"Little Deuce Coupe" | ||||||||||||
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Single by The Beach Boys | ||||||||||||
from the album Surfer Girl | ||||||||||||
A-side | "Surfer Girl" | |||||||||||
Released | July 22, 1963 | |||||||||||
Format | Vinyl | |||||||||||
Recorded | June 12, 1963 | |||||||||||
Genre | Hot rod rock, car song | |||||||||||
Length | 1:38 | |||||||||||
Label | Capitol | |||||||||||
Writer(s) | Brian Wilson, Roger Christian | |||||||||||
Producer(s) | Brian Wilson | |||||||||||
The Beach Boys singles chronology | ||||||||||||
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20 tracks |
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"Little Deuce Coupe" is a song written by Brian Wilson and Roger Christian. The song first appeared as the b-side to The Beach Boys' 1963 single "Surfer Girl". The car referred to is 1932 Ford Model 18. "Little Deuce Coupe" became The Beach Boys' highest charting b-side, peaking on September 28, 1963 at No. 15 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The music was written by Brian Wilson with the lyric by local radio station DJ Roger Christian. Its main melody is a twelve-bar blues. The song typified the Beach Boys' car songs which along with surfing, glamorized the teenage 1960s Californian lifestyle later called the California Myth. It was released on the Surfer Girl album and then again as the title track of the album Little Deuce Coupe. A Christmas-themed spin-off, "Little Saint Nick", was released by the group as a single later in the year.
The car referred to is the Ford Model 18; the 1932 coupe model was referred to as a "deuce coupe".
Brian Wilson commented on the song in the liner notes of the 1990 CD re-release of the original Surfer Girl album: "We loved doing 'Little Deuce Coupe'. It was a good 'shuffle' rhythm, which was not like most of the rhythms of the records on the radio in those days. It had a bouncy feel to it. Like most of our records, it had a competitive lyric. This record was my favorite Beach Boys car song." According to author Jon Stebbins in his book The Lost Beach Boy, while the group was on tour in July 1963 Mike Love hit on the idea to use short instrumental segments of the song in the Beach Boys' live set as a way to introduce the bandmembers to the audience, starting with Dennis Wilson on drums, then adding David Marks (and later Al Jardine) on rhythm guitar, Carl Wilson on lead guitar, and finally Brian on the bass, before launching the song from the top.