"Surfin'" is a song by American rock bandthe Beach Boys, written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love. It was released as the first Beach Boys single in November 1961 on Candix Records and it later appeared on the 1962 album Surfin' Safari. The single effectively began the Beach Boys' music career, establishing them at the vanguard of what would later be regarded the "California Sound". Initially, the group were trying to think of something original and creative that they could write a song about. Brian Wilson remembers that "One day, my brother Dennis came home from the beach and said, 'Hey, surfing's getting really big. You guysought to write a song about it." The song features Mike Love on lead vocals with Carl Wilson on backing vocals and acoustic guitar, Al Jardine on backing vocals and stand-up bass, Brian Wilson on backing vocals and snare drum and Dennis Wilson on backing vocals. The single peaked at number 75 in the US; it was never released in the UK. The Beach Boys later re-recorded the song for their 1992 album Summer in Paradise.
Origins
Brian Wilson remembers that "I began noodling around the piano singing 'surfin', surfin', surfin'. It sounded stupid. But then Mike sang 'ba-ba-dippity-dippity-ba-ba.' He was fooling around, trying to spark a new idea with the same bass sounds he'd sung countless times before. For some reason, though, this time when he sang I pounded out a few chords to accompany him and then he took up the chant I'd been singing, 'surfin', surfin'." Brian continues that "twenty seconds later, I had the opening for the song that would become the Beach Boys' first hit single. A couple of hours later, I finished the song and called it 'Surfin'." The "ba-ba-dippity-dippity-ba-ba" were influenced by the early Jan and Dean records. Brian also incorporated a riff from "Underwater", a nationally charting single by The Frogmen. Audree Wilson, the Wilson brothers' mother, remembers that they "had guests from England. We took them to Mexico City for a three-day trip, and left the refrigerator stocked. We left them adequate money if they chose to eat out." Carl Wilson continues that "the day after they left, we all went down to a music store and got instruments with our food money...I was gonna play guitar, Alan could play stand up bass, Brian could play keyboards already...Dennis just chose the drums. And then Brian said, 'I'm gonna play bass and you play guitar and then it'll be a rock sound, be rock and roll'. Michael didn't play anything but he got a saxophone, he thought he'd play sax, but Mike never practiced. The group really learned how to play after we made records." Audree Wilson continues that she and her husband, Murry Wilson, "barely got in the door, and they said, 'We've got something to play for you.' Well, we saw all this stuff...and they had an act...and that's when Surfin' was born, that's when they sang it and put it together...It was a lot of fun, but they were serious about it. They were having fun, but yet they wanted to do something with it. They were just very excited."
Recording
According to Brian Wilson, the five members of the Beach Boys, then known as the Pendletones, first brought up the song in a studio setting at the Morgans' office at Melrose Avenue. After singing a cover of "Sloop John B", producer Hite Morgan told the group to record an original song. Dennis Wilson then mentioned "Surfin'". Hite Morgan asked them to play the song then, but the band responded that it was not yet finished. The Pendletones, excluding Dennis Wilson, later returned to the studio to record a separate demo. While there, the four present members played the demo of "Surfin'" to Dorinda and Hite Morgan. As Audree Wilson recalls, "He wasn't so much in favour of it, but she heard something she thought would click." The song then took as many as twelve takes before the band could agree on a final version, partly due to Brian Wilson's insistence on a perfect song. Wilson's father, who was present during the recording, took over as producer after his criticisms of the band's methods.
Release
Brian recalls that "Hite announced that he was going to turn our demo into a record, press up a small quantity, and see how it did on local radio." When the group unpacked the first box of singles from Candix, they found that their band name had been changed from "The Pendletones" to "The Beach Boys". Label promotion man Russ Regan explained to Murry Wilson that he had taken the liberty of giving the group a new name to associate them more directly with the popular surf-music genre. By the final weeks of 1961 "Surfin'" had sold more than 40,000 copies.
The first recorded demo version of the song is available on CD on the 2001 Hawthorne, CA two-CD set, featuring a portion of "Surfin'" recorded on Brian's home Wollensak tape recorder "sometime in early September 1961, between the Labor Day weekend get-together and the group's first recording session with the Morgans on September 15th" according to Peter Ames Carlin's 2006 book Catch a Wave. A later rehearsal is on the Good Vibrations box set. A later demo version of "Surfin'" was recorded at the aforementioned session at Hite and Dorinda Morgan's home studio September 15; this version is available on the Lost & Found CD released in 1991. This archival CD also features an alternate take of "Surfin'" recorded the same day as the eventual master take released on three different labels The master take was subsequently sped up for release in the 60's, but is restored to the original speed on Lost and Found as well as the 1993 Good Vibrations box set. A newly recorded version of "Surfin'" was included on the Beach Boys' 1992 album Summer in Paradise. The lineup at the time consisted of Mike Love, Al Jardine, Carl Wilson and Bruce Johnston.
