a more basic, rock style was the collaboration of Chris Montez and Kathy Young called "Shoot That Curl." Young signed with Indigo Records in 1960 at the suggestion of KFWB DJ Wink Martindale. She had a Top 10 hit with "A Thousand Stars" (produced by Richie Podolor). Montez grew up in the same area of Southern California as The Beach Boys. Montez met writer/producer Jim Lee, who left Indigo in 1962 and formed Monogram Records specifically to release a single by Montez and Young called "All You Had To Do Was Tell Me." Montez's next release, a solo outing, was the million-seller "Let's Dance." He and Young collaborated one more time on the Montez-penned "Shoot That Curl," using essentially the same studio musicians who did "Surf City" with Jan & Dean. John Blaire | |
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