Beach Boys Album Deep Dives #3: Surfer Girl

[kevinlewis]

oh wow, I love "your summer dream" one of the early peaks of brains melancholic ballads. Great album surfer girl i agree light years ahead of surfin usa, its like they grew 5 years

[mikeymutual]

David Marks played rhythm guitar. As Jeff noted, his aggressive guitar style gave the early tracks a hard-driving sound. He also appeared on the subsequent album, "Little Deuce Coupe." He was a neighborhood friend of the Wilson brothers who often went over to their house to sing harmonies with them.

[truthtransistorradio]

Surfer Moon and Your Summer Dream are both highly underrated ballads by the Beach Boys! Catch a Wave is my favorite surf song by them!

[dennydriverstudio]

A Great, Great Album, Indeed!! This is one of my favorite Beach Boys albums, not just their early albums, but of all of their albums, definitely a top ten, maybe a top five (for me). And your presentation reminded me of just how good it is and how much I love it. Thanks, Jeff!!

[vikingbrace]

In My Room and Little Deuce Coupe are still classics to this day. Surfer Girl is too but maybe just a step below even though I still love it. I agree with the progression shown on this album. This Beach Boys series is going swimmingly…🙃
Seriously, loving this.

[stonefree]

👏for the video! ✌for the songs(snippets!) 👍for Surfer Girl going on my wishlist! This is why i like some channels in the Youtube VC, getting to know about music/artists/bands that really haven´t been in ones sphere or on ones radar before! Can´t emphasize that enough! So enriching. One never stops learning, thankfully! Cheers!

[aaronmuthaalamare]

Phenomenal video Jeff! I learned a lot on this one ! 2 of my favorite BB songs on this one! Catch A Wave and Little Deuce Coupe are fantastic, i agree some filler but still an enjoyable listen! In My Room and Surfer Girl are actually in my bottom 5 BB songs i get why people like them but they’ve always been grating to my ears, as a young kid I always dreaded when they came on ! And relistening now i still get those same bored feelings! I do agree this is their best album up to this point, I’m looking forward to part 4, brother!!! Awesome job👍🤘🤘

[pauldaniels]

Surfer Girl might have been the first Beach Boys song I heard in the early '60s - it was the first BBs 45 that I owned. Surfer Girl and Your Summer Dream are both in my top 25 BBs songs. Looking forward to the next episode.

[zeitgeistyreport]

Never realized the similarity to the opening of surfer girl and when you wish upon a star

[myopia]

I've always loved "Your Summer Dream" with it's gorgeous melody, jazz chords, and the stark melancholy of Brian's vocal (This would have been a nice wistful note to end the album on. "Boogie Woodie" could have been left off the album entirely). "The Surfer Moon" is an okay but not great song that's interesting for its inclusion of strings (another early signpost). "Our Car Club" is fantastic. Now, I'm never quite sure when The Wrecking Crew started playing on Beach Boys records?? I've read Hal Blaine played drums on a few tracks here ("Catch A Wave" and something else) The whole production of "Our Car Club" sounds way too sophisticated in terms of musicianship; somebody besides Brian, Dennis Carl, and Al must have been playing on the backing track (and those horns) . Surfer Girl really is the first great Beach Boys album. Thanks so much for another great deep dive!😊

[jdd]

I always wondered how Brian could churn out quality material that keeps getting better over such a short period of time, and I found the answer in this video: Murray Wilson. An abusive father who never approved but only criticized, led Brian to make no errors in his song writing. A creative genius who couldn't afford to stumble.

[reillyjamessullivan]

Most of the throwaways aren’t that bad, and are definitely elevated by the great tracks on here.

[telestrat]

I am enjoying this. The Beach Boys are`nt my favorite band, but the vocals are really fantastic. They definitely were the best band on the radio back in the day, along with the Ventures, till the Beatles came along. Best American band till the Byrds, I`d say. The videos are compelling. I really like the style of the videos. It was a little hard for a kid from Pittsburgh to get into surfing songs, but they were the first band I knew of to write and play their own songs.

[ChrisPropfeMusicallyObsessed]

“In My Room” and “Surfer Girl” are killer tunes. I have two compilation records, Spirit Of America and Endless Summer with these songs but I don’t have the album Surfer Girl proper. F*ck Murray Wilson! Man, those harmonies…!

[markwilliams]

Jeff I never understood why they used the photos from the first photo shoot in 1962. You would think Capital publicity would take newer pictures, especially since The beach boys were taking off with their career.

[georgezajkowski]

I have an observation.
The Beach Boys sang about surfing but only Dennis knew how.
The Beach Boys sang about cars but only Dennis was a mechanic in TWO LANE BLACKTOP.
The Beach Boys sang about true love but all their relationships with women failed.
Seems to me they were nothing but a bunch of liars Haahaaaha.
Great job Jeff!

[Azena]

Another great review Jeff !! A couple of thoughts- the sound on this album is much, much better than SS and SUSA - by this I mean the vocals sound so much ‘closer’ if this makes sense - was this the first to use different studios such as Western Recording?
Also did Brian start using session musicians on SG you mentioned the drumming on Catch A Wave and the instrumental track for Surfer Girl is on Stack-o-Tracks which makes me suspect the vocals were overdubbed even at this early stage.
I have to differ with you on Your Summer Dream, I think it is a beautiful song, yes the guitar is a little “off” at times and the track might have benefitted from a little more ‘production’ i.e. depth of vocal.
Finally I have a more or less mint mono original (EMI/Capitol) pressing - I say ‘more or less’ - why ? Because the store I bought it from - brand new but old stock - had put a sale price sticker right on the cover. In the UK LPs were not shrink wrapped like in the USA and so my Surfer Girl still bears a ‘birth mark’ residue gum stain from that damned price sticker! Thanks again Jeff !!

[williamhild]

Murray Wilson wasn't an alcoholic, but he looked like he should have been. I mean, just look at him. You can almost hear him say "Hey! Pour me a Scotch!".