Surfin' USA (song)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).
"Surfin' U.S.A."
"Surfin' U.S.A." cover
Single by The Beach Boys
from the album Surfin' USA
Released March 4, 1963
Format Vinyl
Recorded Unknown
Genre Rock
Length 4 min 57 sec for both songs
Label Capitol Records
Producer(s) Nick Venet
Chart positions

• #3 (US) • #34 (UK)
The Beach Boys singles chronology
"Ten Little Indians"/"County Fair"
(1962)		 "Surfin' USA"/"Shut Down"
(1963)		 "Surfer Girl"/"Little Deuce Coupe"
(1963)

"Surfin' U.S.A." is the title of a song written by Brian Wilson for The Beach Boys, set to the melody from Chuck Berry's Sweet Little Sixteen. It was released as a single and it also appeared on the 1963 album of the same name. The B-side of the single is "Shut Down". The song features Mike Love on lead vocals.

It was revived in the 1970s by teen idol Leif Garrett, who also had a top 20 hit with it.

Contents

[edit] Influences for the song

According to Brian Wilson, the song was influenced by various artists such as Chubby Checker and Chuck Berry as well as his girlfriend Judy's little brother Jimmy Bowles. Jimmy Bowles was the boy who came up with the list of surf spots which were included in the song.[1]

[edit] Surfing spots

At the time that the song was written, Brian Wilson was dating a girl named Judy Bowles. Her brother, Jimmy Bowles, was an avid surfer. Brian thought to himself "what about doing surf lyrics and mentioning every surf spot in the state? They're doing it here, there, in this city and that, like Chubby Checker's 'Twistin' U.S.A.'."[1] According to Brian, "I asked [Jimmy] to make a list of every surf spot he knew, and by God he didn't leave one out."[1]

In the song the following surfing spots are mentioned, the majority of places being situated in California:

[edit] Chuck Berry copyright disputes

When the song was released in 1963, the original pressing listed Brian Wilson as the sole composer of the song. But according to Brian, as soon as the song became a hit single, "Chuck Berry claimed the melody was his, an inadvertent copy of 'Sweet Little Sixteen'."[1] According to Brian though, there are "plenty of musicologists who'd argue otherwise."[1] Then after Chuck Berry accused Brian Wilson of stealing his melody, Murry Wilson "gave Berry the copyright"[1] without ever informing his son Brian. But what Brian Wilson didn't realise for more than twenty-five years was that Murry also "gave away [Brian's] royalties for writing the lyrics, which clearly weren't Berry's" [1] [although Brian Wilson's lyrics list several geographical locations in a very similar fashion to Chuck Berry's original lyrics]. Despite there being tensions over the incident at the time, Chuck Berry later claimed that he actually liked the song. According to Carl Wilson, the band "ran into Chuck Berry in Copenhagen and he told us he loves 'Surfin' USA'."[2]

[edit] Details

[edit] Covers

  • Power metal band Blind Guardian covered this song on their 1996 album, The Forgotten Tales.
  • The Jesus and Mary Chain covered Surfin' USA, which appears on the Album Barbed wire kisses, a compilation of B-sides and extras. In Jesus and mary chain early style the song feature large amounts of feedback.
  • Noise Punk band Melt Banana Covered Surfin' USA on their Album 13,000 Miles At Light Velocity
  • Preteen pop singer Aaron Carter performed a cover of Surfin' USA. It was released as a single in 1998, and also appeared the 1998 re-release of his of his self titled debut album.

[edit] See also

[edit] Sources

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wouldn't It Be Nice: My Own Story by Brian Wilson and Todd Gold. Published by Harpercollins, 1991. ISBN 0-06-018313-6
  2. ^ Good Timin': Live at Knebworth England 1980 DVD, 2002.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../s/u/r/Surfin%27_USA_%28song%29_5480.html"