Surfer Girl

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Wilson is credited with writing the remaining nine songs on Surfer Girl: two by himself ("Surfer Girl" and "The Surfer Moon"), four in conjunction with Mike Love ("Catch a Wave", "Hawaii", "Surfers Rule", and "Our Car Club"), and three individually co-authored with collaborators Gary Usher ("In My Room"), Roger Christian ("Little Deuce Coupe"), and Bob Norberg ("Your Summer Dream"). [23]

"Your Summer Dream" and "In My Room" are the only songs that do not relate to themes of cars or surfing. [24] The two car songs, "Our Car Club" and "Little Deuce Coupe", were planned to be omitted by Wilson, but this never happened, and so the tracks appeared on both Surfer Girl and their next album, Little Deuce Coupe . [25]

Cover photo

The front cover of the album depicts the five members of the band carrying surfboards at Paradise Cove in Malibu, California. [22] It was taken at the same session that produced the cover photo for their first album, Surfin' Safari (1962). [26]

Release

Lead single "Surfer Girl", backed with "Little Deuce Coupe", was issued in the U.S. on July 22, 1963 and reached number 7 on the Billboard charts. [27] After returning from a six-week tour at the end of August, they completed their next album, Little Deuce Coupe, in short time. [28] The Surfer Girl album followed on September 16 and peaked at number 7 on December 23. [29] Little Deuce Coupe was released on October 7, just three weeks after Surfer Girl. [30]

Surfer Girl was certified gold by the RIAA in November 1965. [31] In the UK, the album was released by EMI Records in April 1967 and reached number 13. [32] It had been held back from release due to the group's lesser popularity in Europe, and was then issued to satisfy increased demand for new Beach Boys product. [33]

In 1990, Capitol reissued the album on CD as a single-disc pairing with Shut Down Volume 2 (1964). [16]

Retrospective assessments

Surfer Girl
SurferGirlCover.jpg
Studio album by
ReleasedSeptember 16, 1963
Recordedc.May 9 – July 16, 1963
Studio Western, Hollywood
Genre Surf
Length25:30
Label Capitol
Producer Brian Wilson
The Beach Boys chronology
Surfin' U.S.A.
(1963)
Surfer Girl
(1963)
Little Deuce Coupe
(1963)
The Beach Boys UK chronology
Best of the Beach Boys
(1966)
Surfer Girl
(1967)
Best of the Beach Boys Vol. 2
(1967)
Retrospective professional reviews
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [34]
Blender Star full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [35]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [36]
Rolling Stone Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [37]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [38]

Surfer Girl was ranked number 193 on Pitchfork 's list of the greatest album of the 1960s. Highlighting tracks such as "In My Room" and "Surfer Girl", contributor Quin Moreland wrote in the entry that "Wilson began to probe the wistfulness at his core, hinting at further genius to come." [39]

Reviewing Surfer Girl in AllMusic, Richie Unterberger highlighted "In My Room" as the most significant track and disregarded the remainder of the album as "surprisingly mediocre filler". [34]

Music historian Scott Schinder identified Surfer Girl as an advancement in "Brian's continuing growth as a composer and producer." He cited "Catch a Wave" as Wilson's "most ambitious surf number to date" and "In My Room" as "a startling demonstration of Brian's willingness to confront his fears in song." [40]

Track listing

Side one
No.TitleWriter(s)Lead vocal(s)Length
1."Surfer Girl" Brian Wilson B. Wilson2:26
2."Catch a Wave"
Love and B. Wilson2:07
3."The Surfer Moon"B. WilsonB. Wilson2:11
4."South Bay Surfer"Love and B. Wilson1:45
5."The Rocking Surfer"B. Wilsoninstrumental2:00
6."Little Deuce Coupe"
Love1:38
Side two
No.TitleWriter(s)Lead vocal(s)Length
1."In My Room"
B. Wilson2:11
2."Hawaii"
  • B. Wilson
  • Love
Love and B. Wilson1:59
3."Surfer′s Rule"
  • B. Wilson
  • Love
D. Wilson with B. Wilson1:54
4."Our Car Club"
  • B. Wilson
  • Love
Love and B. Wilson2:22
5."Your Summer Dream"
B. Wilson2:27
6."Boogie Woodie"traditional, arranged by B. Wilsoninstrumental1:56
Total length:25:30
Surfer Girl / Shut Down Volume 2 1990/2001 CD reissue bonus tracks
No.TitleWriter(s)Lead vocal(s)Length
13."Fun, Fun, Fun" (single version)
  • B. Wilson
  • Love
Love2:21
14."In My Room" (German version)
  • B. Wilson
  • Usher
B. Wilson2:20
15."I Do"
  • B. Wilson
  • Christian
Love and B. Wilson3:06
Total length:33:17

Notes


Charts

YearChartPosition
1963US Billboard 200 [23] 7
1967UK Record Retailer [33] 13

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