The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys Rise
On October 1st, 1962 the Beach Boys released the album “Surfin’ Safari” which reached #32 on a 37 week run on the American Billboard charts. The Beach Boys were on the rise in early 1963, thanks to a good review in Billboard magazine in late 1962. However, many of the local surfers dismissed the Beach Boys’ first album as not being in line with the surf rock sound, so Brian Wilson and the band made an effort to change their sound to be more consistent with the genre.
Surfin U.S.A.
The Single
“Surfin U.S.A.” was released as a single on March 4th, 1963 backed with the hot rod song ‘Shut Down‘. It featured lyrics by Brian Wilson set to the music of Chuck Berry’s “Sweet Little Sixteen”, with Mike Love on lead vocals. The song “Surfin U.S.A.” made it to #2 on the American Billboard charts as did the b-side “Shut Down” at #23, it was debuted on the Steve Allen show on television, lip-synched by the group. It became one of the most well-known songs by the Beach Boys.
Following the leads of all the surfer bands popping up in southwestern California, Brian Wilson wrote about all the great surfing spots that the surfers frequented after compiling a list from his then girlfriend’s brother Jimmy Bowles. Most of the spots mentioned were in California (Del Mar, Ventura County, Santa Cruz, Manhattan Beach, Haggerty’s, Swami, Sunset Beach to name a few) although Hawaii (Waimea Bay) and Australia (Australia’s Narrabeen) had also been mentioned.
Now, the Beach Boys gained “surf cred” and became accepted and lauded as the most popular surf music band by surfers and the general public in 1963 with only Dick Dale or the Surfaris as surf competition. The song borrows a technique used by Bobby Rydell’s 1959 hit ‘Kissing Time’ which lists several cities across America.
When the single was first released, the credits listed Brian Wilson as a sole composer but the song was published by Chuck Berry’s publisher Arc Music. This caused a bit of controversy as did with many other artists who borrowed music or a lyric line (John Lennon for one), so starting in 1966 the credits listed either Chuck Berry as a composer or both Chuck Berry and Brian Wilson. The copyright to the music and the lyrics continued to go to Arc Music, to avoid any additional legal wrangling.
The Album
On March 25, 1963, The Beach Boys released their second album “Surfin U.S.A.” three months after releasing their debut “Surfin Safari”. The album went gold and shot up to the #2 spot on the American charts. “Surfin U.S.A.” lasted 78 weeks on the US charts and also went to #17 in the UK charts. This album and single established the Beach Boys as an American phenomenon with their own unique sound.
The vocals were double-tracked giving a fuller, richer sound. Even though the credits list Nick Venet as the producer, it is generally known that the true production of the album was directed by Brian Wilson with his keen ear to the sound of the music and the close vocal harmonies.
Five of the twelve tracks are instrumentals, living up to the surf rock genre. The rest were surf pop songs with a hot rod song making the Beach Boys true to all sides of surf music. They pay homage to Dick Dale & the Del-Tones with “Let’s Go Trippin” and “Misirlou”. Also on the album are two instrumental originals songs, one by Brian’s Wilson with “Stoked” and one by Carl Wilson “Surf Jam”.
Other notable songs were the falsetto Brian Wilson, “Farmer’s Daughter” later covered by Fleetwood Mac; “Lonely Sea” a soft sad ballad included on their first demo, “Lana” and “Finders Keepers” reminiscent of the Four Seasons.