Listen No. 9 - Surfin’ U.S.A by The Beach Boys

Genre:  Surf rock

Context:  Released in 1963, hot on the heels (wheels, really) of Surfin’ Safari, this record established the band. But Surfin’ USA is a reworking of Chuck Berry’s Sweet Little Sixteen. I’m pleased to say that royalties from Surfin’ USA passed pretty quickly to Chuck Berry once legal action was threatened. Read more here.

Notable facts:  The man on the beautifully blue cover (which, to my mind, is only missing a shark) is pro-surfer Les Williams at Sunset Beach.

My favourite track:  Farmer’s Daughter (later covered by Fleetwood Mac and Yo La Tengo).

What critics made of it: Regarded affectionately, I think, given better things were to come from this band. In a look back, Ben Ratcliff has written ‘...the Beach Boys weren’t necessarily pioneers of anything. As far as surf music was concerned, Dick Dale had released ‘’Let’s Go Trippin’ ‘’ about six months before “”Surfin’ Safari.’’ That was a regional hit, but ‘’Surfin’ Safari’’ broke nationally. Eventually the group’s songwriting brain, Brian Wilson, found a way to merge the sounds he learned from the Everly Brothers, Chuck Berry and the Four Freshman into a fanciful, interior, harmony-obsessed sound world, in projects like ‘’Pet Sounds’’ and “Smile.” Read more here.

Listening to this inspired me to: find out about Dick Dale and the Four Freshman, and buy Pet Sounds.