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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Mike Love 

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 The Beach Boys - 1962

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mentions: 

The Beatles ~ Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band       

Chicago III      

David Gates ~ First    

The Halibuts ~ Halibut Beach        

Scott McKenzie & The Summer of Love  

John Phillips (John, the Wolf King of L.A.)  

Remembering Bobby Freeman                    

              
   
       

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20,000 Vinyl LPs 90: Scott McKenzie & The Summer of Love

Scott McKenzie ~ The Voice Of Scott McKenzie
vinyl LP, front cover
photographer of cover photos unknown
photo of album cover by Styrous®

This year marks the 60th anniversary of The Summer of Love. One of the songs that epitomizes that magical time is San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair) sung by Scott McKenzie.  

         

The song was released as a single on May 13, 1967; it was included on the album, The Voice Of Scott McKenzie, which was released in December of 1967. It was produced and released by John Phillips, of The Mamas & the Papas, and Lou Adler who used it to promote their Monterey International Pop Music Festival held in June of that year.   

The tune informs the listener, "If you're going to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair". It is credited with bringing thousands of young people to San Francisco, California, to experience the wonder of the 'Flower Generation' and 'Flower Power'. (link to lyrics below). The expression was coined by the American beat poet Allen Ginsberg in 1965 as a means to transform war protests against the Vietnam War into peaceful affirmative spectacles which originated in Berkeley, California.        

Scott McKenzie ~ The Voice Of Scott McKenzie

vinyl LP, front cover detail

detail photo by Styrous®

      

San Francisco was written by John Phillips of The Mamas & the Papas; he claims he wrote the song in about 20 minutes. Phillips played guitar on the recording and session musician Gary L Coleman played orchestra bells and chimes. The bass line of the song was supplied by session musician Joe Osborn. Hal Blaine played drums.        

San Francisco hit number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 2 in the Canadian RPM Magazine charts. It was also a number 1 in the UK and several other countries, selling over seven million copies globally.          

Scott McKenzie ~ The Voice Of Scott McKenzie
vinyl LP, back cover
photographer of cover photos unknown
photo of album cover by Styrous®

San Francisco hit a nerve with people looking to protest what they saw as an unjust social order, and it rocketed to No. 4 on the pop charts. But despite the song’s success, McKenzie never had another hit single. He took a break from the music business and moved to Virginia Beach, Virginia.    

In the late 1980s McKenzie made a comeback of sorts. He toured with a reconstituted Mamas & the Papas and, with John Phillips, Mike Love and Terry Melcher, wrote, Kokomo, an upbeat love song that became a No. 1 hit for The Beach Boys.    

Scott McKenzie ~ The Voice Of Scott McKenzie

vinyl LP, side 1

photo by Styrous®

The song was covered by many people, Petula Clark (1967), Merrilee Rush & The Turnabouts (1968) and Tanya Tucker (1979). Even Led Zeppelin took a shot at it. I think it’s one of the Zeppelin’s few failures.  

In an interview, Ozzy Osbourne, of the English rock band Black Sabbath, once said, "And suddenly, you know, we hear about 'If you're going to San Francisco be sure to wear a flower in your hair'. And we're thinking, (contemptuously) 'What the fuck is San Francisco? Where is this? What's all this flower shit?" 

Scott McKenzie ~ The Voice Of Scott McKenzie
vinyl LP label detail, side 1
detail photo by Styrous®

 

Scott McKenzie was born Philip Blondheim on Jan. 10, 1939, in Jacksonville, Florida. He grew up in North Carolina and Virginia, where he became friends with the son of one of his mother's friends, John Phillips. In the mid-1950s, he sang briefly with Tim Rose in a high school group called The Singing Strings, and later with Phillips, Mike Boran, and Bill Cleary formed a doo wop band, The Abstracts.     
         

In 1961 Phillips and McKenzie met Dick Weissman and formed the folk group, The Journeymen, at the height of the folk music craze. In 1964, The Journeymen disbanded. McKenzie and Weissman became solo performers, while Phillips formed the group The Mamas & the Papas with Denny Doherty, Cass Elliot, and Michelle Phillips and moved to California.

 

Scott McKenzie ~ The Voice Of Scott McKenzie

vinyl LP, side 2

photo by Styrous®

          

Chris Campion, who is writing a biography of John Phillips, entitled, Walking on the Moon, interviewed McKenzie and said the singer had told him soldiers returning from Vietnam would sing the song on the airplane to San Francisco. He later became friends with some of those veterans and would tour the Vietnam Veterans Memorial with them. “He was grateful that he had the opportunity to have such an impact on their lives,” Mr. Campion said.    

        

Scott McKenzie, who performed the song which became a defining hit for the counterculture generation and helped draw tens of thousands to the Haight-Ashbury district for the Summer of Love, died on August 18, 2012, at his home in Los Angeles. He was 73.    

          

        

Scott McKenzie ~ The Voice Of Scott McKenzie
vinyl LP label detail, side 2
detail photo by Styrous®

Tracklist:

Side 1:

1 - San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair), written by John Phillips * - 2:58

2 - Celeste, written by Donovan - 3:55

3 - It's Not Time Now, written by J. Sebastian*, Z. Yanovsky* - 2:45

4 - What's The Difference (Chapter II), written by  Scott McKenzie* - 2:41

5 - Reason To Believe, written by Tim Hardin* - 2:25

6 - Like An Old Time Movie, written by John Phillips* - 3:09


Side 2:

1 - No, No, No, No, No, written by G. Stephens*, Michel Polnareff* - 2:19

2 - Don't Make Promises, written by Tim Hardin* - 3:25

3 - Twelve-Thirty, written by John Phillips* - 3:55

4 - Rooms, written by John Phillips* - 3:25

5 - What's The Difference (Chapter I), written by Scott McKenzie* - 2:18

Companies, etc.

    Mastered At – Customatrix
    Distributed By – CBS Records
    Record Company – CBS Inc.

Credits:

    Producer – John Phillips, Lou Adler

Notes:

Tracklisting on the back cover is incorrectly ordered.
Barcode and Other Identifiers

    Matrix / Runout (Matrix A, on label): Z12 44002-1
    Matrix / Runout (Matrix B, on label): Z12 44002-2
    Matrix / Runout (Runout A etched / o stamped): ACZ-12-44002-1 o A3
    Matrix / Runout (Runout B etched / o stamped): ABZ12 44002-2 o A3
    Rights Society (A1, A6, B1, B3, B4): ASCAP
    Rights Society (A2 to A5, B2, B5): BMI

Scott McKenzie ‎– The Voice Of Scott McKenzie
Label: Ode Records (2) ‎– Z12 44002
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Stereo
Country: US
Released: Dec 1967
Genre: Rock, Pop
Style: Pop Rock, Psychedelic Rock

          

   
   
   
    
Viewfinder links:        
       
Scott McKenzie          
Ozzy Osbourne         
Tim Hardin       
    
Net links:        
       
San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair lyrics          
Scott McKenzie website       
New York Times obituary         
        
YouTube links:                
         

San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair)    

         Scott McKenzie         

         Led Zeppelin          

         Petula Clark      

         Merrilee Rush & The Turnabouts  

         Tanya Tucker

                 
Kokomo  
      


      

          

Styrous® ~ Saturday, May 13, 1967       

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