Richard Delvy (April 20, 1942 – February 6, 2010) was an American drummer who played with The Bel-Airs and The Challengers. He also worked as a composer, music manager and producer. He owned the rights to several iconic surf and rock songs including "Wipe Out", "Mr. Moto" and "Chick-A-Boom (Don't Ya Jes' Love It)". He was known for being one of the first pioneers of surf music.
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In 1960, the first band he played drums in was called The Bel-Airs and in late 1962 he founded The Challengers. They produced a smash hit album titled "Surfbeat" that they released in January 1963. "Surfbeat" took the California sound and surf music to new levels of acceptance. His band released 15 Challengers albums throughout the sixties as well as others recorded under different names for the US and foreign markets. He also worked as a record producer through the rest of the 60's evolving with hot rod rock, folk rock, pop, rock and psychedelic rock music as they developed. In the early 1970s, Delvy toured as the music director for Tony Orlando and Dawn and with the teen sensation David Cassidy star of The Partridge Family TV show. Delvy was a multi-talented music entrepreneur and promoter who blurred the lines between the many different attributes needed between being a performer and managing the artist's output effectively.
Richard Delvy died on February 6, 2010 after suffering from a long illness.[1] Since the 1960s until his death, Delvy helped produce many known and unknown artists and was involved in all aspects of the music business. He devoted his life to the passion he had for recorded music and the scope of his work is a testament to this devotion.