Jack Marshall - My Son The Surf Nut (1963) [CAPITOL ST-1939]

It's kind of difficult knowing quite how to classify this offering. After all, it is really no more than an off-beat surfing comedy album - but it offers so much more than the standard novelty fare offered up by the likes of the Silly Surfers or Mr Gasser's Surfink crew ... After all, writer and producer Jack Marshall was a highly respected jazz guitarist, composer and producer in his own field - but what on earth tempted him out of the smokey L.A. jazz clubs and over to sand-laden beachside haunts must be a bizarre story in its' own right (but one we can sadly not account for here ...). Side One of this release features six 'comedy skits', taking the viewpoint of interviews with everyday members of the so-called 'surf-crowd'. All are fairly amusing little sketches, with novelty voices thrown in for effect, whilst the waves lap against the shoreline - with perhaps the simple views of the Old Oceanographer coming in the strongest. Side Two comprises of a typical early-60's 'Battle Of The Bands' scenario - with six novelty numbers as performed by six imaginery surf-bands - with the surf-folk Dingston Trio's "I Left My Love At Rincon" being the funniest by far ... "I left my love at Rincon, hot-doggin' with a punch. Her figure really stoked me, but her face was out to lunch ..." ... whilst Daddie Ho's "Surfing Is My Life" is the closest musically to the gen-u-ine thing. All in all, this is a wonderful example of original surf culture - and a highly prized item in any surf-fiend's collection - even if perhaps some of the humour has been washed away by the tides of time ...

review by http://www.pipeline.moonfruit.com

[Album Sleeve by Rick Griffin]


« The shark is not our friend»

Out-A Space: The Spotnicks in London (1962)

The Spotnicks is an instrumental rock group from Sweden, who were formed in 1961. They were famous for wearing "space suit" costumes on stage, and for their innovative electronic guitar sound. They have since released 42 albums, selling more than 18 million records, and still tour.

In Autumn 1962 The Spotnicks recorded their first - of countless following LPs - in London, The Spotnicks in London / Out-a-space. The whole album was recorded in 17 hours. Single releases from this LP reached quite high spots in the English and Australian charts.

Bo Winberg himself is always mentioned as inventor of the Spotnick's Space Sound, but its little known, that the band build their own backline equipement ... including modified reverb and echo effects and a working wireless system for guitars.



Twang!

make your own compilation!

First of all we need a nice sleeve! The following one is by Lou Morales.

[Lou Morales was an American comic book artist, who illustrated several comics for Charlton publishers in the 1950s. He created crime stories in 'Crime and Justice' and 'Lawbreakers', but also stories for 'The Thing', 'Space Adventures' and 'Hot Rods and Racing Cars'. He was additionally present in Atlas/Marvel's mystery titles Mystic and Astonishing Comics]








Luckily the title of this comic is perfect for many compilations you can associate with Surf, Drag but as well Rockabilly and so on. So we need no change of the title itself.
After some edits: just cropped, some scratches removed and
a yellow frame added, we have the following:



















ok HOT RODS, this brillant font made of screws is maybe a little pale ...


















To create the backsleeve, made for a jewelcase, I took the lower part of the original picture, enlarged it, removed some fonts, and stuffed it into a mask of 1189X932 pixel, which regular fits for a jewel case.















then some yellow color, and the most important MONO artefacte, ready!















So it's up to you to fill the backsleeve AND the cd with you favourite tracks!

download the SLEEVES as png, bitmap and pdf

have fun!

just a frontsleeve ...

not every blogger has daily access to a scanner with 10" or 12" dimension, so here we go with the frontsleeve taken from a photo. Due to the age of the LP (25 years +), some parts of the original sleeve were almost destroyed, and have been restored ... close to the red triangle, there've been the french words "prix special" and mini LP, but I was to lazy to rework such small parts.


Soundfiles available
on the friendly blogs of Trustar and
Fat Cigar Lounge (and at least one more), both links in the sidebar.





If you want to know what their guitar
player is doing today, please visit
http://www.myspace.com/drewweavermusic
or
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yYCCny1xsc




frontsleeve

another Wipe Out! This time by the Muppets ...

first of all a pretty cool video featuring «The Animal» as usual on drums - and on vocals! Yes guys & girls this
is my favourite!
















and here's their full BEACH PARTY, many famous songs - very cool singers!
Recorded 1993. The cassette version came with a poster that had the lyrics on the other side.
The tape sleeve is the right part of the "new sleeve" - with some changes. I didn't want to post the full tracklist on my blog, so the tracklist is on the sleeve ...
The album features the Muppets having an all-day beach party and performing popular songs, mostly from the 1960s.














grab it while you can -
the original cd is at the moment out of print - and more on the expensive side ...








as seen on:
drumbum



















you wanna see more?
Check out this one - and the related videos

Johnny & The Hurricanes - Red River Rock LP (1959)

Johnny and the Hurricanes was a rock and roll band that began as The Orbits in Toledo, Ohio in 1957. Led by saxophonist Johnny Paris (born John Pocisk, 1940, Walbridge, Ohio - died 1 May 2006, Ann Arbor, Michigan), they were school friends who played on a few recordings behind Mack Vickery, a local rockabilly singer.
They signed with Harry Balk and Irving Michanik of Twirl Records, which led to national engagements in 1959. Johnny and the Hurricanes recorded "Crossfire" in a vacant cinema to provide echo. That became a nationwide U.S. hit, and ranked No. 23 in the U.S. chart in the summer of 1959.

Johnny and the Hurricanes followed with an instrumental version of "Red River Valley" on Warwick Records, that became a Top Ten hit on both sides of the Atlantic (No. 5 in the U.S., No. 3 in the UK), and sold over a million copies. The musicians in the band then were Paris on saxophone, Paul Tesluk on hammond organ, Dave Yorko on (guitar), Butch Mattice on bass), and Bill "Little Bo" Savich on drums.
Many recordings were cover versions of old tunes with a rock and roll beat. They chose these songs because they were well recognized and easier to accept with the rock and roll beat of the accordion which then led to the Hammond Chord Organ. Johnny Paris and the Hurricanes were the first rock and roll group to introduce these instruments to the rock and roll world. Tunes were credited to 'King, Mack' and sometimes one other name. In 1960, they recorded the United States Army bugle call, "Reveille", as "Reveille Rock", and turned "Blue Tail Fly" into "Beatnik Fly". Both tunes made the Top 40 achieving number 15 and 25 respectively. The band also recorded "Down Yonder" for Big Top Records. Still in 1960, they recorded "When The Saints Go Marching In" as "Revival", but it ranked in the charts for just one week, and peaked at No. 97. The track fared better in the UK as the B-side of "Rocking Goose", which reached No. 3 in the U.K. chart.
The band developed a following in Europe. In 1962, they played at the Star-Club in Hamburg, where The Beatles, then a little-known band,served as an opening act. Johnny and the Hurricanes cut records until 1965. Johnny continued to tour with the Hurricanes in Europe and United States until his death. Johnny had an uncle (Realtor) in Rossford, Ohio (Johnny's home town) who owned a building on the main street and offered Johnny's wife (Sharon Venier-Pocisk) space for an antique shop. When not on the road he helped out with the antique shop and vending machine business as payment for the store front for his wife.
Johnny Paris and his band toured Europe occasionally until 2006, shortly before Paris died. Paris claimed that over 300 musicians played in the band in its fifty years existence.
The band inspired the song "Johnny and the Hurricanes" on the album How I Learned to Love the Bootboys, by the band The Auteurs. They were namechecked as well in the Kinks' 1973 song "One of the Survivors." (by wikipedia)

Listen to this album

The Surfaris - their first Lp (1963)

was simply entiteled after their only big hit Wipe Out. This is for sure also their best release!

Bob Berryhill, Pat Connolly, Jim Fuller and Ron Wilson wrote the tune almost on the spot as a suitable B-side was needed for the intended "Surfer Joe" single. In late 1962, while the band was in Cucamonga's Pal Recording Studio recording the single, one of the band members suggested that a gimmick sound indicating a wipe out off a surfboard be emulated. The suggestion was made that during the introduction before the music starts, a cracking sound, imitating a breaking surfboard, should be made.
Also in the introduction is a manic voice babbling, "ha ha ha ha ha wipe out". The spoken voice at the beginning of the song is the voice of the band's manager of the time, Dale Smallin.
Ron Wilson's energetic drum solo (a sped up version of his Charter Oak High School marching band's drum cadence) was beaten out on malt-shop tables all over the country which also helped "Wipe Out" to become one of the best-remembered instrumental tunes of the period. The afterthought track spent four months on the national Billboard chart in the autumn of 1963, reaching #2 and kept out of the top slot only by Stevie Wonder's Fingertips. The smash hit returned to the Hot 100 in 1966, reaching #16 in its second national chart run. Meanwhile, original A-side "Surfer Joe" only attracted airplay in the wake of Wipe Out's success, and peaked at #62 during its six-week run.
Another Southern Californian surf group calling themselves the Surfaris had formed around the same time. They renamed themselves the Original Surfaris following the popularity of "Wipe Out". (wikipedia)

Album releases:

• 1963 Wipe Out (Dot 3535)
• 1963 The Surfaris Play Wipe Out (Decca 4470)
• 1964 Hit City '64 (Decca 4487)
• 1964 Fun City USA (Decca 4560)
• 1965 Hit City '65 (Decca 4614)
• 1965 It Ain't Me, Babe (Decca 4683)
• 2005 Wipe Out

beware of their endless compilation albums!
[The brandnew rerelease of Surfers Rule together with Gone With The Wave are only good looking compilation albums]


The Original WIPEOUT

Annette Funicello - The American Beach Girl of the 60s

Walt Disney saw Funicello dancing the lead in Swan Lake at the Starlight Bowl in Burbank, California, and invited her to audition for his new children's show, The Mickey Mouse Club (1955). Funicello got her start on the program at age thirteen, soon becoming the most popular "Mouseketeer" on the show.

After leaving the Mickey Mouse Club, Funicello remained under contract to Disney and appeared in the TV shows Zorro (1957), The Nine Lives of Elfego Baca (1958), and starred in the Disney feature films The Shaggy Dog (1959), Babes in Toyland (1961), The Misadventures of Merlin Jones (1964), and The Monkey's Uncle (1965).

In the early 1960s, Annette starred in a series of beach party movies with Frankie Avalon, including Beach Party (1963), Muscle Beach Party (1964), Bikini Beach (1964), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), and How to Stuff a Wild Bikini (1965). During this time, she recorded a series of hit top-40 pop singles, including "Tall Paul," "First Name Initial," "How Will I Know My Love," and "Pineapple Princess."

The Soundtrack features of course the title track «Beach Party», which appeared also
on the fabulous Cowabunga! compilation, so I think it ok to mention this album here.
Some schmaltzy tunes with strings, but also a song with fuzz guitar. Not a must have - but
much better than the movie(s). Well, Disney, beach and muscles, that's no good combination at all.

12 songs, first release 1963
BeachParty

Junior Brown

and Surf music? Indeed this great steel & guitar player is performing exactly one Surf Medley every Live set...
Great mix of old surf tunes stretched to 7 minutes, and played by a real big player and band. I am represented personally rather less in country music, but I really dig this surf tune and the hawaiian flavoured stuff he spreads sometimes on his albums.

Much better known as Austin's best kept secret for years - and meanwhile a lite bit popular as country guitar wizzard ... >>>







GRAB it:

01 Surf Medley: Pipeline/Walk Don't Run/Secret Agent Man
02 Peelin' Taters
03 Rock-A-Hula Baby
04 Coconut Island
05 Surf Medley Live


track #5 is from outer space and was recorded live at Ram's Head Tavern, Annapolis