TOP 40 SURF MUSIC INSTRUMENTAL
This is a top 40 surf instro song list compiled under a subjective point of view. Just songs from 1961 to 1966.
If you want to know more about the genre, just check the book “Summer Fun” in this site, but sorry it’s written in spanish language only.
Sorry for my poor english.
1.- DICK DALE & HIS DELTONES – Misirlou: The manual of a perfect surf instro.
The song every surf band covered. The arrangement everybody know was released as a single in the spring of 1962 and was the first time the reverb unit was used in a surf tune. A shame the piano work in the single version wasn’t an inspiration for the surf bands of the era. Also in 1962, they released the Lp "Surfer's Choice" recorded (as they say) live at the Rendez-vous Ballroom in Newport Beach. “Misirlou” appears in the Lp retitled “Miserlou Twist” with a different arrangement and with a few “Malagueña” stints.
2.- STARFIRES – Hand Full Of Blood: Why in second place? The atmosferic cymbal, the hypnotic tom tom rhythm, the reverbered riff, the surfer’s glissandos…
Ideal tune to get burnt laying in the sun at San Onofre, one hot day of july 1963, in fact, the single was released that same month and year.
3.- LIVELY ONES – Night & Day: Good way to show that almost everything can be surferized, in this case thanks to the guitarist Jim Masoner.
Good ol’ Cole Porter was filtered trhough Fender valve amplifictation by the Lively Ones. Pictoric arrangement that evokes sunsets, golden sands and crystal like water walls. Released at the end of the band’s career in early 1964.
Jim Masoner, you’re the one!!!
4.- EDDIE & THE SHOWMEN – Scratch: Frantic chords and ultra fast fret work.
Eddie was the uncrowned king of the surf guitar, so Dick Dale had the throne.
A summer of 1963 surf classic. Covered by the Lively Ones but with less energy.
5.- BEACH BOYS – Moon Dawg: This proto surf instro was covered in the first Lp by the BB. Nik Venet was involved in the production of the first BB’s Capitol work, and also with the production of the original version of “Moon Dawg” by the Gamblers in 1959/1960.
Actually the BB were looking for some filler for their Lp so Venet suggested this song. I believed for many years that the lead guitarist was Carl Wilson, but Domenic Priore –one of the greatest surf music historians- says the guitar licks belong to original gambler Derry Weaver.
6.- SURFMEN – Paradise Cove: Listening to surf beauties like this you can realize how aseptic is 95% of the surf instro recorded today. First surf instro ballad. Released by this pioneer band in january of 1962. After Ray Hunt left the band, Jim Masoner took his place and the band became the Lively Ones.
In Paradise Cove were filmed lots of sequences for beach party movies, as long as the cover photo of the “Surfin’ Safari” album by the Beach Boys.
7.- DICK DALE & HIS DELTONES – The Victor: One of the greatest examples of exotic sounding surf tunes courtesy by the king himself, Dick Dale.
An arrangement with a Lawrence of Arabia taste supported by the best L.A. studio musicians of the era.
8.- NOBLES – Earthquake: Hypnotic bass line, lobotomic percusión, space age sounf effects… Seems like a 60s soundtrack for the 1947 Roswell incident.
Another time the simplicity shines in a surf instro song. Clearly influenced by Dick Dale.
9.- FENDER IV – Margaya: Another tune out of its time. Too rough and too loud for 1964. It would fit well in the 1977 as a punk instro.
The thundering drums and the insistent stacatto pickin’ just don’t fit in 1964, but they did it with a Fender Jaguar and Fender amplification in Santa Ana, California.
10.- NEW DIMENSIONS – Cat On A Hot Foam Board: This piece became an underground surf instro classic. A kind of a bastard son of “Misirlou”. Even the bass is played with the double stacatto pickin’ technique. The drums are drowned by the omnipresent overtones of the lead guitar. The song title it was took from Bud Browne’s 1959 surf film starring Phil Edwards.
11.- SENTINALS – Latinia: The sub genre of the latin surf is a must in a list like this. A little bit of Santo & Johnny, a little bit of pseudo flamenco, a little bit of Revels style and we got it. The most famous chicano surf song.
12.- ASTRONAUTS – Baja: Lee Hazleewood, before being the musical partner of Nancy Sinatra, composed some minimalist surf instro hymns following the Duane Eddy style. The Boulder boys followed the rule: less is more. Hypnotic and atmosferic. Recorded at the awesome RCA studios.
13.- TRASHMEN – Bad News: The Minneapolis trashmen give the Revels “Church Key” a new twist. Tony Andreason shines with this and the no-brains attitude of Steve Wahrer at the drums and screams makes the rest.
14.- EDDIE & THE SHOWMEN – Squad Car: Surfsonic dramatism in Orange County style. References to the cops a couple of years before the term “pig” became hip to referring to them.
Paul Johnson, founder of the Belairs along with Ed Bertrand, composed this piece.
Ed took the song for his band and was released by Liberty in july 1963.
15.- TORNADOES – The Gremmie (part II): Instead of using a reverb unit, at the beginning, this band used the Echoplex effect. This is a must for every surf record hop. Ok gremmie, take it! TWANG, TWANG TWANG, TWANG!!!
16.- SUPER STOCKS – Midnight Run: California-latin surf instro with some stints of the “Pipeline” school. Although this is a studio band, this Gary Usher production stands quite well as a classic surf instro.
17.- SURFARIS – Dune Buggy: Insistent rhythm guitar drenched with reverb and sax breaks. The boys from Glendora did it again: a simple instro but effective at the same time. Released as single by Decca in july 1964.
18.- DICK DALE & HIS DELTONES – Surfin’ Drums: Yeah, sure… actually this is like Bo Diddley went surfin’!!! Mr. Richard Monsour gives us his array of surf guitar tricks backed with the Bo Diddley beat. It seems Dick is the one who plays drums at the end of the track. A shame Bo didn’t get any writing credits.
19.- CHALLENGERS – K-39: If Dick Dale was the king of the surf guitar, then the king of the surf drums would be Hal Blaine (Adrian Lloyd of the early Rumblers and Ron Wilson of the Surfaris deserve it too).
The Hal’s drum work is great, the guitar work is great, the amplified piano is great and the sax is… well… great
20.- DAVE MYERS & THE SURFTONES – Aquavelva: Inspired by the theme of a Tv commercial. One of the most climatic surf instro pieces of all time. Jazzy drums, bongos, piano, a bottleneck played guitar with echo… This is California nautic pop culture transferred to magnetic tape.
21.- ROAD RUNNERS – Road Runnah: The track starts with a glissando as a starting signal for this reverbered race. A few months after this song was published, some clever record executive included the song as a filler for the only Lp by the Pyramids.
22.- BLAZERS – Bangalore: These teenagers almost got Dick out of his throne.
They say Dick got irritated when the Blazers and the Del-Tones shared bill and the kids from Fullerton did a better job than the king.
“Bangalore” is the typical surf instro with that exotic flavor from mid-eastern.
23.- AVENGERS VI – Peter Gunn: Many surf bands covered the Henry Mancini classic but none with the energy of this band.
Their only single and Lp were released in 1966, an out of date year for the surf instro genre.
24.- VISTAS – Ghost Wave: The surf instro would missed a great ingredient without an alectrified piano. The Chantays, the Original Surfaris, Bruce Johnston and the Vistas let us know the keyboards with a little bit of reverb can be real interesting for the surf instro aficionado.
25.- SURF TEENS – Kalani Wipe Out: Age average: 15 years old. Place: Southern California. Year: 1963. These are the basic ingredients for a good surf song. Add some Fender equipment and some light jazz feel.
26.- CHANTAYS – Pipeline: It would be a sin not to include this tune in this list.
Covered by hundreds of bands, you’ll never get tired of hear the original version.
The piano bridge is just magic. This band from Santa Ana just did it at their first try. At the beginning they would like to title the song “Magnum 44” (you get it Lalo Schifrin?), then was changed to “Liberty’s Whip” but finally, when the band saw a Bruce Brown surf film they changed their minds and retitled the song after the famous Oahu’s break. The re-recorded version of 1976 it’s fine too.
27.- DAVE MYERS & THE SURFTONES – Driftin’: If Aquaman would be a black guitarist from Chicago and played his guitar underwater in some place between Santa Monica and Santa Catalina Island, I’m sure it would sound like this.
Dave and his band hailed from Laguna Beach and their first name was… The Beach Boys, they changed it after hearing Dick Dale and the Del-Tones.
28.- IMPACTS – Blue Surf: Another bluesy surf instro, this time with a hawaiian style flavor. Great and melancholic sax break. This guys were from the central coast of California, from the town of Pismo Beach.
29.- ORIGINAL SURFARIS – Surfari: Sorry Dick, there were bands just as good as you. Keyboardist Al Valdez gave a chicano touch to the band with his screams.
Chuck Vehle was the lead guitar player, giving a good quality to all the records left by this band.
30.- DICK DALE & THE DELTONES – Hava Nagila: The king of the jews was Jesus of Nazaret, and the king of the klezmer surf was Dick Dale of Balboa.
The yiddish musical tradition was absorbed by the surf sound since Dick did this cover of the great hebrew classic. With tunes like this you can imagine the string thickness of Dick’s guitar.
31.- NEW DIMENSIONS – Psyche Out: The Beverly Hills kids strike again. This composition was covered by the Original Surfaris. The title was inspired by a Walt Phillips surf film.
32.- AL CASEY – Surfin’ Blues (part I & II): Surf jam session with the best studio musicians of its time. After working for Duane Eddy and other artists, Casey could shine with an entire Lp of instro surf called “Surfin’ Hootennany”.
33.- GENE GRAY & THE STINGRAYS – Surf Bunny: Low tech sound for this obscure surf band. With compositions like this you realize the great influence that George Tomsco and the Fireballs got in surfin’ genre.
34.- VENTURES – High Tide: Sorry for including a Ventures song in the 34 spot. From their Lp titled simply “Surfing” released in june 1963 is taken this piece of moody surf instro.
35.- CENTURIONS – Intoxica: The Revels classic but with a fast tempo, and lots of energy. The Centurions were the typical teenage band influenced by Dick Dale, with the common Orange County sound. Actually they came from Newport Beach, where the Rendezvous ballroom was located.
36.- BEACH BOYS – Karate’: Not so many Beach Boys fans know (or want to know) that the Hawthorne boys in their origins used to play an acceptable amount of instro tunes in their live gigs. Carl Wilson was friends with Paul Johnson, and in fact, the BB used to cover “Mr. Moto” in their 1962 concerts.
“Karate” was recorded in february 1962, but it wasn’t released until a decade after.
In some places this song was titled “Beach Boy Stomp”.
37.- RUMBLERS – Volcano: The creature of the surf lagoon need a soundtrack like this tune. Military drum pattern, tremolos bending and several kicks at the reverb box. Recorded at the Wenzel studios in Downey.
38.- DAVE & THE CUSTOMS – Ali Baba: Another obscure surf band. Another interpretation of the surf sound pattern left by Dick Dale. Another middle eastern melody. A side form the autopublished single from this Pomona band released between 1963 and 1964.
39.- DICK DALE & THE DELTONES – The Wedge: Before we get to the end of this list, I had to include “The Wedge” somewhere.
This is the version released by Capitol. Another version of the song was published on the Deltone label with the title “Run For Your Life”, but I stick with this.
The Ernesto Lecuona riff of “Malagueña” never sounded so good.
40.- GENE MOLES & THE SOFTWINDS – Burnin’ Rubber: Double stacatto pickin’ supported by an organ. Another obscure single. Moles released a couple of singles and then dissapeared.
Written by Didac Piquer Puigdemont.
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