Beach Boys 3: Surfer Girl

A subtle shift in the Beach Boys story appeared on the back cover of Surfer Girl. While it wasn’t in bold type, the liner notes specifically stated that Brian Wilson was the producer of the album. While the band was still playing everything—albeit with original member and buddy Al Jardine back in the fold, but not on the cover, soon to oust the irrepressible David Marks, who still was—and the songs were still about surfing and cars, the music had begun to evolve.

Not only was the title track one of the first songs Brian wrote, it’s also one of the loveliest. While there are enough references to the lingo in the lyric, the melody and especially the harmonies make it soar, even if it is a little too close to “When You Wish Upon A Star”. “Catch A Wave” is another aggressive advertisement, but uses a classical harp for a clever oceanic evocation, alongside those cymbal washes. There’s a string arrangement on “The Surfer Moon”; it’s just too bad he felt he had to keep the lyrics on topic, just as “South Bay Surfer” is “Swanee River” with new words. (Hey, it worked for “Surfin’ U.S.A.”) “The Rocking Surfer” is an instrumental with prominent organ for a change, and Carl Wilson contributes a sufficient if generic solo. Things finally shift for “Little Deuce Coupe”, a song about a car and the title track’s original B-side.

While “In My Room” had also been a B-side, this is another gentle Brian classic, shifting from popular teenage trends and addressing actual emotions, teenage and otherwise. (There’s that harp again.) It was only natural that “Hawaii” be fodder for songs about surfing; if the rest of America thought Southern California must be paradise, kids already living there wanted to be someplace even better. This would be far from the last time the state would be the subject of a Beach Boys song. The misplaced apostrophe in “Surfer’s Rule” doesn’t make the boast any more effective, since it’s mostly a dig at Frankie Valli and the 4 Seasons, but soon enough they’re using “Our Car Club” as another vehicle to declare their superiority to anyone dumb enough to question them. “Your Summer Dream” gives Brian another chance to display his musical maturity and growth, but just to keep folks dancing, “Boogie Woodie” lets him show off on organ and piano simultaneously and in changing keys.

While Surfer Girl was certainly showed progress, it was still little more than a collection of already-released singles and B-sides, padded with filler. Which is pretty much what albums were in 1963. (Of the songs added to the two-fer CD in 1990, only one was related to this album: “In My Room” sung in German.)

The Beach Boys Surfer Girl (1963)—2½
1990 CD reissue: same as 1963, plus Shut Down Volume 2 album and 3 extra tracks