They were acclaimed as pioneers of the surf sound alongside Dick Dale, Link Wray and The Ventures, but The Fireballs (from Raton, New Mexico) -…
Browsing: Surf music
The 1964 single Little Honda was written by Mike Love and Brian Wilson who decided not to release a version they had recorded with The Beach…
This surf group from Glendora, California are remembered for Wipe Out – the #2 hit from 1963 that ranks as one of the great rock instrumentals, featuring…
Californian surf band The Sunrays began life as The Renegades – and had also recorded as The Snowmen and The Rangers – before being picked…
This Nashville-based combo was led by John ‘Bucky’ Wilkin, son of country songwriter Marijohn Wilkin (Cut Across Shorty, The Long Black Veil). The group’s first album, GTO (1964), featured…
Phil Stewart and Ernie Bringas met while they were students at Inglewood High School in Los Angeles and struck up a friendship based on their…
Bonafide Long Beach surfers and Poly High students, The Pyramids, formed in 1961 The band scored a hit in 1964 with the single Penetration which…
Growing up in Los Angeles’ wealthy Bel-Air neighbourhood, Jan Berry was an overachiever who at the age of 17 scored a Top 10 hit, Jennie…
Richard Anthony Monsour – known professionally as Dick Dale – was the first real surfer to actually make surf music, attempting to recreate the experience…
The Chantays – from Orange County, California – were launched upon the world by Dot Records after label boss Randy Wood heard their debut single…
The Tornadoes (not to be confused with the British beat group The Tornados of Telstar fame) were one of California’s earliest exponents of the surf instrumental sound that swept the USA…
This Minneapolis rock & roll band evolved from a group called Jim Thaxter & The Travelers, recording one single under that name (Sally Jo b/w Cyclone). Unfairly…
In terms of commercial impact, Surf Music was a short-lived phenomenon. The vast majority of popular surf recordings were waxed between 1961 and 1965; even…
The Marketts’ Surfer’s Stomp (1962) – produced by Joe Saraceno (who would later work with The Ventures) – was one of the first surf music instrumentals…
Original lead guitarist Bob Bogle, alongside fellow masonry worker Don Wilson, founded The Ventures in Washington State in 1958, performing at local clubs and bars…
The Astronauts formed in 1961 in Boulder, Colorado, taking their name as a tribute to local hero, astronaut Scott Carpenter. After gaining a strong local…
Rock Historian Glenn A Baker has called The Atlantics “one of the most extraordinarily talented rock groups Australia has ever produced”. The band’s sound encompassed…
The rise of Surf Music in the early 60s, coupled with the general surfing craze that was sweeping the USA, inevitably began to spawn movies,…
Spent the last 55 years with a lost tribe in the Amazon? In that case, here’s a band you should know about… Brothers Brian, Carl…
26 March 2004 If Brian Wilson was the king of the California dream regime, Jan & Dean were the crown princes – and the jesters. Composer/producer/lead singer Jan Berry…
