Greetings!

Lots of postings here asking about our favorite guitar for surf, or our favorite amps, but I haven't really seen anything much in recent years asking members what their all-time favorite instrumental surf tunes are?

So lets give it a rip! What are your TOP-3 absolute "favorite" instrumental surf tunes of all-time (vintage or otherwise)?

"Heavy is good. Heavy is reliable. If it doesn't work, you can always hit them with it." - Boris the Blade

summerfun wrote:

Top 101 lists:

https://www.northseasurfradio.org/top-lists

Yup, thank you for that! And I'm aware of that list, but I'm looking for a somewhat different data set here.

"Heavy is good. Heavy is reliable. If it doesn't work, you can always hit them with it." - Boris the Blade

In order:

1. Pipeline
2. Penetration
3. Surf Rider

Not to detract from so many others. Ewa, On The Beach may be one of the best Surf songs ever written. I’d love to adapt it for a single lead guitar and bring it into the Lug Nuts repertoire. Maybe someday.

Walk Don’t Run is another amazing song. What makes it more amazing is its background. The changes are from the standard Softly, As In A Summer Sunrise, and the song was written and performed by Johnny Smith as a Jazz tune with some counterpoint which gives it a Clasical flavor. I’ve played it as Instrumental Rock for over 50 years, but a couple of years ago I learned it the way Johnny Smith did it. It’s a completely different animal the way it was originally arranged. I’d love to try to meld the two versions into an arrangement that would fit into a Surf set.

There are some great Surf tunes.

The artist formerly known as: Synchro

When Surf Guitar is outlawed only outlaws will play Surf Guitar.

1.) Walk Don't Run 64
2.) Pipeline
3.) Misirlou

Yeah hard list to make ....I like these songs the most I guess of coure each song here is like a model for a host of other similar scales and arrangements etc . . .I look at each one these 3 as a grid to play all the other songs I know

These types of things are so difficult. For all the deep dives I want to take, I can't help but admit that some of the more "obvious" choices really are some of my absolute favorites. So, knowing that I spent my morning drive into work listening to the probably less-likely all-time favorite "Surfin' Hootenanny" LP by Al Casey, here are my most likely picks for three all-time surf instro faves:

"Pipeline" — The Chantays
(it's captivated me ever since I was a little kid...)

"Latin'ia" by The Sentinals
(there's a wobbly and woozy quality that's absolutely hypnotic)

"Baja" by The Astronauts
(the reverb sounds like it's literally dripping all over the place!)

Since the question doesn't specify if we're talking about the top 3 favorite songs to play or to listen to, I'll go with top 3 faves to play. Mostly cause it's easier to narrow the list by going with songs I play pretty much on a daily basis (going back to '83 for the first song):

Rumble At Waikiki - Jon & the Nighriders
Johnnie's Noseride - Eliminators
The Wedge - Dick Dale (early version)

As a side note, it's been really cool seeing John Blair introduce small embellishments in live performances over the years to the original studio version of his song. Seeing it mature and grow as a living piece of work makes it truly a favorite to listen to as well.

Member in good standing, Mentone Beach Syncopation Reverberation Association

Last edited: Mar 06, 2019 11:28:55

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Last edited: Mar 01, 2020 12:08:33

Thanks guys!

This is some truly GREAT stuff! As some of you here have already said, its near impossible for any of us to take 50+ years of music and whittle it down to just three single songs, and its probably also true that our tastes all tend to change somewhat from day-to-day, but its still great fun to see some of the opinions.

I think what amazes me most, is the subtle disparities that tend to occur in such lists. For example, we'll often see 3-4 songs by the very same band or group from the very same album, listed in the top 101 SONGS on something like Northsea Surf Radio's Top 101 list, and yet, that same album will NOT even be present on their comparable list of the Top 101 ALBUMS (e.g., Hang Five, The Lively Ones, etc.).

Anyway, I didn't think to post any of my own favorites here when I first initiated this thread, and they're far from the Top-3 of all-time, but here's a couple of simple, yet fun tunes that I'm kinda fond of (all of which can be found on YouTube):

Goofy Foot (The Lively Ones, Hang-5 Best of)
Morpheus (Satan's Pilgrims, Soul Pilgrim)
Pier Pressure (Teisco Del Rey, Cowabunga Box Set)

"Heavy is good. Heavy is reliable. If it doesn't work, you can always hit them with it." - Boris the Blade

Last edited: Mar 06, 2019 13:26:12

It's almost impossible to come up with a top 3, but here's what I'll offer right now. Tomorrow it might be completely different, and next week, different from that.

Casbah- Sandy Nelson / Richie Allen (Podolor)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeQRJ2qjJs8

Intruder- The Surf Coasters
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6k3yMMWPW4

Eva on the Beach- Frankie and the Pool Boys
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfya0TlHm0w)

Honorable mention could go to a hundred songs, or more, so I'll leave it at that, and apologize for all the great songs/bands that I could have chosen.

Bob

Last edited: Mar 22, 2019 11:46:50

Bombora - The Original Surfaris
The Wedge - Dick Dale & The Del-Tones
Everybody Up! The Fender IV
Ruediger