Your surf instrumental song of the day is “The Lonely Surfer” by Jack Nitzsche. This is a classic surf music instrumental, released on Nitzsche’s solo album of the same name. Released as a single in August of 1963, it peaked at #39 on the Billboard Hot 100.
“The Lonely Surfer” moves us from the Carolina beach music sound of yesterday’s classic song of the day (“Be Young, Be Foolish, Be Happy“) across the country to the West Coast surf music sound of the early ’60s. It’s not the happy happy surfer and hot rod rock of Jan and Dean or the early Beach Boys, but rather the more guitar-driven instrumental surf sound popularized by Dick Dale, the Ventures, and the Surfaris—but more expansive. Nitzsche’s sound is more cinematic, with longer melodies and a lushly orchestrated backing. That backing is provided by the same members of the Wrecking Crew who appeared on all those Beach Boys and Jan and Dean records, including the ringing surf guitars of Tommy Tedesco and Bill Pittman (that’s Pittman doing the solo line on his distinctive Danelectro guitar) and the driving drums of Hal Blaine.
Jack Nitzsche was a brilliant composer, arranger, and producer. He cut his teeth as Phil Spector’s right-hand man, arranging Wall of Sound classics like “Da Doo Ron Ron” (for the Crystals), “Be My Baby” (for the Ronettes), the epic “River Deep, Mountain High” (for Ike and Tina Turner), and from my favorite Christmas album of all time (A Christmas Gift for You From Phil Spector), Darlene Love’s “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home).” Nitzsche moved out on his own with The Lonely Surfer and never looked back. He co-wrote (with fellow Spector acolyte Sonny Bono) the Searchers’ 1964 hit, “Needles and Pins,” organized the music for that year’s legendary T.A.M.I. show, and played keyboards on four of the Rolling Stones’ early albums, including their hits “Paint It Black” and “Let’s Spend the Night Together.” (He also did the choral arrangement on “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.”) Nitzsche worked with Neil Young from his Buffalo Springfield days to the Crazy Horse era, produced Graham Parker’s classic 1979 Squeezing Out Sparks album, and did three albums with Mink DeVille.
Despite all that, Nitzsche is best known as a film composer. He wrote the scores for scores of films in the ’70s and ’80s, including The Exorcist, The Razor’s Edge, Starman, The Jewel of the Nile, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, for which he was nominated for both a Grammy and the Academy Award for Best Original Score. He also co-wrote (and received an Oscar for) the song “Up Where We Belong” from the 1982 film, An Officer and a Gentleman, which was a #1 hit for Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes.
I am most fond of Nitzsche’s work for a little known 1984 movie called Windy City. Set and filmed in Chicago, the film is about a group of childhood friends navigating the perils, romantic and otherwise, of young adulthood. This score, like all his work, is deeply melodic, overtly romantic, and appropriately cinematic. It’s a tough film to find these days, even though it starred Kate Capshaw, John Shea, and Josh Mostel, but if you’re of a certain age it’s worth seeking out. (Actually, it’s available for free on YouTube—I queued this one up at the very end, where you get to hear a good bit of Nitzsche’s majestic score.)
Jack Nitzsche, for all his success, led a somewhat troubled personal life. He passed away in 2000 after suffering a stroke two years prior. He was 63 years old.
