Phil Dirt - Reverb Central - PO Box 1609, Felton, CA 95018-1609 USA
Collection: Beach Party Blastsdotdot
artworkThis budget collection relies heavily on chart vocals, but also includes a couple of nice tracks, including the Sandals' original Theme From "The Endless Summer."
Picks: Surfer's Stomp, Hawaii Five-0, Theme From 'The Endless Summer', Beach Party

Track by Track Review


Surfer's Stomp dotdotdot
Sub Surf (Instrumental)

The Mar-Kets created this nearly Lawrence Welk forties-ish "Surfers Stomp." Frankly, Susan and the SurfTones do the best version of this song. Simple slow paced innocent instrumental rock and roll, with great piano and saucy sax. Infectious and unpretentious. Don't look for the classic surf sound here, but do enjoy the simplicity and fun. Smooth and right nice.

Hawaii Five-0 dotdotdot
TV Surf (Instrumental)

Often covered TV theme song from the chameleons of instro rock from the 1968 TV series.

Theme From 'The Endless Summer' dotdotdot
Classic Film Score Surf (Instrumental)

"Theme From The Endless Summer" is a world renowned tune. It incorporates nontraditional instruments and has been an influence to many others. The use of melodica is particularly interesting.

Beach Party dotdotdot
R&B (Instrumental)

As was the market trend for labels back in the heyday of surf, any instro could be titled as a surf track and some poor schmuck kid would spend his allowance on it. In those days, if you didn't like it, too bad, there was no return. King Curtis was an excellent R&B artist for sure, but the only relationship between this and surf was it's use of a guitar lead and title. It's an excellent R&B instro, clean and bright, with a bit of an edge, and a reasonably melodic riff. The guitar tone is almost surfy.