45 RPMs 104: Beach Boys ~ Surfin' U.S.A.

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On, Mach 4, 1963, the single Surfin' U.S.A. by The Beach Boys was released. Written by Chuck Berry and Brian Wilson. It is a rewritten version of Berry's Sweet Little Sixteen set to new lyrics written by Wilson and an uncredited Mike Love. The song was released as a single on March 4, 1963, backed with Shut Down. It was then placed as the opening track on their album of the same name. The song is part of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll list.    

       

The single peaked at number two on the chart of the Music Vendor trade paper and at number three on the Billboard and Cash Box charts. Billboard ranked "Surfin' U.S.A. the number 1 song of 1963. It has since become emblematic of the California Sound, and the song's depiction of California is emblematic of the genre.       

        

Surfin' U.S.A. uses the comparison of California to the rest of the United States to drive its stereotypical images of California. It uses a recognizable steady, upbeat drum tempo seen in many surf rock songs that seems to “drive” the music forward. The Beach Boys popularized this staccato drum style, and is reminiscent of “a locomotive getting up to speed”. This technique was seen earlier in the Jan & Dean 1963 hit Surf City, which was the first Surf song to achieve the number one position on the Billboard Hot 100.              

 

In the song the following surfing spots are mentioned, mostly in California, as well as one in Hawaii (possibly two) and one in Australia:

• "Del Mar" – Del Mar, San Diego County, California
• "Ventura County Line" – County Line Beach in Ventura County, California
• "Santa Cruz" – Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz County, California
• "Trestles" – San Onofre State Park, San Diego County, California
• "Australia's Narrabeen" – Narrabeen, Australia
• "Manhattan" – Manhattan Beach, Los Angeles County, California
• "Doheny" – Doheny Beach, Dana Point, Orange County, California
• "Haggerty's" – Palos Verdes Estates, Los Angeles County, California
• "Swami's" – Swami's Beach, Encinitas, San Diego County, California
• "Pacific Palisades" – Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles County, California
• "San Onofre" – San Onofre State Park, San Diego County, California
• "Sunset" – Sunset Beach, Oahu, Hawaii – or – Sunset Beach, Orange County, California [Could also be Sunset Blvd at PCH in LA County]
• "Redondo Beach, L.A." – Redondo Beach, Los Angeles County, California
• "La Jolla" – La Jolla, San Diego County, California
• "Waimea Bay" – Waimea Bay, Hawaii

 

The Beach Boys - Surfin' U.S.A. 

45 RPM record 

 

 

 

The Beach Boys - Surfin' U.S.A. 

45 RPM record 

        

Tracklist:

Side 1:

A - Surfin' U.S.A., written by Brian Wilson - 2:25

Side 2:

B - Shut Down, written by Brian Wilson, Roger Christian - 1:50

Companies, etc.

    Manufactured By – Capitol Records, Inc.
    Published By – Arc Music Corp.
    Published By – Sea Of Tunes Publishing Co.
    Pressed By – Capitol Records Pressing Plant, Scranton

 

Notes:
 

This version gives a writing credit to Roger Christian on side B (as opposed to this release which does not).

Side A published by Arc Music Corp.
Side B published by Sea Of Tunes Publishing Co

Barcode and Other Identifiers        

         

    Matrix / Runout (Label side A): 45-39181
    Matrix / Runout (Label side B): 45-39180
    Pressing Plant ID (Stamped in runouts): IAM Triangle logo
    Rights Society: BMI
    Other (Labels): 3-43
    Matrix / Runout (Runout side A, stamped, variant 1): 45-39181-N2#2 IAM
    Matrix / Runout (Runout side B, stamped, variant 1): 45-39180-N1 15 IAM
    Matrix / Runout (Runout side A, stamped, variant 2): 45-39181-N2#2 IAM
    Matrix / Runout (Runout side B, stamped, variant 2): 45-39180-N2 IAM
    Matrix / Runout (Runout side A, stamped, [etched] - variant 3): 45-39181-N2[#3] IAM
    Matrix / Runout (Runout side B, stamped - variant 3): 45-39180-N1#4 IAM

Beach Boys* – Surfin' U.S.A.
Label: Capitol Records – 4932
Format: Vinyl, 7", Single, 45 RPM, Scranton Pressing
Country: US
Released: Mar 4, 1963
Genre: Rock, Pop
Style: Surf, Vocal

        

        

        

        

Viewfinder links:       

         

Chuck Berry     
Roger Christian          

Jan & Dean         

Mike Love         

Brian Wilson      

      
Net links:       

         

         

         

        
     
YouTube links:      
        
        

        

      
        
         

        

        

Styrous® ~ Monday, September 7, 2020

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Roger Christian articles/mentions

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Roger Christian      

date & photographer unknown     

     

     

     

mentions:        

Beach Boys ~ Surfin' U.S.A.      

     

     

     

     

 

 

 

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Music People

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Jan & Dean articles/mentions

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Jan & Dean - 1964     

photographer unknown     

     

     

     

mentions:              

Beach Boys ~ Surfin' U.S.A.           

     

     

     

     

 

 

 

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Music People

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Mike Love articles/mentions

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Beach Boys ~ Surfin' U.S.A.  

     

     

 

 

 

 

     

     

     

     

     

     

Mike Love 

date & photographer unknown 

     

     

     

     

     

     

mentions:     

      

     

     

     

 

 

 

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Music People

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Lucie Arnaz articles/mentions

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Lucie Arnaz - 1973     

photographer unknown       

       

       

       

       

        

        

mentions:        

Desi Arnaz ~ Not a sidekick        

         

        

        

         

        

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Desi Arnaz ~ Not a sidekick

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Desi Arnaz 

date & photographer unknown 

     

     

     

     

 

Today is the birthday of Desiderio Alberto Arnaz y de Acha III, better known as Desi Arnaz. He was a Cuban-American actor, musician, producer, and bandleader. He was known for playing the conga drum and popularized the conga line in the United States. He played Ricky Ricardo on the American television sitcom I Love Lucy, in which he co-starred with his wife Lucille Ball     

 

 

Desi Arnaz as Ricky Ricardo - 1950 

publicity photo 

     

     

Many think of him as only the straight man for Lucille Ball, however, he was as equal as her in the financial area. He negotiated a deal whereby they retained the rights to the I Love Lucy show and they bought Desilu Productions. Arnaz and Ball are credited as the innovators of the syndicated rerun, which they pioneered with the I Love Lucy series.        

 

Arnaz and Ball decided that I Love Lucy would maintain what Arnaz termed "basic good taste" and were therefore determined to avoid ethnic jokes, as well as humor based on physical handicaps or mental disabilities. Arnaz recalled that the only exception consisted of making fun of Ricky Ricardo's accent; even these jokes worked only when Lucy, as his wife, did the mimicking.       

 

Arnaz and Ball co-founded and ran the television production company Desilu Productions, originally to market I Love Lucy to television networks. I Love Lucy ended, Arnaz went on to produce several other television series, at first with Desilu Productions, and later independently, including The Ann Sothern Show and The Untouchables.       

 

Arnaz was born in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba, on March 8, 1894, a descendant of Cuban nobility and , The Cuban Revolution of 1933 forced Arnaz and his family to lose everything. A mob attacked and destroyed the family's houses, property, and livestock. The family then fled to Miami with no money and Arnaz had to live with his father in a garage that was infested with rats and roaches. His first jobs included working at Woolworths and cleaning canary cages in Miami. He then went into the tile business with his father before turning to show business full time. A lifelong Republican, and active in politics, Arnaz was deeply patriotic about the United States. In his memoirs, he wrote that he knew of no other country in the world where "a sixteen-year-old kid, broke and unable to speak the language" could achieve the successes that he had.      

     

Xavier Cugat, after seeing Arnaz perform, hired him for his touring orchestra, playing the conga drum and singing. Becoming a star attraction encouraged him to start his own band, the Desi Arnaz Orchestra. Arnaz and his orchestra became a hit in the New York City club scene, including a club named La Conga, where he is credited with introducing the concept of conga line dancing to the United States.    

 

 

 

 The Muppets conga line 

 

 

He came to the attention of Rodgers and Hart who, in 1939, cast him in their Broadway musical Too Many Girls. The show was a hit and RKO Pictures bought the movie rights. Arnaz went to Hollywood the next year to appear in the show's movie version at RKO, which also starred Lucille Ball. Arnaz and Ball fell in love during the film's production and eloped on November 30, 1940.       

 

On April 27, 1943, Arnaz received his draft notice as a foreign national since he was a citizen of Cuba at the time, upon discovering the first thing the wounded soldiers requested was a glass of cold milk, he arranged for movie starlets to meet them and pour the milk for them. Later that year he became a naturalized US Citizen and changed his legal name to Desi Arnaz.          

 

On December 1, 1945, Arnaz formed another orchestra and hired his childhood friend Marco Rizo to play piano and arrange for the orchestra. When he became successful in television, he kept the orchestra on his payroll, and Rizo arranged and orchestrated the music for I Love Lucy.        

 

On October 15, 1951, Arnaz co-starred in the premiere of I Love Lucy, in which he played a fictionalized version of himself, Cuban orchestra leader Enrique "Ricky" Ricardo. His co-star was his real-life wife, Lucille Ball, who played Ricky's wife, Lucy. At that time, most television programs were broadcast live, and as the largest markets were in New York, the rest of the country received only kinescope images. Karl Freund, Arnaz's cameraman, and even Arnaz himself have been credited with the development of the multiple-camera setup production style using adjacent sets in front of a live audience that became the standard for subsequent situation comedies.         

      

In the late 1960s, Arnaz was seriously injured in an accident when the floor in his home in Baja California collapsed and he was impaled by a tree stump. An operation saved his life, although his health was never the same after the incident. He suffered a severe attack of diverticulitis in 1971, which required an operation and several years of recovery.          

       

Arnaz was a regular smoker for much of his life and often smoked cigarettes on the set of I Love Lucy. He smoked Cuban cigars until he was in his sixties. Arnaz was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1986 and underwent treatment. Lucille Ball visited him during this time in the hospital and the two watched VHS tapes of I Love Lucy. His daughter Lucie was by his side constantly during his final days. He died two days later on December 2, 1986, at the age of 69, three years before Lucy's death.          

 

Viewfinder links:    

 

Desi Arnaz       

Lucie Arnaz               

Lucille Ball         

Xavier Cugat        

Rodgers and Hart         

The Muppets           

Marco Rizo 

        

Net links:     

 

Xavier Cugat      

 

YouTube links:     

 

Desi Arnaz ~  

                Babalu        

                Conga           

Xavier Cugat ~      

                Brazil       

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Styrous® ~ Monday, March 2, 2026           

 

 

 

 

 

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Music People

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Marco Rizo articles/mentions

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Marco Rizo     

date & photographer unknown     

     

     

     

mentions:  

Desi Arnaz ~ Not a sidekick            

     

     

     

     

 

 

 

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Music People

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The Muppets articles/mentions

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The Muppets       

       

       

       

       

       

       

        

        

mentions:        

        

Desi Arnaz ~ Not a sidekick         

        

        

         

        

Net links:        

        

         

        

        

         

        

        

YouTube links:        

        

The Muppets (8 mins., 40 secs.)        

        

        

         

        

       

       Styrous® - Monday, March 2, 2026

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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20,000 vinyl LPs 409: Jimmy Page ~ Death Wish II soundtrack

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Jimmy Page  ~ Death Wish II

vinyl LP front cover 

 cover illustration by R. Graves 

photo of album cover by Styrous®

On Monday, March 1, 1982, the first solo LP by guitarist and founder of the rock band Led Zeppelin, Jimmy Page was released.         

 

That year, Page collaborated with director Michael Winner to record the Death Wish II soundtrack. This and several subsequent Page recordings, including the Death Wish III soundtrack, were recorded and produced at his recording studio, The Sol in Cookham, which he had purchased from Gus Dudgeon in the early 1980s.         

 

Jimmy Page  ~ Death Wish II

vinyl LP front cover details 

cover illustration by R. Graves 

detail photos of album cover by Styrous®

Death Wish II is a 1982 American vigilante action-thriller film directed and co-edited by Michael Winner and produced by Cannon Films. It is the sequel to the 1974 film Death Wish. It is the second installment in the Death Wish film series. The sequel makes a complete breakaway from the Brian Garfield novels Death Wish and Death Sentence, redefining the Paul Kersey (Charles Bronson) character. It was succeeded by Death Wish 3. All three films starred Charles Bronson.               

 

Jimmy Page  ~ Death Wish II

vinyl LP back cover 

photo of album back cover by Styrous®

 

 

The actions of the Bronson character are dictated by the inability of the police to prevent crime, the preoccupation of the courts with technical rather than real justice, and the cancerous climate of fear in which we find ourselves today. Paul Kersey is no hero. In his pursuit of vengeance he loses the only emotional relationship of his life and by story's end has become as much a victim of crime as the thugs he leaves dead in his wake".             

 

 

 

Jimmy Page  ~ Death Wish II

vinyl LP back cover details 

detail photos of album back cover by Styrous®

 

Jimmy Page  ~ Death Wish II

vinyl LP record sleeve 

photo by Styrous®

 

Jimmy Page  ~ Death Wish II

vinyl LP record sleeve back 

photo by Styrous®

 

 

Jimmy Page  ~ Death Wish II

vinyl LP record side 1 

photos by Styrous®

 

 

 

 

 

Jimmy Page  ~ Death Wish II

vinyl LP record side 2 

photos by Styrous®

 

   

Tracklist:
       
Side 1:

        

A1 - Who's To Blame - 2:38
A2 - The Chase - 5:45
A3 - City Sirens - 1:57
A4 - Jam Sandwich - 2:35
A5 - Carole's Theme - 2:48
A6 - The Release - 2:32

       
Side 2:
       
B1 - Hotel Rats And Photostats - 2:36
B2 - Shadow In The City - 4:00
B3 - Jill's Theme - 3:59
B4 - Prelude - 2:18
B5 - Big Band, Sax, And Violence - 2:48
B6 - Hypnotizing Ways (Oh Mamma) - 2:45
       
Companies, etc.
       
    Distributed By – Atlantic Recording Corporation
    Phonographic Copyright ℗ – Atlantic Recording Corporation
    Copyright © – Swan Song Inc.
    Pressed By – Allied Record Company
    Pressed By – Europadisk
    Published By – Flames Of Albion Music Inc.
    Mixed At – The Sol Studio
    Mastered At – Strawberry Mastering
       
Credits:
       
    Drums – Dave Mattacks
    Electric Piano – Gordon Edwards (2)
    Engineer, Mixed By – Stuart Epps
    Producer, Written-By, Electric Guitar, Bass – Jimmy Page
    Vocals – Chris Farlowe
    Written-By – Gordon Edwards (2) (tracks: A3)
       
Notes:
       
"AR" in matrix number denotes an Allied Record Company pressing.

Soundtrack to Michael Winner's 'Death Wish II' (1982).

Matrix Info:
Sides A/B: "EDP" is in an oval.
Side A: The "4" in "824887" is a "4" etched over an "8"
Side A: "++" is two plus signs, with a dot in each quadrant (8 dots total).

       
Barcode and Other Identifiers
        

    Matrix / Runout (Side A Label): ST SS 824887 AR
    Matrix / Runout (Side B Label): ST SS 824888 AR
    Matrix / Runout: + ++ △1198 ST-SS 824887-B (2) B-16558-B EDP MISFI SM1 STRAWBERRY
    Matrix / Runout: + △1198-X ST-SS-824888-B (2) B-16558-B EDP MISFI SM1 STRAWBERRY
    Matrix / Runout (Sides A/B - stamped): EDP
    Matrix / Runout (Sides A/B - stamped): STRAWBERRY
    Rights Society: ASCAP

 

Jimmy Page – Death Wish II (The Original Soundtrack)
Label: Swan Song – SS 8511
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Stereo, AR - Allied Pressing
Country: US
Released: Mar 1982
Genre: Electronic, Rock, Stage & Screen
Style: Soundtrack, Classic Rock, Synth-pop, Symphonic Rock

         

Viewfinder links:        

        

Charles Bronson        

Gus Dudgeon         

Jill Ireland 

Jimmy Page        

Michael Winner        

        

Net links:        

        

         

        

        

         

        

        

YouTube links:        

        

Jimmy Page ~ Death Wish II complete soundtrack links         

        

        

         

        

        

        

Styrous® ~ Sunday, March 1, 2026        
       

 

 

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