For those who grew up in the U.S. in the early 1960s, no other group better expressed the essence of summer than the Beach Boys. Their music along with the distinct smell of Coppertone suntan lotion still take me back to those adolescent days. Surf rock pre-dated the group, of course, having been launched in 1960 by the Ventures' instrumental hit Walk—Don't Run. A surge of surf bands followed in 1961 that included the Bel-Airs, Dick Dale and the Del-Tones, the Carnations and Steve Rowe and the Furys.
Rather than wail on guitars, the Beach Boys modeled their vocals on the right harmony of the Four Freshmen. After the Beach Boys signed with Capitol in late 1962, they recorded Surfin' USA and Shut Down on the flip side in early '63. The A-side reached No. 3 on the Billboard pop chart. What followed from the pop-rock band were singles that paid tribute to the Pacific coast and the California suburbs. Songs centered on fast cars, the surf, high school and going steady. But the Beach Boys didn't single-handedly drive the national surf phenomenon. They caught a wave.
In the summer of 1963, the film Beach Party was released in theaters. The movie starred Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello and blended silliness and sexuality, kicking off the beach-party film trend that would last until 1968. The country went beach and bikini crazy. The Beach Boys and beach-party films fed off each other, transforming Southern California into a region of teenage dreams. TV quickly joined the trend, and many American pre-teens and teens in the early ‘60s thought of the Los Angeles region as a color-saturated dreamworld fueled by cheap gas, great looking guys and girls, sunny weather and outdoor living. Magazines and album covers quickly picked up on the cultural shift that reflected teen desires.
By the end of ’63, the Beach Boys were the country’s first major surf-rock vocal band, and their sound dominated the genre. That is, until the landing of Pan American World Airways' Flight 101 in New York in February 1964. The Beatles changed everything, making teenage aspirations less summer-centric. Instead of being the imagined objects of car-driving and surfing boys, girls went on the offensive, pining for different members of the Fab Four. They also discovered they had power, especially over older boys, a more accessible year-round fantasy than begging parents to move to California or Florida. London was now the center of the cultural universe.
If the Beatles rocked the world of teenage girls in1964, imagine how they freaked out American pop-rock musicians, many of whom felt instantly inadequate. Brian Wilson, the creative force behind The Beach Boys, knew his band had to up their game or at least try. Puppy-love songs about cars and the beach no longer had traction. In late 1965, the greatest big-stakes race in rock history was on between Bob Dylan, the Beatles and The Beach Boys. Preening was out, emotion was in.
Here's a terrific BBC documentary on the Beach Boys. If the box below is black, click on “Watch on YouTube”...
And here's the entire Little Deuce Coup album in tracks. If the box is black, just click on “Watch on YouTube “…
