Set 2: Big Waves (1963) 

"Surfin' U.S.A." broke through the geographic barrier of Southern California and spread the idealism of the surfing culture across every inch of America. It hit the nation's breadbasket stronger than "Pipeline" did because it was a vocal. It "spoke" to teenagers across the country, communicating what The Chantays' instrumental could only hint at. "If everybody had an ocean across the U.S.A.," The Beach Boys sang, "Then everybody'd be surfin' like Californ-eye-a." By February 1963, Brian Wilson thought everyone would want to be part of this scene if only everyone had their own ocean. His optimism dripped off every note. 

Wilson wrote the words, but the melody was derived from Chuck Berry's "Sweet Little Sixteen." Berry's opus to teenage girls climbed to the #2 position in 1958. Five years later, Wilson's homage to surfing was on the charts for 17 weeks and peaked at #3. Carl Wilson's guitar intro was his own paean to Chuck Berry, an amalgam of Berry's guitar kick-offs to "Johnny B. Goode" and "Roll Over Beethoven." 

In Brian Wilson's autobiography, Wouldn't It Be Nice, he wrote, "Having come up with a melody inspired by that song, I thought, God, what about doing surf lyrics and mentioning every surf spot in the state? They're doing it here, there, in this city and that, like Chubby Checker's 'Twistin' U.S.A.'" 

All of the surfing locations mentioned were contributed by Jimmy Bowles, the brother of Wilson's then current girlfriend Judy, who inspired "Surfer Girl." With all of the geographic references, the song could have served as a theme song for the state's Department Of Tourism. Australia's Narrabeen and Hawaii's Waimea Bay were the only non-California locations mentioned. 

"Surfin' U.S.A." was The Beach Boys' fourth single and their first Top 10 hit. The biggest year for surf music, 1963, was off to a rousing start. 

Drummer Tom Brown with guitarist Larry Ellis formed The Illusions during the summer of 1962. While they worked at a small teen club in Bellflower called The Peppermint Lounge, they occasionally saw Dick Dale perform. Dale inspired The Illusions to practice harder, develop the surfing sound, and work on original material. The band's lead guitarist, Bob Mason, stumbled across a 1951 record by Frankie Laine, called "Jezabel." They reworked it into a blazing surf instrumental. 

The Illusions were heard by a radio DJ, George Huggins, who worked for a small Long Beach station. He took the band into a recording studio early in 1963 and they recorded "Jezabel." According to Brown, it was done live, without overdubs, using one microphone! It was also recorded without a bass player since the band simply didn't feel they needed one. 

When The Illusions were staking out their territory between Bellflower and Long Beach, The Nobles were building a reputation 15 miles inland, in El Monte. Brothers Paul and Ralph Geddes formed an early version of the band in 1960. A keyboard player and a second drummer were added, providing The Nobles with a unique configuration. Their influences included '50s rock 'n' roll and rockabilly, and surf bands such as Dick Dale & The Del-Tones and The Lively Ones. 

In 1963, they were approached by TV actor Aki Aleong, who said he would try to get them a recording contract, as he had done for The Surfmen. 

Aleong brought the band into GoldStar Studios in Hollywood, where an album's worth of material, including "Body Surf," was recorded. Although Aleong sang on only one of the tracks, the album was released with his picture on the cover and credited to Aki Aleong & The Nobles. All the other tracks were instrumentals, with Aleong involved only as the producer. 

The Pal Recording Studio in Cucamonga was the birthplace of The Surfaris' "Wipe Out" and "Surfer Joe." Gene Gray & The Stingrays (a typo on their record label spelled it "Stingerays") recorded their only single there in 1963, a rare surf instrumental obscurity called "Surf Bunny." For reasons unknown, The Stingrays made the record as a trio without a rhythm guitarist. Gray is heard shouting the imaginary lady's measurements at the end of each 12-bar passage ("36!...24!...36!"). 

Gray (real name: Gene Hofford) started playing guitar as a child in Louisiana. Gray moved to Pomona in eastern Los Angeles County. "Surf Bunny" was not originally intended to be released as a record, but was done as a favor to Gray's mother, who was visiting from Louisiana and wanted to take home a tape of her son's band. 

The tape came into the hands of Eddie Davis, owner of Linda Records, who released the single in March 1963. It received some local airplay but was unsuccessful on a national level, although it was leased to Dot Records for national distribution. 

Johnny Fortune (real name: Johnny Fortune Sudetta) was one of the Inland Empire's best-kept secrets in the early 1960s. He was one of Chuck Berry's "Johnnys" who could play guitar just like a-ringin' a bell. He started when he was barely ten years old, and patterned his style after Chet Atkins. 

Fortune moved to Ontario, California, from Ohio in 1959. His earliest recordings were vocals dating from 1959. These were recorded at the nearby Pal Recording Studio in Cucamonga. He obtained some studio session work in Los Angeles in 1960 and 1961. Among the several recordings he played on were Sam Cooke's "Chain Gang" and Barbara George's "I Know (You Don't Love Me No More)," both Top 10 hits. 

During this period, he met John Fisher, a local guitarist and singer. In 1963, Fisher decided to form a record label and wanted Fortune to have the first release. According to an interview with author Robert Dalley, Fortune said, "I wrote 'Soul Surfer' on the way to the studio in the car [Ed. note: it was not, however, the Pal Recording Studio]. I had my guitar and was playing different riffs and John was telling me to play this, so I would play it until it sounded good. Then he would tell me to play something else high on the neck until I did play something that sounded good. That's how I wrote the whole thing. 

"My brother Joe was only ten years old when he played the drums on the recording. I played in the booth and went direct into the board. The drums were placed way down at the end of the studio and Joe used earphones. Jim O'Keith played sax and I overdubbed the bass." 

Fortune made it all seem so simple, yet "Soul Surfer" was not a particularly easy guitar piece. "Soul Surfer" made a respectable showing on local radio stations in May and June of 1963, but failed to receive any national recognition. 

"Early in the mornin' we'll be startin' out, some honeys will be comin' along" is the first line of The Beach Boys' highly successful "Surfin' Safari," the 1962 follow-up to "Surfin." That's where The Honeys found their name. Sisters Marilyn and Diane Rovell and their second cousin Ginger Blake (real name: Saundra Glantz) had been singing for several years when they were introduced to Brian Wilson by his friend and songwriting partner, Gary Usher. Wilson and The Honeys became good friends - especially Marilyn, who later became Mrs. Wilson. 

"Shoot The Curl" was written by Ginger and Diane, and was recorded on March 5, 1963, produced by Brian Wilson, who used some of the same musicians on "Shoot The Curl" as Phil Spector had been using on his records. 

The record was the first of five Honeys singles produced by Brian Wilson, and the first surf record by a female vocal group. The Honeys also sang backup on various Beach Boys recordings, most notably "Be True To Your School." 

Until the spring of 1963, Southern California basically had the market cornered for surf bands. Oh, sure, there were teen combos in nearly every metropolitan high school in the country. But the groups with visibility - the ones being played on the radio - were from Southern California. That changed when The Astronauts' "Baja" showed up in May. 

These five guys with a truly awesome reverbed guitar sound were from Boulder, Colorado, and originally called themselves The Stormtroopers. In 1962, they became The Astronauts, a name suggested by the Glenn, Carpenter, and Schirra space flights that year. They were a far cry from a surf band when RCA Records "found" them in Colorado and flew them to Los Angeles. The band had no clear idea what surf music was, but they soon learned how to play it. Their first single, released in July 1963, was written by producer Lee Hazlewood. "Baja" barely entered the Billboard Top 100, but was hugely popular in Southern California and quickly joined to the set list of every surf band within earshot. 

Subsequent singles and albums attracted little interest, but the guys stayed busy with personal appearances and TV shows. They toured Japan and appeared in four major Hollywood films between 1964 and 1966. It didn't matter that they were a landlocked bunch of hodads whose sound was fabricated by their record company. The Astronauts gave us some of the most effective and incredible surf music of the period, beginning with "Baja." 

The Pharos are one of surf music's continuing mysteries. Virtually nothing is known about this band or their 1963 single "Pintor." The band was probably another group of studio musicians. The tune is a perky Latin number in the same tradition as The Sentinals' "Latin'ia." It was released at the same time as The Astronauts' "Baja" and The Beach Boys' "Surfin' U.S.A." All three are well-crafted and well-recorded surf records, indicative of the variety that existed within the genre of surf music even at that early stage. It wasn't all just reverbed guitar instrumentals with three chords. Some bands actually knew four chords! 

When decisions were being made about which recordings to include in this collection, a few allowances were made for obscure releases that were particularly good examples of vintage surf music. Tons of surf singles and many albums have remained clouded in obscurity for more than 30 years. While not especially groundbreaking, a large number of these vinyl relics can be admired for what they are: good surf records with untold stories. The New Dimensions' "Cat On A Hot Foam Board" is one of these (and you've gotta love the title). 

New Dimensions lead guitarist Michael Lloyd, then 13, subsequently formed the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, and later enjoyed a career as a hit producer, with Sean Cassidy and The Bellamy Brothers among his credits. Piano player Jimmy Greenspoon later turned up playing keyboards for Three Dog Night. 

Jan Berry and Dean Torrance received only one certified gold record during their career. It was for "Surf City." Brian Wilson gave them the song at about the time The Beach Boys were recording "Surfin' U.S.A." In a 1982 interview, Torrance said, "Brian had ['Surf City'] partially finished and to be truthful, I think he was tired of playing around with the song. He gave it to us when it was about half done. Brian was always writing and he had tunes upon tunes upon tunes lying around. His publishing company was called Sea of Tunes for obvious reasons. He was tickled pink that someone else wanted to record one of his songs, because in those days people weren't exactly beating a path to his door." 

Jan & Dean's first (and only) #1 hit, "Surf City," made them popular surf music stars, won the 1963 Billboard #1 Award, and teased an already California-focused teenage public with the declaration that there were "two girls for every boy" down at Surf City - which, of course, was any city that you could get to in your '34 woodie. Listen closely and you can hear Brian Wilson singing background vocals. 

The Rhythm Rockers were one of the most popular Orange County bands prior to the British Invasion. They recorded their only album in the summer of 1963, a surf classic called "Soul Surfin'." They had played together since the late '50s, and had become one of the area's better dance bands similar to Dick Dale & The Del-Tones, Dave Myers & The Surftones, and Bob Vaught & The Renegades. 

The Rhythm Rockers became one of the regular house bands at the Rendezvous Ballroom in Balboa after Dick Dale & The Del-Tones left in late 1961. They also appeared as a backup band for The Righteous Brothers. "Breakfast At Tressels" refers to a popular surfing locale (actually spelled "Trestles") near San Onofre in Orange County, and is taken from the Soul Surfin' album. 

"King Of The Surf Guitar" was the title track of Dick Dale's first album after he signed with Capitol Records in 1963. By then, nobody in Southern California was arguing the fact that Dick Dale was King of the Surf Guitar, and Capitol wanted the rest of the country (and world) to understand. Capitol did a lot to promote this record but, like the majority of surf music, it sold better locally than elsewhere. 

To maintain control and produce a professional sound, Capitol hired seasoned studio musicians to substitute for most of The Del-Tones. Compared to his earlier recordings with The Del-Tones, the Capitol material seems a lot less spontaneous and raw - two qualities that helped define the unique aspect of surf music and set it apart from the heavily produced studio rock that was so prevalent at the time. Still, the Capitol recordings retain the power and grace of Dale's guitar style and sound. 

"King Of The Surf Guitar" served as a status report for surf music, and revealed how popular Dick Dale was in Southern California ("from Balboa to Anaheim, San Bernardino to Riverside..."). The female vocalists who delivered the message were The Blossoms, a black vocal group that featured Darlene Love of The Crystals, Jean King, and Fanita James. The trio also sang on Duane Eddy's 1962 hit "(Dance With The) Guitar Man." 

One of the surf bands whose reverbed instrumental music was revived in Pulp Fiction was The Centurians. After Pulp Fiction, their 1963 album was reissued on compact disc and the band regrouped for a series of personal appearances. 

The Centurians were based in Costa Mesa and nearby Newport Beach. In 1962 they were hired by Phil Spector to play on several tracks he was producing for Bob B. Soxx And The Blue Jeans. 

The Centurians developed a reverbed surf sound typical of teen bands from the Orange County coast. "Surfin' At Mazatland," taken from their only album, reflects the Latin flavor that crept into a lot of surf music, thanks to the proximity of fabuloso surf spots on Mexico's Baja Peninsula. 

The Blossoms, who sang on Dick Dale's first Capitol single in June 1963, also sang on Al Casey's "Surfin' Hootenanny," appearing as the K-C-Ettes. In a story similar to that of The Astronauts, Casey was an established recording artist before 1963 whose guitar style was far removed from surf music, but who had a very successful attempt playing in the style. 

Originally from Arizona, Casey first received attention as the lead guitarist on the 1956 Sanford Clark hit "The Fool." He became a regular member of Duane Eddy's backup band, The Rebels, playing guitar, bass, and piano. 

"Surfin' Hootenanny" was his third (and final) charted record under his own name and his biggest hit, reaching #48 in July 1963. Hootenanny was a folk music slang term for a concert. Casey's rousing invocation to party mentions three artists that "you're gonna meet" at the surfin' hootenanny: Dick Dale, The Ventures, and Duane Eddy. It wasn't hard to guess who surf music's influences were. 

Bernard "Jack" Nitzsche has been described as the most innovative pop music arranger/composer/producer of the 1960s. He arranged and orchestrated most of Phil Spector's major hit records. 

In the summer of 1963, Nitzsche produced the heavily orchestrated hit instrumental, "The Lonely Surfer." The first record to be released under his own name, it was recorded by studio musicians including Leon Russell on piano and Glen Campbell on guitar. 

This record showed how surf music could take a form besides reverbed rock 'n' roll and remain valid. Its originality has been questioned since the recent "discovery" of an obscure 1960 instrumental by Del Ray & The Roamers called "The Lonley [sic] Highway," which has a similar melody. Given its maudlin, string-laden moodiness, it is surprising that "The Lonely Surfer" was so successful (a Top 40 hit in Billboard). 

Nitzsche later collaborated with The Rolling Stones, Buffalo Springfield, and Neil Young, and scored a number of film soundtracks. 

It would probably be a safe bet to say that the first slow dance of the new school year in September 1963 was to The Beach Boys' "Surfer Girl." It was about as close to a perfect love song as you could get, it spoke directly to a pop music audience and a surf music audience, and it appealed to both genders. With only a few exceptions ("Lana" and "Farmer's Daughter" come to mind), Brian Wilson had been writing songs mostly about surfing and cars - not about girls, a subject that would eventually be at the heart of his songs. 

"Surfer Girl" is said to be one of Wilson's favorite Beach Boys songs. It's certainly a beautiful, well-crafted recording and showcases the lush harmonies that became the group's greatest asset. The song also paints a terrific image of the illusory surfer girl. 

Surfing wasn't exclusively male in the early- to mid-'60s. Joyce Hoffman, Margo Godfrey, Marge Calhoun, and others were well-respected surfing champions. Many women also learned how to ride tandem - a man and woman on a surfboard at the same time. Tandem surfing often involved some tricky gymnastics on the part of the woman, who usually rode the distance on her partner's shoulders - not an easy feat when you're travelling 25 miles an hour on the crest of a wave. 

Some have thought that Wilson wrote "Surfer Girl" for his girlfriend, Judy Bowles, but Wilson claims it was about lots of surfer girls. The record climbed to #7 and became the band's second Top 10 hit of the year . They were well on their way to a string of at least 28 charted records through 1970. Some of their bigger hits (including "Help Me, Rhonda" and "Good Vibrations") were achieved at the peak of the British Invasion, long after surfing and other surf groups had faded from public attention. 

Orange County is well represented in this collection because the area was rich with surfing locations and surf bands. The ones featured here were among the more important, inspirational, memorable, or simply noteworthy. The Blazers were simply great. 

The band was from Fullerton, just a few miles north of Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm. Their first record was produced in the same studio in Downey where The Chantays had recorded "Pipeline." In an interview with Robert Dalley, drummer Chris Holguin recalled, "Surf music was going strong and we wanted to cut a record, so we came up with a tune we called 'Beaver Patrol.' [In the studio] I was set up behind a barrier with two mikes, one overhead and the other near the snare in order to get a better sound out of me. The rest of the band was in the open with their amplifiers pointing away from each other. This setup was the reason why the record sounds so alive!" 

A few radio stations banned the record because of the title. Only one other surf record had that distinction: "Shootin' Beavers" by The Tornadoes (who are represented in this collection with "Bustin' Surfboards"). These records evidenced a certain licentious and playfully humorous side to the high-testosterone 1960s surfing culture. The slang word "beaver" may also have come from a type of wet suit used by surfers that had a snap-on crotch, a beaver tail-shaped appendage to the top half of the suit. This type of wet suit was called a "beaver tail." 

"Beaver Patrol" was the first of only two singles self-released by The Blazers in 1963. Both indicate the influence that Dick Dale & The Del-Tones had on the band, especially on guitarist Vern Acree. Obscure recordings such as "Beaver Patrol" frequently provide some of the best examples of surf music. When one of these rarities is performed well, and recorded well, it elevates the record to a certain legendary status. "Beaver Patrol," despite the vernacular, is in this category. 

At the same time as The Beach Boys were singing about surfer girls and little deuce coupes and Jan & Dean were going to Surf City, a couple of important South Bay bands were recording their first records. Many successful musicians who began their careers in surf bands seem to develop convenient amnesia whenever asked about "those" days. Not so with members of The Turtles, who were all over the hit parade between 1965 and 1969. They've always owned up to their beginnings as The Crossfires, a nifty six-piece surf band from Westchester near the L.A. airport. 

The Crossfires performed frequently in and around Westchester for several years. They were one of the very few bands with two lead vocalists, Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan, who doubled as the band's twin sax players. The group had an animated stage presence and a reputation for being wild but fun. 

In the summer of 1963, they cut "Fiberglass Jungle" at Western Recorders in Los Angeles, a studio used quite frequently by The Beach Boys. Although invisible outside of the Los Angeles area, the record shows how influential Dick Dale's style had been on lead guitarist Al Nichol. 

Even though Eddie & The Showmen lacked a hit record, they had five singles released by Liberty Records. The band produced several of the most blazing surf instrumentals of 1963, but gained little attention outside of Palos Verdes and northern Orange County. 

Eddie & The Showmen evolved from the seminal surf band The Belairs when guitarist Eddie Bertrand left to form his own group. Influenced by Dick Dale & The Del-Tones, Bertrand wanted a more exciting, heavier sound using the Fender Reverb Unit. The result was a band that many remember as one of the area's top draws in 1963. Drummer Dick Dodd later had hits with The Standells. 

"Mr. Rebel" was named after KRLA DJ Reb Foster. Eddie & The Showmen worked for Foster at the Retail Clerk's Hall in Buena Park and at Foster's own teen club, the Revelaire, in Redondo Beach. These were shows that quite often featured a vocal group or a singer with a hit record who used a local band for back-up. Reb Foster used Eddie & The Showmen quite often for this purpose. As a result, they backed up Dodie Stevens, Vic Dana, Chris Montez, Kathy Young, Jackie DeShannon, Jimmy Clanton, and many others. 

Джон Блейр
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