Surf Music

St. James Encyclopedia of Pop Culture, Jan 29, 2002 by Charles J. Shindo

Instrumental surf music reached its widest audience with the Ventures' theme for the television series Hawaii Five-O. The group also had hits with "Walk, Don't Run" and "Perfida" (both 1960). The Surfaris (from inland Glendora, California) are best known for their 1962 song "Wipe Out," characterized by the hysterical laugh and high-pitched "wipe out" that opens the song. The Chantays reached number four on the sales charts with its classic "Pipeline," while Dick Dale and the Deltones continued their reign as the official cult band of the surf crowd with songs like "The Victor" (1964) and "Let's Go Trippin'" (1961). These instrumentals took elements of popular music and transformed them by emphasizing the bass line and using the guitar as a melodic instead of rhythmic instrument. A good example of this is found in The Ventures' "Walk, Don't Run." Written and originally recorded by jazz guitarist Johnny Smith, who was inspired by a "walk, don't run" sign in a New York subway, the song was recorded by country guitarist Chet Atkins in 1957 as a lilting ballad. By adding a driving beat and bass line, The Ventures created a version that recalled elements of Atkins' guitar work plus jazz elements such as "bending" notes and a blue tonality, all with a rock and roll beat. The song peaked at number two on the sales chart in 1960, right behind another beach-inspired song, Brian Hyland's "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini."

Despite the popularity of instrumental surf music, or perhaps because of it, vocal surf music became the more widely disseminated form of the genre. While the music had little to do with the blazing guitars and heavy bass of Dick Dale and The Ventures, the lyrics of vocal surf music sought to capture the feel of the surfer subculture. "Surfin'" (1962), the first hit by a teen group from Hawthorne, California, called The Beach Boys, describes the dedication of surfers to their sport: "Surfin' is the only life, the only way for me." Written by non-surfer Brian Wilson and based mainly on stories from Beach Boy members and surfers Mike Love and Dennis Wilson, the songs of the Beach Boys presented an American youth market with an image of sunshine, beautiful girls, and surfing that was wholesome and superficial. In songs like "Surfin Safari" (1962), "Surfin' USA" and "Surfer Girl" (1963), "Fun, Fun, Fun" and "I Get Around" (1964), "Help Me, Rhonda" and "California Girls" (1965), "Wouldn't it Be Nice" and "Good Vibrations" (1966), the leisure pursuits of young southern Californians became a national industry. Reinforced by other performers, such as Jan and Dean ("Surf City" 1963) and the beach movies of Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello, the surfer subculture became a marketing tool used to sell not only entertainment, but a whole range of products as well, such as clothing. Hang Ten, founded in 1961, produced clothing with its trademark symbol of two bare feet representing the act of hanging ones toes off the front end of a surfboard. Offshoot sports also developed, like skateboarding, originally called "sidewalk surfing," and, in the 1980s, sailboarding.