This week we’re celebrating summer with a bevy of summer-themed songs. When you think of summer, you think of cool cars on the strip, hot girls on the beach, surfing, and California—and there’s no band that more represents the California surf and cars scene than the Beach Boys. Jan and Dean, however, are a close second.
Not surprisingly, Jan Berry and Dean Torrence were good friends with several members of the Beach Boys, including Brian Wilson. Also not surprisingly, Brian provided his pals with a few songs for them to sing, including today’s classic summer song of the day. “Surf City” was written by Brian Wilson, with a little help from Jan Berry, and extolled the joys of a certain surf spot where there “they never roll the streets up ’cause there’s always something goin'” and there were “two girls for every boy.”
Jan Berry produced the tune and called in the best of L.A.’s Wrecking Crew to provide the instrumentals. That included Glen Campbell, Billy Strange, and Bill Pitman on guitars; Ray Pohlman on bass; and the dynamic duo of Hal Blaine and Earl Palmer on dual drums. Released in May of 1963, “Surf City” hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #2 in Canada. It was Jan and Dean’s first and only number-one hit.
Brian Wilson started writing the song with the working title of “Goody Connie Won’t You Come Back Home. He wrote the opening, first verse, and chorus, then got a little stuck. He offered it to Jan and Dean while they were at a party and Jan helped Brian finish it off. (Dean also provided some of the lyrics, but he wasn’t officially credited.)
“Surf City” is a lightweight piece of California surf music, but it screams summertime on the beach. “We’re goin’ to Surf City, gonna have some fun…”
Which leads us to today’s daily bonus video of the day, a promo clip for Jan and Dean’s “Surf City” from back in 1963, complete with lots of surfboards, classic cars, and babes in bikinis. Wish I were there with them…
