Surfin’ USA, The Beach Boys
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Last week I used the topic “days of the week” to choose my songs. This week, and following my son’s suggestion, I am doing countries. I will start with the USA. I love The Beach Boys, and I love the song “Surfin’ USA.” I have always loved it. I used to sing it way back when. The Beach Boys are fascinating. Whenever I think of them, I think of one of my favorite films, “Two-Lane Blacktop” because it stars beach boy Dennis Wilson, the band’s drummer (and James Taylor, I should do a James Taylor song at some point.) If you have not seen the movie, check it out. But let’s get to the song…
Surprisingly, here is another song that is a remake of a previous song! Who knew? Here is what Brian Wilson said about it: “I was going with a girl called Judy Bowles, and her brother Jimmy was a surfer. He knew all the surfing spots. I started humming the melody to ‘Sweet Little Sixteen’ and I got fascinated with the fact of doing it, and I thought to myself, ‘God! What about trying to put surf lyrics to ‘Sweet Little Sixteen’s melody? The concept was about, ‘They are doing this in this city, and they’re doing that in that city’ So I said to Jimmy, ‘Hey Jimmy, I want to do a song mentioning all the surf spots.’ So he gave me a list.” Apparently, Chuck Berry was not too happy and requested the copyright, which they gave to his company and in later prints of the record, Berry was listed as the writer.
Here is the original:
And The Beach Boys version:
And here is David Marks telling the story:
If everybody had an ocean
Across the U.S.A.
Then everybody'd be surfin'
Like California
You'd seem 'em wearing their baggies
Huarachi sandals too
A bushy bushy blond hairdo
Surfin' U.S.A.
You'd catch 'em surfin' at Del Mar
Ventura County line
Santa Cruz and Trestle
Australia's Narabine
All over Manhattan
And down Doheny Way
Everybody's gone surfin'
Surfin' U.S.A.
We'll all be plannin' out a route
We're gonna take real soon
We're waxin' down our surfboards
We can't wait for June
We'll all be gone for the summer
We're on surfari to stay
Tell the teacher we're surfin'
Surfin' U.S.A.
Haggerties and Swamies
Pacific Palisades
San Anofree and Sunset
Redondo Beach L.A.
All over La Jolla
At Waimia Bay
Everybody's gone surfin'
Surfin' U.S.A.
Everybody's gone surfin'
Surfin' U.S.A.
Everybody's gone surfin'
Surfin' U.S.A.
Everybody's gone surfin'
Surfin' U.S.A.
Yeah, everybody's gone surfin'
Surfin' U.S.A.
Yeah, everybody's gone surfin'
Surfin' U.S.A.
