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Surfin' (song)

"Surfin'"
Beach boys X label 301.jpg
Single by The Beach Boys
from the album Surfin' Safari
B-side "Luau"
Released November 1961
Format 7" vinyl
Recorded October 3, 1961 at World Pacific Studio
Genre California Sound
Length 2:10
Label Candix
Writer(s) Brian Wilson, Mike Love
Producer(s) Hite Morgan
The Beach Boys singles chronology
"Surfin'"
(1961)
"Surfin' Safari"
(1962)

"Surfin'" is a song by American rock band The Beach Boys, written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love. It was released as the first Beach Boys single (with "Luau" on the B-side) 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 guys ought to write a song about it."

The song features Mike Love on lead vocals with Carl Wilson on backing vocals and 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.

Brian Wilson remembers that "I began noodling around the piano singing 'surfin', surfin', surfin''. It sounded stupid. But then Mike [Love] 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''." Brian also incorporated a riff from "Underwater", a nationally charting single by The Frogmen (also on Candix).


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