"Beach Baby" is a song by the British band

The First Class The First Class were a British pop music studio-based group, put together by songwriter and record producer John Carter. They are best known for their hit song "Beach Baby," a top 20 hit in both the US and UK. Career The First Class was the ...

. Written by John Carter and his wife, Gillian (Jill) Shakespeare, the song became the band's only substantial hit. The subject of the lyrics is not holiday love, but a broken love relationship between two high school students in

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in the 1950s.

Background

Carter and Shakespeare wrote "Beach Baby" in their home in

East Sheen East Sheen, also known as Sheen, is a suburb in south-west London in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Its long high street has shops, offices, restaurants, cafés, pubs and suburban supermarkets and is also the economic hub for Mort ...

South West London South West London may refer to several things related to London, England: *SW postcode area *South West (London sub region) (2008–2011), a regional planning designation *Western part of South London *South West (London Assembly constituency) (fro ...

. Shortly afterward, Carter hired lead singer Tony Burrows and session singer Chas Mills to record it under the band name The First Class. Burrows attempts to sing the tune in an American accent, reflecting the song's

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setting. Toward the end of the song are two instrumental quotations, both on the

French horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most ...

: the main theme from the last movement of Sibelius's Fifth Symphony, and the tune of the title line from one of Carter's previous compositions, " Let's Go to San Francisco", a 1967 hit for

The Flower Pot Men The Flower Pot Men were an English pop group created in 1967 as a result of the single, "Let's Go to San Francisco", recorded by session musicians, becoming a major UK Top 20 and Continental Europe hit in the autumn of 1967. The group's sound ...

. The estate of Jean Sibelius filed a lawsuit against the song's writers, for infringing on the copyright of the Sibelius piece. The case was settled out of court, with the Sibelius estate receiving half of the song's proceeds. Because the running time was over five minutes, several AM radio stations edited "Beach Baby" by fading it out during the second instrumental bridge. The fade outs took on some importance, helping to avoid further legal implications. In the 31 August 1974 edition of ''

American Top 40 ''American Top 40'' (previously abbreviated to ''AT40'') is an internationally syndicated, independent song countdown radio program created by Casey Kasem, Don Bustany, Tom Rounds, and Ron Jacobs. The program is currently hosted by Ryan Seacr ...

'', Casey Kasem claimed: The 21 September 1974 edition of the program added the detail that the song was recorded in London on 24 December 1973. An engineer who was involved in the recording session recalls: "The recording was made in February 1974 at Lansdowne Studios, Holland Park, London. Tony Burrows was singing, John Carter producing and & Paul Holland engineering. At the time, I was a house assistant engineer & remember being very impressed with the high level of professionalism and ability of the visiting engineer Paul Holland, who I had never met before. I don't believe that he sat down at any time during the session ! - If my memory serves me right, the recording was completed in one evening session." Although the band went on to release two studio albums and a multitude of singles, they were unable to recreate the success of "Beach Baby".

Legacy

In the

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'', Robin Carmody wrote that the song marked the end of the original wave of British

bubblegum pop Bubblegum (also called bubblegum pop) is pop music in a catchy and upbeat style that is considered disposable, contrived, or marketed for children and adolescents. The term also refers to a rock and pop subgenre, originating in the United States i ...

, indicating the transition into a period of

pastiche A pastiche is a work of visual art, literature, theatre, music, or architecture that imitates the style or character of the work of one or more other artists. Unlike parody, pastiche pays homage to the work it imitates, rather than mocking it ...

"and paying tribute to the American pop of a decade or so before, rather than being gloriously unselfconscious and picking up on what was hot at that moment, always a sign that a genre has reached the end of line." He deemed it a "fantastically-produced slice of Californian fantasypop – orchestra, brass, lavish vocal harmonies, already a tribute song to a vanished era at the time." Further including it in a list of the genre's classics, he described it as "Britgum's dying fall: put the fade on repeat play and hear pop, for the first time, become pure period pastiche.

Chart performance

In 1974, the song peaked at #13 in the UK, #4 in the US, and #1 in Canada.

Weekly singles charts

Year-end charts

Covers

*It was subsequently recorded in French by Sacha Distel under the title "Vite, Chérie, Vite".

References

External links

* {{authority control 1974 songs 1974 debut singles British power pop songs Songs about Los Angeles Songs about nostalgia Songs about teenagers Songs written by John Carter (musician) RPM Top Singles number-one singles Tony Burrows songs UK Records singles Bubblegum pop songs Popular songs based on classical music