Surf music
[7] The first is instrumental surf, distinguished by reverb-heavy electric guitars played to evoke the sound of crashing waves, largely pioneered by Dick Dale and the Del-Tones.
[8][9] Dick Dale developed the surf sound from instrumental rock, where he added Middle Eastern and Mexican influences, a spring reverb, and rapid alternate picking characteristics.
[13] During the later stages of the surf music craze, many of its groups started to write songs about cars and girls; this was later known as "hot rod rock".
This unit is the reverb effect heard on Dick Dale records, and others such as "Pipeline" by the Chantays and "Point Panic" by the Surfaris.
[citation needed] By the early 1960s, instrumental rock and roll had been pioneered successfully by performers such as Link Wray, Nokie Edwards and the Ventures and Duane Eddy.
In 1959 they were still learning to play their instruments: Dick Dodd on drums, Chas Stuart on saxophone, Jim Roberts on piano, and Eddie Bertrand and Paul Johnson on guitars.
"[25] They recorded their first single, "Mr. Moto", in June 1961 (with Richard Delvy on drums instead of Dodd) and the song received radio airplay that summer.
[15] the Atlantics, from Sydney, Australia, were not exclusively surf musicians, but made a significant contribution to the genre, the most famous example being their hit "Bombora", in 1963.
[31] European bands around this time generally focused more on the style played by British instrumental rock group the Shadows.
[34] In 1964, the group's leader and principal songwriter, Brian Wilson, explained: "It wasn't a conscious thing to build our music around surfing.
"[36] Vocal surf can be interpreted as a regional variant of doo-wop music, with tight harmonies on a song's chorus contrasted with scat singing.
"[38] In 1963, Murry Wilson, Brian's father, who also acted as the Beach Boys' manager, offered his definition of surf music: "The basis of surfing music is a rock and roll bass beat figuration, coupled with raunch-type weird-sounding lead guitar, an electric guitar, plus wailing saxes.
[42][nb 1] Several key figures led the hot rod movement beside Wilson, including songwriter-producer-musician Gary Usher and songwriter-disc jockey Roger Christian.
Himes notes: "Most of these weren't real groups; they were just a singer or two backed by the same floating pool of session musicians: often including Glen Campbell, Hal Blaine and Bruce Johnston.
"[12][nb 2] One-hit wonders included Bruce & Terry with "Summer Means Fun", the Rivieras with "California Sun", Ronny & the Daytonas with "G.T.O.
[15] Hot rod group the Fantastic Baggys wrote many songs for Jan and Dean and also performed a few vocals for the duo.
"[12] After the decline of surf music, the Beach Boys continued producing a number of hit singles and albums, including the sharply divergent Pet Sounds in 1966.
[54] Surf music also influenced a number of later rock musicians, including Keith Moon of the Who,[15] East Bay Ray of the Dead Kennedys, and Pixies guitarist Joey Santiago.
Other early surf punk artists included Johnny Thunders, who opened his debut solo album So Alone with an instrumental cover of The Chantays' song, "Pipeline"; the Forgotten Rebels from Canada, who released "Surfin' on Heroin" in 1981;[56] and Agent Orange, from Orange County, California, who recorded punk cover versions of surf classics such as "Misirlou", "Mr. Moto", and "Pipeline", with AllMusic's Greg Prato calling the band "influential" and "a step ahead of the rest of the punk/hardcore pack".
[57] The genre is related to skate punk, which rose to prominence at the same time in the Orange County beach towns that nurtured the first wave of surf musicians.
[66] The notes say Gary Usher was a primary architect of the sound of the early-sixties West Coast; cars, girls, sun and surf!.
[68][69] Outside Brian Wilson's work with the Beach Boys, one of the acts he produced was Bob & Sheri with their 1962 single, "Surfer Moon".
