I was bored, so I thought I would compile a little 9 and a half minute mix of my top 10 favorite Surf/Drag songs. It does not contain any Beach Boys or Jan & Dean at this time, as I think we all have enough of them. It contains loads of other goodies though, and the track that is number 1 is the song I think was the mighty peak of song-writing surf/drag songs.

Catchy lyrics, catchy melodies, great harmonies, loads of handclaps and a whole lot of fun.

Heres the youtube link for you all, around 50/70 secs of each song plus the entire number 1 song!

Listen to it here folks!!!

Tell me what you all think.

Mark

Cool comp. The Wheels are a new one on me. School is a gas???? In that case my memory must be playing me up big-time.

As you say, a whole lot of fun. I myself find a couple of non-BB surf/drag ditties go a long way. I've got several on CD - I have another version of "Hot Rod High", by The Surfaris - and they're enough for me really. I must confess I prefer surf instrumentals myself - and BB surf/drag songs.

Good work, anyway. 1'll give them another listen some time.

Bruce and Terry backed out of the best part of "Custom Machine:" those chord changes behind "Waaaah/ I'll let you look but don't touch my custom machine..."

Great collection... what I like best about it is that I haven't heard any of these before!

Exactly! It weakens it immeasurably IMO...

Thank you for the comments guys. These are really great songs and the music I listen to the most. There are so many great vocal tracks out there, if Youtube would have let me I would have done a top 20, but you can't stream more than 10 minutes sadly.

The reason I chose "The Wheel Men - School Is A Gas" as my number one track is that for me, it's the pinnicle of the surf/drag vocal sound. Probably Gary Ushers finest moment (You may also know The Wheel Men as The Hondells!) Absolutley stunning melody, great lyrics and full of hooks and harmonies. John, the title is actually a refrence to racing fuel they called "A/Gas" as opposed to having a good time.

When I get back to my main PC next week, I will try and upload my top 10 Surf Instrumentals. At the moment my favourite instrumental track is a tie between a Gary Usher track and an Astronauts track. Please give me some ideas as to your favorite instrumental tracks and I'll try and include them in my top 10.

Mark

A lot of these were new to me too. Probably one hit wonders?

As for instrumentals weren`t The Ventures and The Trashmen considered the best?
Also listened to one from Australia that blew me away, The Atlantics.

The Ventures did all-instrumental stuff I believe, but The Trashmen's finest hour was the awesome "Surfin' Bird". I'll dig out the "lyrics" for you, they're here somewhere - I posted them a while back.

The best? Brianmargo alerted me to some truly amazing stuff, notably The Original Surfaris' version of "Bombora" - but there are many other great surf instrumental bands. No doubt the name Dick Dale rings a bell with you...

My faves are "Bombora" by the Original Surfaris (also my favorite rock and roll instrumental of all time), "Latinia" by the Sentinels, "Mr. Moto" by the Bel Airs, "Squad Car" by Eddie and the Showmen, and "Surf Beat" by Dick Dale.

There's your top five. Now you only need to find five others!

The trouble I have with surf instrumentals is that I have literally dozens of surf instrumental albums, and everyone covers everyone elses music. In the top 10 there will definitly be some Gary Usher produced tracks, at least one Astronauts track and The Original Surfaris "Bombora" should make it. Dick Dale, The Ventures, Super Stocks, Hondells, Surfaris, Dave Myers, The Marketts, The Chantays, The Lively Ones, The Centurions, The Sentinals, Bobby Fuller Four, The Gonzos, The Impacts or any other instrumental artists that I have also got may make it... I'm going to do a lot of listening the next few days before I compile the instrumentals.

If anyone here wants to learn about or hear surf instrumentals then I'm the guy to ask - I didn't realise I had such a large collection,and I think only Malc from the "pipeline" site has a bigger collection than mine.

Just for the record, the vocal top 10 contains singles and albums tracks, and hardly any of them hit the charts sadly. Gary Usher who is responsable for about half that top 10 should have had much more chart recognition that he had. The Hondells "Little Honda" reached #9 and was probably one of his most successful surf hits.

Mark

Here they are. It's not quite how I remember it but this will have to do, otherwise I'll be typing all day...

SURFIN' BIRD (1963)
The Trashmen
(Frazier-White-Harris-Wilson - please note that four guys wrote this!)

A-well-a everybody's heard about the bird
B-b-b-bird, bird, bird, b-bird's the word
A-well-a bird, bird, bird, the bird is the word
A-well-a bird, bird, bird, well the bird is the word
A-well-a bird, bird, bird, b-bird's the word
A-well-a bird, bird, bird, well the bird is the word
A-well-a bird, bird, b-bird's the word
A-well-a bird, bird, bird, b-bird's the word
A-well-a bird, bird, bird, well the bird is the word
A-well-a bird, bird, b-bird's the word
A-well-a don't you know about the bird?
Well, everybody knows that the bird is the word!
A-well-a bird, bird, b-bird's the word
A-well-a...

A-well-a everybody's heard about the bird
Bird, bird, bird, b-bird's the word
A-well-a bird, bird, bird, b-bird's the word
A-well-a bird, bird, bird, b-bird's the word
A-well-a bird, bird, b-bird's the word
A-well-a bird, bird, bird, b-bird's the word
A-well-a bird, bird, bird, b-bird's the word
A-well-a bird, bird, bird, b-bird's the word
A-well-a bird, bird, bird, b-bird's the word
A-well-a don't you know about the bird?
Well, everybody's talking about the bird!
A-well-a bird, bird, b-bird's the word
A-well-a bird...

Surfer birrrrrrrrrrrrrd [prolonged sound of vomiting].... aaah!

Pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-
Pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-ooma-mow-mow
Papa-ooma-mow-mow

Papa-ooma-mow-mow, papa-ooma-mow-mow
Papa-ooma-mow-mow, papa-ooma-mow-mow
Ooma-mow-mow, papa-ooma-mow-mow
Papa-ooma-mow-mow, papa-ooma-mow-mow
Papa-ooma-mow-mow, papa-ooma-mow-mow
Oom-oom-oom-oom-ooma-mow-mow
Papa-ooma-mow-mow, papa-oom-oom-oom
Oom-ooma-mow-mow, papa-ooma-mow-mow
Ooma-mow-mow, papa-ooma-mow-mow
Papa-a-mow-mow, papa-ooma-mow-mow
Papa-ooma-mow-mow, ooma-mow-mow
Papa-ooma-mow-mow, ooma-mow-mow
Papa-oom-oom-oom-oom-ooma-mow-mow
Oom-oom-oom-oom-ooma-mow-mow
Ooma-mow-mow, papa-ooma-mow-mow
Papa-ooma-mow-mow, ooma-mow-mow
Well don't you know about the bird?
Well, everybody knows that the bird is the word!
A-well-a bird, bird, b-bird's the word

Papa-ooma-mow-mow, papa-ooma-mow-mow [repeat to fade]

AWESOME!!

I have this one as a cover by the Ramones. I like both versions.

Enjoyed listening, Scooby, although it was all unknown to me (except for "Custom Machine", of course). Thanks for taking the time to assemble this collection.

What struck me about many of these songs is the way the vocal arrangement was a perfect match for the way the Beach Boys did many of their songs: the regular guy Mike Love-styled lead vocal in the verse, the vocal virtuoso (usually a Brianesque falsetto) in the chorus, and of course the vocal blend backing it all. The song from the Fantastic Baggys and the Devons particularly fit this format, which suggests to me that these songs were recorded in the 1963-1964 range, if it was in fact the Beach Boys that provided their template.... or perhaps the Beach Boys copied their template????

Yes!!!! The Ramones didn't do a lot of covers, but the ones that they did were fantastic (even the odd "Baby I Love You" on END OF THE CENTURY).

The tracks are indeed from early 1963 through to early 1965. The Fantastic Baggys are better known as Jan & Dean's backing band on most of their hit albums. The Devons, Hondells, Wheel Men and Super Stocks were all Gary Usher projects. The Astronauts and Ronny & The Daytonas were classic Rock'n'Roll bands who switched to surf, and in the case of The Astronauts then switched to a very Byrds sound and more!

A lot of people give all the credit to The Beach Boys and Jan & Dean for that vocal "surf" sound, however other artists quickly followed suit such as the ones mentioned and rode the West Coast Wave of music. Gary Usher and his projects quite often aped the Beach Boys/J&D sound and very often surpassed it, creating some of the greatest non-Beach Boys, Beach Boys-sounding music of the genre. No doubt The Beach Boys and J&D heard Ushers work and also competed with that during the early stages.

I have a couple of very rare Brian Wilson & Gary Usher collaboration singles with them both singing on (plus Ushers usual crew... which included Glenn Campbell most of the time). They make very interesting listening!

Mark