The Pyramids were a Long Beach band whose output included four singles and one album. They had the fourth best-selling surf instrumental of the early 1960s, "Penetration." The tune was the result of writer Steve Leonard's attempt to create an instrumental similar to The Chantays' "Pipeline." He used the same basic compositional elements but placed them in a higher key, resulting in a similar but distinct tune. 
During the recording of "Penetration," rhythm guitarist Willy Glover left the studio to eat while the others continued to work. The band's lead guitarist, Skip Mercier, recorded a rhythm guitar track and then, half-serious, overdubbed his lead. By the time Glover returned to the studio, the tune was "in the can," and headed for a top chart position of #18 in February 1964. Partially in response to the press coverage given The Beatles in early 1964, and because he felt The Pyramids needed a gimmick, the band's manager suggested they all shave their heads. They did exactly that, and played some shows with Beatle wigs that would go flying off their heads at some predetermined moment. The Pyramids made a brief appearance in the 1964 film Bikini Beach before they stopped performing in 1965. 

As the story goes, The Original Surfaris were originally called The Surfaris. They were legally forced to give up the name to the band who recorded "Wipe Out," because that band's hit gave them a certain artistic identity that needed to be maintained. As The Original Surfaris, most of their records were mistakenly credited to "The Surfaris." They appeared on more singles and albums than most surf bands. Many of these recordings were due to the efforts of promoter Tony Hilder. Hilder produced "Bombora," a band original named after the Australian word for a huge wave. Dick Dale described surf music as the feeling of power you have while surfing that's transferred into your guitar, a feeling of "vibration and pulsification." "Bombora" is a perfect example of what Dale meant. 

The Rotations' recording of "Heavies" (very big waves) was a studio contrivance - recorded by only two people, Paul Buff and Dave Aerni. Buff owned the Pal Recording Studio in Cucamonga, used by The Surfaris and others. Aerni was from Riverside and managed The Tornadoes (their "Bustin' Surfboards" appears in this collection). Buff and Aerni multitracked themselves playing different instruments and created "Heavies." "Heavies" languished in obscurity until Frank Zappa used the first 20 seconds of it on his 1967 Mothers Of Invention album We're Only In It For The Money. The tune is embedded within his Side Two overture titled "Nasal Retentive Calliope Music." 

Dave Myers was one of the few guitar players in Southern California who had several years of experience before forming a surf band. When he saw Dick Dale & The Del-Tones play, he was impressed by the way Dale had made his guitar more of a lead instrument. That inspired him to form a band of his own. The Surftones (a name derived from Dale's band The Del-Tones) became a house band at Balboa's Rendezvous Ballroom after Dale's departure in late 1961. The Surftones performed in California and Arizona throughout 1962 and into 1963. They recorded three singles, a number of tracks that appeared on various compilation albums, and their own album for Del-Fi Records. "Moment Of Truth" was their first single, recorded in early 1963 and produced by Bob Hafner, Tony Hilder's production assistant. The Surftones recorded many other tunes for Hilder, some of which were used on their album. 

The Sunsets were one of several studio groups brought together by the talented and prolific songwriter, arranger, and record producer Gary Usher. These groups included The Super Stocks on Capitol, The Hondells on Mercury, and The Four Speeds on Challenge Records. It was usually the same nucleus of vocalists and musicians - Usher, Richard Burns, Chuck Girard, Joe Kelly, Richard Podolor (aka Allen, represented earlier in this collection by "The Rising Surf"), Dennis McCarthy and Wayne Edwards - and various additional personnel. The artists who recorded "My Little Surfin' Woodie" - Usher, Burns, McCarthy, and Edwards - were the same ones who created most of The Hondells' recordings. 
Usher is the lead singer on "My Little Surfin' Woodie," released in September 1963 at the peak of surf music's popularity. As a recording artist, songwriter, and producer, along with Brian Wilson and KFWB DJ Roger Christian. Usher's credits include such memorable recordings as "409," "In My Room," "Shut Down," "Little Deuce Coupe," "Don't Worry Baby," and "My Little Surfin' Woodie," among others. 

The Chevells named themselves after the Chevrolet Chevelle coupe, a favorite muscle car of the era. They came together in Orange County in 1961 and 1962, organized by lead guitarist John Thompson. In the summer of 1963 the band bought a couple of studio hours for $65 and had 1,000 copies of their record pressed. They took their records to a few local record stores, which quickly sold out, thanks to some radio airplay. A couple of subsequent repressings, made possible by a new distribution deal, reportedly sold in excess of 50,000 copies. If true, "Let There Be Surf" was one of the biggest-selling independently released surf instrumental recordings. 

"Surfin' Bird" is one of the silliest records ever made, but guaranteed to make you laugh and "stomp-a your feet." Released in December 1963, it climbed into the national Top 10 alongside records by The Kingsmen ("Louie Louie"), The Rip Chords ("Hey Little Cobra"), Leslie Gore ("You Don't Own Me"), and that new group from England, The Beatles ("I Want To Hold Your Hand"). Everyone recognized "Surfin' Bird" for what it was: a variation of The Rivingtons' 1962 doo-wop hit, "Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow." The Rivingtons sued, contesting authorship of the song, but settled out of court. 
The Trashmen were natives of Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota. Like The Astronauts, The Trashmen didn't begin as a surf band. Tony Andreason, the band's lead guitarist, explained in a 1992 interview for Kicks magazine, "We'd heard about Dick Dale. Steve, Dal, and I went on vacation to California in late '62 and stayed right on the beach in Balboa. The Chantays were playin', The Righteous Brothers were down there doin' fast R&B. Dick Dale was dynamic, really outstanding and better even than his records. People tell me that I'm quite a surf guitarist but Dick Dale can run miles around me! We learned all his stuff when we got back, and nobody in Minneapolis had ever heard anything like it. The other groups even started to copy us without even hearin' Dick Dale." The infectious "Surfin' Bird" was a popular number at personal appearances and became The Trashmen's first record. It was recorded at the Kay Bank Studios in Minneapolis, and became the #4 record in the country in February 1964. 
Drummer Rick Henn from Pacific Palisades put together a band called The Renegades in 1962. They played for parties, dances, and teen clubs in the West Los Angeles area. In 1963, they met promoter Kim Fowley, who arranged their first single, and had it released on a small label. In late 1963, Fowley and others tried to create a spin-off of surf music connected with snow skiing. Unlike the successful hot rod spin-off, the skiing fad failed as did skateboarding and slot car racing spin-offs. Fowley produced three singles for the Challenge label that were only remotely connected with snow skiing. The first of these was "Ski Storm" by The Snow Men, a local trio (guitar, bass, and drums) from Palisades High School, and two members of The Renegades. "Ski Storm" may not have been a very successful release, but it brought together two groups of musicians who later formed The Sunrays and scored two national hits, "I Live For The Sun" (included in this collection) and "Andrea." 

In 1964, competition from The Beatles knocked surf music out of the water. The Beach Boys kept up, though, with Top 10 hits "Fun, Fun, Fun" and "I Get Around." To find surf bands that played with the same verve, spontaneity, and power as many of them had in 1963, you had to look harder in unexpected places. 

Minneapolis, Minnesota, had a sizeable population of teen rock bands in 1963 and 1964. Like The Trashmen, The Ready Men had also been bitten by the surf music bug. "Our biggest outside influence was probably The Astronauts from Colorado," said the Ready Men's lead guitarist, Kirk Ready. "We loved those guys! We were very much into that kinda guitar sound with a lotta reverb and all." The Ready Men specialized in Top 40 cover songs and surf instrumentals, and became popular at local fraternities and teen dances. The band went to the Kay Bank Studio and recorded four tracks, two vocals and two instrumentals - all pretty killer stuff. One of each was released on a local Twin Cities label: The Trashmen-inspired vocal rave-up, "Shortnin' Bread," and a nice moody track called "Surfer Blues." Another track, "Disintegration," unreleased until 1995, stands up nicely against any surf instrumental. 

In 1955, Annette Funicello successfully auditioned for The Mickey Mouse Club TV show. She continued as one of the show's most popular personalities until it left the air in 1958. A successful recording and acting career followed, with her first movie role was in the 1963 film Beach Party. Released five years after Gidget, Beach Party was the first of many films over the next four years that were concerned with the beach and the surfing culture. It was the first major studio film to unite surf music with the pop-culture image of the surfing lifestyle. According to author Stephen McParland, "The subsequent success of Beach Party (and its numerous sequels) was simply due to the fact that American International Pictures had the perfect idea and coupled it with the talent needed to bring the idea to fruition. The theme of teenage freedom (there were no parental interruptions of the kind that plagued teenage fun in the Gidget productions), embodied with music which itself conjured similar images and emotions, created a particular type of image, perhaps more fanciful than factual, but then that's Hollywood!" 
The film featured three songs written by Gary Usher and Roger Christian. Beach Party also had appearances by Frankie Avalon and Dick Dale & The Del-Tones, and surfing personalities Mickey Dora and Johnny Fain. Annette sang the film's title track, "Beach Party," which was rerecorded for her Buena Vista album Annette's Beach Party. Funicello and Avalon costarred in several other films, including Annette's last two films, Fireball 500 and Thunder Alley. 

In 1962, The Twangs were a local teen band from San Clemente, California. By 1962, they were well-versed in rock 'n' roll instrumentals Г la Duane Eddy and The Ventures. The European heritage of the band's Walter and Gaston Georis, who arrived in Southern California from Belgium in the mid-'50s, showed in their use of the clavietta. Gaston described the instrument in the liner notes of the band's first album as "...a combination of the piano, harmonica, and accordion" with Italian origins. As the popularity of surf music grew in 1963, The Twangs became the Sandells: "sand" for the surfing culture, and "ells" to follow the fashion of many group names. The band was heard by the president of World Pacific Records, Richard Bock, who thought they would be perfect for a motorcycle concept album he wanted to do. The idea of guitar instrumentals with motorcycle themes was innovative in late 1963, a full year before the genre would have cultural meaning thanks to The Hondells' "Little Honda." 

Surfing documentary filmmaker Bruce Brown became familiar with The Sandells' music through Hobie Alter, for whom band member Danny Brawner worked. Brown chose one of the tracks The Sandells had recorded for his newest film's theme song and retitled it "Theme From Endless Summer." Before The Endless Summer was released, the band changed their name to The Sandals, after the footwear preferred by beachgoers. Realizing that the popular type of footwear used by beachgoers was the sandal, a small change was made to their name and they became The Sandals. 

Endless Summer remains one of the best documentaries ever made and the first surfing documentary to be released nationwide. The group disbanded in 1969, but reemerged in 1994 when Brown released the sequel, The Endless Summer II: The Journey Continues (see Set 4 of this collection for The Sandals' "Wingnut's Theme"). 

Peter Anders (real name: Peter Andreoli) and Vincent Poncia were singers from Providence, Rhode Island, who made several records with The Videls between 1958 and 1962. Phil Spector hired them to help create song arrangements and demos, including The Ronettes 1964 hit, "Do I Love You?" Their work with Spector led Red Bird Records to offer Anders and Poncia work as producers. "New York's A Lonely Town" was their first project for the label and was released under the group name The Trade Winds. A record inspired by the sound of The Beach Boys and by the studio wizardry of Phil Spector, "New York's A Lonely Town" entered the Top 40 in February 1965. Its attraction wasn't due to the surfing connection as much as it was the record's production, one of the most beautiful non-Beach Boys treatments of a surfing-themed song. 

The Challengers were put together in 1962 by drummer Richard Delvy, who had played with The Belairs (represented earlier in this collection by "Mr. Moto"). The Challengers were one of the earliest surf bands on the scene and the first to release an entire album of genre music appropriately titled Surf Beat. They became one of the most visible surf bands, thanks to Delvy's promotion. Their first album sold a remarkable 200,000 copies and they appeared regularly on local TV dance shows. One of the band's best-remembered recordings, "K-39," features session drummer Hal Blaine (a veteran of many recordings with The Beach Boys and Jan & Dean). The cryptic title of the 1964 release referred to a popular surfing spot 39 kilometers south of the U.S.-Mexican border. 

The Fantastic Baggys was a creation of the highly talented Phil Sloan and Steve Barri, experienced songwriting partners who worked for Screen Gems. When "Tell 'Em I'm Surfin'" was recorded in 1964, Sloan was 18 and Barri was 21! Together, they wrote, produced, and arranged the record. Besides the lead vocals, they also overdubbed the backing vocals and guitar solos. They sang on dozens of songs by Jan & Dean, and wrote and produced songs by many other artists. 

When The Rondels' single "On The Run" was released in February 1964, The Beatles' "I Want To Hold Your Hand" was the #1 record in the country. Most Top 40 radio stations set aside new surf records in favor of recordings by British artists. Except for a handful of surf and hot rod records on the national charts that stations felt obligated to have in rotation (e.g., The Trashmen's "Surfin' Bird," The Rip Chords' "Hey Little Cobra," Jan & Dean's "Drag City," and maybe The Pyramids' "Penetration"), most others were ignored while records by The Beatles, Dave Clark Five, Dusty Springfield, or The Searchers were given "pick hit" treatment. It was getting a bit late for elemental reverbed guitar records to stir any interest. Despite being released and distributed nationally by Dot Records, virtually nothing is known about The Rondels' bouncy surf instrumental. There's surely an interesting story behind this record, but its telling will have to come some other time. 

The Ventures are the best-selling and most enduring rock instrumental band in pop music history. "Walk-Don't Run," their biggest hit record to date, reached #2 on the Billboard Top 100 chart in 1960. Formed in Tacoma, Washington, in 1959, the band continues to perform and record today. They have been hugely popular in Japan, where they have won numerous music awards and gold records. By 1970, they had recorded 38 albums! Of all the instrumental bands that preceded and influenced surf music, The Ventures were arguably the most important and inspirational. "Walk-Don't Run" was written and recorded by jazz guitarist Johnny Smith. Chet Atkins had adapted the tune to his country style in 1958. The Ventures worked up their landmark rock 'n' roll arrangement of the piece by listening to Atkins' version. 
One of the band's attempts to capitalize on surf music was "Walk-Don't Run '64," a new version of the 1960 hit. In an April 1990 interview for DISCoveries magazine, drummer Mel Taylor recalled why they rerecorded their own major hit: "The main reason was we were searching for a single release. We wanted something to reach the people so we did a surf-sounding version of 'Walk-Don't Run.'" The record featured a distinctive reverb effect on the lead guitar that sounded cleaner and sharper, with more echo than other surf instrumentals. In the same DISCoveries interview, guitarist Don Wilson tried to explain the unique reverb effect on his rhythm guitar part, but admitted he didn't recall whether it was due to the guitar amp, the studio controls, or his playing technique. Recorded in July 1964 with Leon Russell sitting in on organ, "Walk-Don't Run '64" debuted on the national charts at #86 and climbed to #8. It was the band's third million-selling record. 

The Sunrays started in 1960 as a Pacific Palisades band called The Renegades. The group made two records prior to September 1964, one of which was under the name The Rangers. Eddie Medora and Marty DiGiovanni joined the three members of another Pacific Palisades band, The Showmen, and recorded "Ski Storm" (included earlier in this collection) as The Snow Men. 

In 1964, The Renegades auditioned for Murry Wilson, former manager of The Beach Boys. Wilson took a liking to the band and began to work with them. Their audition was at the Wilson home in Hawthorne. Before releasing their first record, the band changed their name to The Sunrays. In a 1988 interview for California Music magazine, Rick Henn recalled, "The vice-president of Tower Records was named Eddie Raye. He was a cool black dude, a very mellow guy and I think he was the one who came up with the name Sunrays because it was beach - and summer - oriented. I never did like it because our single was 'I Live For The Sun'...but they liked it on a marketing level. On a career level for a group it stunk! It was like those studio bands from the late '50s...'Pick Up' by The Pick Ups on Pick Up Records or 'Corvette' by The Corvettes on Corvette Records. It smacked of being a studio band and that was one thing we weren't!" The band's first record contained two songs written by Murry Wilson. The record failed nationally, but became a modest hit in parts of the Midwest and South. Wilson let the band determine the next single. "I Live For The Sun," written by Rick Henn, reached #51 on the Billboard charts in 1965. 

Besides Los Angeles, the West Coast had another hub of recording activity in the 1960s - San Francisco. The Bay Area would receive a lot of attention in the late '60s, but in the early part of the decade, Southern California had most of the action. The exceptions were groups like The Astronauts and The Trashmen who weren't locals but played with enough energy and the right amount of reverb to make them "honorary locals." The Bay Area had a contribution, too, in the form of two excellent singles by a Berkeley band called The Fender IV. The A-side of their second single was "Malibu Run," released in February 1965. The band's lead guitarist, Randy Holden, later founded The Other Half, a hard-rock outfit that recorded several singles and one album in 1967 and 1968 before disbanding. Holden then played lead guitar for Blue Cheer, an early acid-rock band from San Francisco. 

Bobby Fuller arrived in El Paso, Texas, with his family in 1956 when he was about 14. He developed an intense interest in music at an early age and learned how to play drums. His first serious musical involvement was with a rock 'n' roll band called The Embers. In 1960 and 1961, Fuller became more interested in the guitar and eventually switched entirely to that instrument. On a visit to Southern California in the summer of 1963, he heard live surf music for the first time. He came looking for a recording contract, but found Dick Dale & The Del-Tones and a very active accumulation of guitar-dominated teen bands. The sound of surf music inspired three surf-related records by Fuller in 1964. After the entire band relocated to Los Angeles in 1964, they landed a recording contract, had two national hits with "Love's Made A Fool Of You" and "I Fought The Law," played on a few singles by other artists such as Johnny Crawford (of the TV series The Rifleman), and started a lengthy residency as the house band at P.J.'s, a popular Santa Monica Boulevard nightclub. 
By the end of 1965, a decision was made to record a live album and it was natural to pick P.J.'s as the location for the project. More than an album's-worth of material was recorded at P.J.'s in November and December that year. The planned album, though, never materialized for reasons that are still unclear. In recent years, however, some of these recordings have appeared on various records. While the tapes contain primarily vocal selections, the inclusion of a handful of surf instrumentals validates Fuller's fascination with the style that began with his 1963 "field trip" to Southern California. Live rock 'n' roll recordings from 1965 are uncommon; live surf music from the time period is even more so. 
"Miserlou" is taken from the live P.J.'s recordings and showcases both Fuller's and Jim Reese's excellent command of the surf guitar style (a bit ironic considering Reese's alleged disdain for surf music as uncreative and silly). Reese and Fuller traded lead and rhythm parts on nearly every song the band performed and recorded, especially the instrumentals. In the liner notes to a 1983 collection of rare Bobby Fuller recordings, writer Greg Shaw observed, "On the live tapes, one is struck not only by the quality of material, but equally by the power of the band. Bobby and Jim Reese played dual-lead guitar with passion and conviction, backed by a rock-solid rhythm. On a number where they traded off solos, like 'Miserlou'...the intensity is worthy of The Yardbirds or any of the other noted "guitar bands" of the '60s, but with a distinctly American sound, heavy on reverb, raunchy and wild." 
The band's treatment of "Miserlou" was a nice tribute to surf guitar king Dick Dale. It was an extended arrangement, probably close to the way Dale performed it live, and incorporated a few bars of "Hava Nagila," another ethnic tune that Dale had popularized. At the time "Misirlou" was recorded, the Bobby Fuller Four was only a few weeks away from the appearance of "I Fought The Law" on the national pop charts. 

The Sea Shells' "Hit The Surf" is a mystery. Nothing substantial is known about the group except that their ode to surfing came along in 1967. By that time FM radio was gaining a substantial alternative rock audience (you'd only hear the long version of The Doors' "Light My Fire" on an FM station). Apparently, the song was used as the theme for an unsuccessful ABC-TV series pilot about a surfer-type college guy. The fad, or craze, that was surf music had run its course, but by no means had disappeared. Most surf bands wiped out amid the throes of dramatic musical changes. Those that survived more than a few years did so by changing with the music and not looking back. 

next >>> part 4:New Waves (1977-1995)