"Surf's Up" is a song recorded by the American rock band

the Beach Boys The Beach Boys are an American Rock music, rock band that formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian Wilson, Brian, Dennis Wilson, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and frie ...

that was written by Brian Wilson and

Van Dyke Parks Van Dyke Parks (born January 3, 1943) is an American musician, songwriter, arranger, and record producer who has composed various film and television soundtracks. He is best known for his 1967 album ''Song Cycle'' and for his collaborations with ...

. It was originally intended for ''

Smile A smile is a facial expression formed primarily by flexing the muscles at the sides of the mouth. Some smiles include a contraction of the muscles at the corner of the eyes, an action known as a Duchenne smile. Among humans, a smile expresses ...

'', an unfinished Beach Boys album that was scrapped in 1967. The song was later completed by Brian and Carl Wilson as the closing track of the band's 1971 album '' Surf's Up''. Nothing in the song relates to

surfing Surfing is a surface water sport in which an individual, a surfer (or two in tandem surfing), uses a board to ride on the forward section, or face, of a moving wave of water, which usually carries the surfer towards the shore. Waves suitabl ...

; the title is a

play-on-words Word play or wordplay (also: play-on-words) is a literary technique and a form of wit in which words used become the main subject of the work, primarily for the purpose of intended effect or amusement. Examples of word play include puns, phonet ...

referring to the group shedding their image. The lyrics describe a man at a concert hall who experiences a spiritual awakening and resigns himself to God and the joy of enlightenment, the latter envisioned as a children's song. Musically, the song was composed as a two-movement piece that modulates

key Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

several times and avoids conventional harmonic resolution. It features a coda based on another ''Smile'' track, "

Child Is Father of the Man "Child Is Father of the Man" is a song by American rock band the Beach Boys that was written by Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks. It was originally recorded for the band's never-finished album ''Smile''. In 2004, Wilson rerecorded the song for ' ...

". The only surviving full-band recording of "Surf's Up" from the 1960s is the basic backing track of the first movement. There are three known recordings of Wilson performing the full song by himself, two of which were filmed for the 1967 documentary '' Inside Pop: The Rock Revolution'', where it was described as "too complex" to comprehend on a first listen. Several years after ''Smile'' was scrapped, the band added new vocals and

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

overdubs to Wilson's first piano performance as well as the original backing track. Another recording from 1967 was found decades later and released for the 2011 compilation ''

The Smile Sessions ''The Smile Sessions'' is a compilation album and box set recorded by American rock band the Beach Boys, released on October 31, 2011 by Capitol Records. The set is the follow-up to '' The Pet Sounds Sessions'' (1997), this time focusing on the ...

''. "Surf's Up" failed to chart when issued as a single in November 1971 with the B-side " Don't Go Near the Water". In 2004, Wilson rerecorded it for his solo version of ''Smile'' with new string orchestrations that he had originally intended to include in the piece. ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to ...

'' later included the song in separate rankings of the 200 finest songs of the 1960s and 1970s, and in 2011, ''

Mojo Mojo may refer to: * Mojo (African-American culture), a magical charm bag used in voodoo Arts, entertainment and media Film and television * MOJO HD, an American television network * ''Mojo'' (play), by Jez Butterworth, made into a 1997 film * ' ...

'' staff members voted it the greatest Beach Boys song. , it is listed among the 800-most highly rated songs of all time on Acclaimed Music.

Background and composition

"Surf's Up" was the second song Brian Wilson and

wrote together. It was composed as a two-movement piece, most of it in one night while they were high on Wilson's Desbutols, and originally intended for

' album ''

''. In a self-penned 1969 article, Wilson's former personal assistant

Michael Vosse Michael Vosse (May 20, 1941 – January 20, 2014) was an American journalist and A&M Records publicist. He is best known as assistant to Brian Wilson during the formation of the Beach Boys' Brother Records and the recording of the album ''Smile ...

wrote that "Surf's Up" was to be the album's closing track, and that the song would have been followed by a " choral amen sort of thing." Biographer

Byron Preiss Byron Preiss (April 11, 1953 – July 9, 2005)Byron Preiss
at the

The Elements" and was "briefly considered" to be paired with " Love to Say Dada". According to Parks, the song did not have a title until after the touring members of the band returned from a November 1966 tour of Britain. He said he had witnessed

Dennis Wilson Dennis Carl Wilson (December 4, 1944 – December 28, 1983) was an American musician, singer, and songwriter who co-founded the Beach Boys. He is best remembered as their drummer and as the middle brother of bandmates Brian and Carl Wilson. ...

complaining that the group's British audiences had ridiculed them for their striped-shirt stage outfits, which inspired him to write the last lines of the song and suggest to Brian that the piece be titled "Surf's Up". Brian remembered that when Parks made the suggestion, he felt it was "wild because surfing isn't related to the song at all." However, AFM track sheets indicate that the song had already received its title before the group returned from their UK tour. There is a weak sense of tonal stability throughout the piece; musicologist

Philip Lambert ''Inside the Music of Brian Wilson'' (subtitled ''The Songs, Sounds, and Influences of the Beach Boys' Founding Genius'') is a 2007 book that analyzes the music of Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, authored by American musicologist Philip Lambert ...

's analysis indicates that the composition may contain up to seven

key modulation In music, modulation is the change from one tonality ( tonic, or tonal center) to another. This may or may not be accompanied by a change in key signature (a key change). Modulations articulate or create the structure or form of many pieces, as ...

s. Wilson commented that the first chord was a

minor seventh In music theory, a minor seventh is one of two musical intervals that span seven staff positions. It is ''minor'' because it is the smaller of the two sevenths, spanning ten semitones. The major seventh spans eleven. For example, the interval f ...

, "unlike most of our songs, which open on a major – and from there it just started building and rambling". The beginning of the song alternates between the chords Gm7/D and Dm7/G, followed by F/C and other chords that suggest a key of F major, but ultimately ends at D/A. Lambert was unable to determine if the section ends in the key of F, G, or D. During one

bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar (u ...

, the horn players perform a melodic phrase that replicates the laugh of the cartoon character

Woody Woodpecker Woody Woodpecker is an animated character that appeared in theatrical short films produced by the Walter Lantz Studio and distributed by Universal Studios between 1940 and 1972. Woody, an anthropomorphic woodpecker, was created in 1940 by ...

. The second movement largely consists of a solo piano and vocal performance by Wilson. Its key suggests

E-flat major E-flat major (or the key of E-flat) is a major scale based on E, consisting of the pitches E, F, G, A, B, C, and D. Its key signature has three flats. Its relative minor is C minor, and its parallel minor is E minor, (or enharmonically ...

in the beginning, then traverses to F major before returning to E-flat major and settling at

C minor C minor is a minor scale based on C, consisting of the pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. Its key signature consists of three flats. Its relative major is E major and its parallel major is C major. The C natural minor scale is: : Cha ...

. This part was originally intended to feature a more elaborate arrangement. When asked what he had remembered of the song's second movement in 2003, Wilson responded that it was supposed to feature a string ensemble. In his 2016 memoir, it was written that he was unable to finish the song in the 1960s because it was "too rhapsodic" and "all over the place".

Lyrics

Lyrics in "Surf's Up" reference artifacts of the

patrician Patrician may refer to: * Patrician (ancient Rome), the original aristocratic families of ancient Rome, and a synonym for "aristocratic" in modern English usage * Patrician (post-Roman Europe), the governing elites of cities in parts of medieval ...

period, such as diamond necklaces, opera glasses, and horse-drawn carriages. It quotes the titles of the short stories " The Diamond Necklace" by

Guy de Maupassant Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant (, ; ; 5 August 1850 – 6 July 1893) was a 19th-century French author, remembered as a master of the short story form, as well as a representative of the Naturalist school, who depicted human lives, destin ...

and "

The Pit and the Pendulum "The Pit and the Pendulum" is a short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe and first published in 1842 in the literary annual ''The Gift: A Christmas and New Year's Present for 1843''. The story is about the torments endured by a prisoner of ...

" by

Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wide ...

. The lyrics also espouse themes related to

childhood A child (plural, : children) is a human being between the stages of childbirth, birth and puberty, or between the Development of the human body, developmental period of infancy and puberty. The legal definition of ''child'' generally refers ...

and

God In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...

, similar to other songs written for ''Smile'' (" Wonderful" and "

"). The title is a play-on-words referring to the group shedding their image. In

, "surf's up" means that the conditions of the waves are good, but when the phrase arrives in the song, it is used to conjure an image of a tidal wave. In

Jules Siegel Jules Siegel (October 21, 1935 – November 17, 2012) was a novelist, journalist, and graphic designer who is best known as one of the earliest writers to treat rock music as a serious art, although his writings about rock constituted only a sm ...

's October 1967 memoir for ''

Cheetah The cheetah (''Acinonyx jubatus'') is a large cat native to Africa and central Iran. It is the fastest land animal, estimated to be capable of running at with the fastest reliably recorded speeds being , and as such has evolved specialized ...

'' magazine, "Goodbye Surfing, Hello God", he quoted Wilson offering a lengthy explanation of the album's lyrics. Reportedly, the song is about "a man at a concert" that is overtaken by music. "Columnated ruins domino" symbolizes the collapse of "empires", "ideas", "lives", and "institutions". After the lyric "canvas the town and brush the backdrop", the song's protagonist sets "off on his vision, on a trip". He then suffers a "choke of grief" at "his own suffering and the emptiness of life". At the end, he finds hope and returns "to the tides, to the beach, to childhood" before experiencing "the joy of enlightenment, of seeing God", which manifests in a children's song. Wilson concluded his summary, "Of course that's a very intellectual explanation. But maybe sometimes you have to do an intellectual thing." Music historian

Clinton Heylin Clinton Heylin (born 8 April 1960) is an English author who has written extensively about popular music and the work of Bob Dylan. Education Heylin attended Manchester Grammar School. He read history at Bedford College, University of London, ...

suggests that Wilson had merely repeated an explanation that was originally given by Parks. Singer-songwriter

Jimmy Webb Jimmy Layne Webb (born August 15, 1946) is an American songwriter, composer, and singer. He has written numerous platinum-selling songs, including " Up, Up and Away", " By the Time I Get to Phoenix", " MacArthur Park", " Wichita Lineman", " Wo ...

interpreted the song as "a premonition of what was going to happen to our generation and... to our music—that some great tragedy that we could absolutely not imagine was about to befall our world." Academic Larry Starr wrote, "Van Dyke Parks’s poetic and allusive lyrics articulate the progression from a condition of disillusionment with a decadent and materialistic culture to the glimpse of a possibility for hope and renewal. This is all conveyed via an abundance of musical references and imagery." Lambert said that the song prophesies an optimism for those who can capture the innocence of youth. In the view of journalist

Domenic Priore Domenic Priore (born January 15th 1960) is an American author, historian and television producer whose focus is on popular music and its attendant youth culture. Biography He has written extensively about The Beach Boys' ''Smile'' album, includin ...

, the song was "a plea for the establishment to consider the wisdom coming out of youth culture in 1966." Starr further described it as "a very serious song, with an underlying somber tone for much of its duration that is leavened by wordplay... and the near-miraculous turn toward hope as it ends. Its dark atmosphere is perhaps its greatest deviation, among many, from the features typical of the Beach Boys’ work". Journalist Paul Williams interpreted the song as partly a commentary on the band's musical legacy, writing that the moment in which Wilson sings the line "surf's up" is "a pivot on which everything that's come before in the song wheels and turns, and maybe... everything the Beach Boys and Brian have sung and played and done up to this moment."

Artwork

Artist Frank Holmes, who designed the ''Smile'' cover artwork, created two illustrations that were inspired by the song's lyrics, "Diamond necklace play the pawn" and "Two-step to lamp's light". Along with several other drawings, they were planned to be included within a booklet packaged with the ''Smile'' LP. In 2005, Holmes shared a background summary of his design choices: "Diamond necklace play the pawn" "Two-step to lamp's light"

Recording history

''Smile'' sessions

Wilson held the first tracking session for "Surf's Up" at Western Studio 3, with usual engineer Chuck Britz, on November 4, 1966. It was logged with the subtitle "1st Movement". Musicians present were upright bassist

Jimmy Bond Jimmy Bond is a fictional character in the American Fox television shows ''The Lone Gunmen'' and ''The X-Files'', two science fiction shows about government conspiracies to hide or deny the truth from the people. Portrayed by American actor ...

, drummer

Frank Capp Francis Cappuccio (August 20, 1931 – September 12, 2017), known professionally as Frank Capp, was an American jazz drummer. Capp also played on numerous rock and roll sessions and is considered to be a member of The Wrecking Crew. Biography ...

, guitarist Al Casey, pianist

Al De Lory Alfred V. De Lory (January 31, 1930 – February 5, 2012) was an American record producer, arranger, conductor and session musician. He was the producer and arranger of a series of worldwide hits by Glen Campbell in the 1960s, including John H ...

, bassist

Carol Kaye Carol Kaye (née Smith, born March 24, 1935) is an American musician. She is one of the most prolific recorded bass guitarists in rock and pop music, playing on an estimated 10,000 recordings in a career spanning over 50 years. Kaye began play ...

, and percussionist Nick Pellico. Wilson instructed Capp to play jewelry sounds from what was possibly a ring of car keys. Between November 7 and 8, overdubs were recorded with Capp, Pellico, and a horn ensemble consisting of Arthur Brieglab, Roy Caton, David Duke, George Hyde, and Claude Sherry. The November 7 session was dedicated to experimenting with horn effects, including an exercise in which Wilson instructed his musicians to laugh and have conversations through their instruments. The tape of this experiment was later given the label "George Fell into His French Horn". Journalist Rob Chapman compared the piece to experiments heard on the 1965 album '' The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra, Volume One'' (1965). There are at least two known "Surf's Up" recordings that have been presumed missing or lost: a vocal session at Columbia Studio from December 15, 1966, and two sessions at Western from January 23, 1967. According to Badman, the December 15 session included vocal and piano overdubs onto the first movement backing track, as well as further recording on the song "Wonderful". Siegel later claimed that the session "went very badly". That evening, Wilson had been filmed at Columbia Studio singing and performing "Surf's Up" on piano for use in David Oppenheim's

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

-commissioned documentary '' Inside Pop: The Rock Revolution''. According to Siegel, Wilson and Oppenheim were dissatisfied with what they had filmed, and decided to reshoot the sequence at Wilson's home two days later, on December 17. His performance that day, executed in one take with a candelabrum placed on his grand piano, was captured by three film cameras and deemed satisfactory for use in the documentary. The lost sessions from January 1967 reportedly involved additional instrumental tracking, including a 16-piece string and horn section that was overdubbed onto a bounced tape of the backing track from December 15. A fully-developed recording of the song's second movement has never been found. In 2004,

Darian Sahanaja Darian Sahanaja (born May 20, 1963) is an American singer, songwriter, instrumentalist, and arranger who is best known for co-founding Wondermints in 1992 and playing with Brian Wilson's supporting band since 1999. He has also performed alongsi ...

said that a tape for the instrumental tracking of the section was rumored to exist somewhere, while

Mark Linett Mark may refer to: Currency * Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark, the currency of Bosnia and Herzegovina * East German mark, the currency of the German Democratic Republic * Estonian mark, the currency of Estonia between 1918 and 1927 * Fin ...

stated, "If it does exist, we haven't found it." Asked decades after the fact, Wilson responded that he did not think that he ever recorded it. In 2011, Linett commented, "It’s interesting because there’s a session sheet indicating that the second half of 'Surf’s Up' – the backing track was recorded. But there's never been any taped evidence of it, and obviously there was no taped evidence when the Beach Boys went to finish it in the Seventies. And nobody, including Brian, can confirm that it ever happened. So it may have been a session that was mislabeled, or a session that got canceled."

''Inside Pop'' premiere and aftermath

''Inside Pop: The Rock Revolution'', hosted by composer

Leonard Bernstein Leonard Bernstein ( ; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first America ...

, premiered on the CBS network on April 25, 1967. Brian's segment in the documentary featured him singing "Surf's Up" at his piano without any interview footage or references to ''Smile''. Oppenheim declared through voice-over that the song was "poetic, beautiful in its obscurity" and "one aspect of new things happening in pop music today. As such, it is a symbol of the change many of these young musicians see in our future." He further described Wilson as "one of today's most important pop musicians." According to Badman, Wilson's segment aroused "great expectations" for ''Smile'', while journalist

Nick Kent Nick Kent (born 24 December 1951) is a British rock critic best known for his writing for the '' NME'' in the 1970s, and his books ''The Dark Stuff'' (1994) and ''Apathy for the Devil'' (2010). Early life Kent, the son of a former Abbey Road S ...

wrote that Wilson was "freaked out" and "broke down" over the praise he was afforded in the documentary. After ''Smile'' was scrapped, Wilson neglected to include the song on the replacement album ''

Smiley Smile ''Smiley Smile'' is the 12th studio album by American Rock music, rock band the Beach Boys, released on September 18, 1967. It reached number 9 on UK record charts, but sold poorly in the US, peaking at number 41—the band's lowest chart place ...

'' (1967). He said that his decision to keep "Surf's Up" unreleased was one that "nearly broke up" the band. In a review of ''Smiley Smile'' for ''Cheetah'', a critic bemoaned the album's absence of "Surf's Up", writing that the song is "better than anything that is on the album and would have provided the same emotional catharsis as that ' A Day in the Life' provides for '' Sgt. Pepper''." During a 1970 interview, Wilson commented that the song was "too long to make it for me as a record, unless it were an album cut, which I guess it would have to be anyway. It's so far from a singles sound. It could never be a single."

"Country Air" tape

In late 1967, Wilson recorded several takes of another piano-vocal performance of "Surf's Up" at his home studio, presumably during sessions for the album '' Wild Honey''. The forgotten demo was rediscovered several decades later when archivists searched through the contents at the end of the multi-track reel for the ''Wild Honey'' track "Country Air". Mark Linett stated: "No explanation for why he

rian RIA Novosti (russian: РИА Новости), sometimes referred to as RIAN () or RIA (russian: РИА, label=none) is a Russian state-owned domestic news agency. On 9 December 2013 by a decree of Vladimir Putin it was liquidated and its asset ...

did that and it was never taken any farther. Although I don’t think the intention was to take it any farther because it's just him singing live and playing piano."

''Surf's Up'' sessions

Early in 1971, the Beach Boys were recording their second album for

Reprise Records Reprise Records is an American record label founded in 1960 by Frank Sinatra. It is owned by Warner Music Group, and operates through Warner Records, one of its flagship labels. Artists currently signed to Reprise Records include Enya, Michael ...

, tentatively titled ''

Landlocked A landlocked country is a country that does not have territory connected to an ocean or whose coastlines lie on endorheic basins. There are currently 44 landlocked countries and 4 landlocked de facto states. Kazakhstan is the world's largest ...

''. Band manager

Jack Rieley John Frank Rieley III (November 24, 1942 – April 17, 2015) was an American record producer, songwriter, and disc jockey who managed the Beach Boys between mid-1970 and late 1973. He is credited with guiding them back to popular acclaim and was ...

had asked Brian about including "Surf's Up" on the record, and in early June, Brian suddenly gave approval for Carl and Rieley to finish the song. While on a drive to meet record company executive

Mo Ostin Mo Ostin (born Morris Meyer Ostrofsky; March 27, 1927 – July 31, 2022) was an American record executive who worked for several companies, including Verve, Reprise Records, Warner Bros. Records, and DreamWorks. He was chairman and chief ex ...

, Brian said to Rieley: "Well, OK, if you're going to force me, I'll... put 'Surf's Up' on the album." Rieley asked, "Are you really going to do it?" to which Brian repeated, "Well, if you're going to force me." According to Rieley: "We got into Warner Brothers and, with no coaxing at all, Brian said to Mo, 'I'm going to put 'Surf's Up' on the next album. From mid-June to early July, Carl and Rieley retrieved the ''Smile'' multi-tracks from Capitol's vaults, primarily to locate the "Surf's Up" masters, and attempted to repair and splice the tapes. Brian joined them on at least two occasions. Afterward, the band set to work on recording the song at their private studio, located within Brian's home. Brian initially refused to participate in the recording of "Surf's Up" and insisted that Carl take the lead vocal. The group attempted to rerecord the song from scratch. "But we scrapped it", Rieley later said, "because it didn't quite come up to the original." An unsuccessful attempt was also made to mashup Brian's 1966 vocal to the instrumental track. According to Linett, a tape showcasing this effort still exists in the group's archives. Carl Wilson 1971

Carl ultimately overdubbed a lead vocal onto the song's first part, the original backing track dating from November 1966, as well as backing vocals. Two organ overdubs were also recorded. The second movement was composed of the December 15, 1966 solo piano performance by Brian, augmented with vocal and

Moog synthesizer The Moog synthesizer is a modular synthesizer developed by the American engineer Robert Moog. Moog debuted it in 1964, and Moog's company R. A. Moog Co. (later known as Moog Music) produced numerous models from 1965 to 1981, and again from 20 ...

overdubs. Carl reworked the refrain from another unreleased ''Smile'' song, "

", into the coda of "Surf's Up".

Bruce Johnston Bruce Arthur Johnston (born Benjamin Baldwin; June 27, 1942) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer who is a member of the Beach Boys. Johnston also collaborated on many records with Terry Melcher (his bandmate in Bru ...

recalled, "We ended up doing vocals to sort of emulate ourselves without Brian Wilson, which was kind of silly."

Al Jardine Alan Charles Jardine (born September 3, 1942) is an American musician, singer, and songwriter who co-founded the Beach Boys. He is best known as the band's rhythm guitarist and for occasionally singing lead vocals on singles such as "Help Me, Rho ...

sang the lead vocal on this section. Rieley said, "we all got involved in he final tag... I'm on it nda guy who worked for us part-time, Bill DeSimone, is on it. He just sings 'Hey, hey.' But it is integral to the tag on the record. That was a lot of fun...". Writing in a 1996 online Q&A, he wrote that Brian had "stated clearly that it was his intent all along for Child to be the tag for Surfs Up." To the surprise and glee of his associates, Brian emerged near the end of the sessions to aid Carl and engineer Stephen Desper in the completion of the coda. As Desper recalled, "Brian didn't want to work on 'Surf's Up'. But after three days of coaxing, and of him walking in and out of the studio, he was finally convinced to do a part." A final lyric was then devised, "A children's song / Have you listened as they play? / Their song is love / And the children know the way". Desper credited Brian with the line, while Rieley credited himself. With the song completed, ''Landlocked'' was given the new title of ''Surf's Up''. The occasion marked the last time the group reworked material that was originally written for ''Smile''.

Release

On August 30, 1971, "Surf's Up" was released as the closing track on the LP of the same name. It was also issued as the album's third single in the US, in November, and failed to chart. A major part of the album's success came from the inclusion of the title track, although most listeners at the time were unaware that the song derived from a lost Beach Boys album. The band incorporated "Surf's Up" into their live set at the time. ''Circus'' reported that, at one concert, the group performed the song as a closer "after numerous requests" from the audience. In another concert review from the ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'', Tony Stewart reported that the band said "Surf's Up" was "a most apt title, implying they had deserted the surfing days". Reviewing the ''Surf's Up'' album for ''

Melody Maker ''Melody Maker'' was a British weekly music magazine, one of the world's earliest music weeklies; according to its publisher, IPC Media, the earliest. It was founded in 1926, largely as a magazine for dance band musicians, by Leicester-born ...

'', Richard Williams wrote that the title track, "had it been released back at ''Pepper''-time... might have kept many people from straying into the pastures of indulgence and may have forced them to focus back on truer values. I've rarely heard a more perfect, more complete piece of music. From first to last it flows and evolves from the almost lush decadence of the first verses to the childlike wonders and open-hearted joy of the final chorale."

Don Heckman Don, don or DON and variants may refer to: Places *County Donegal, Ireland, Chapman code DON * Don (river), a river in European Russia * Don River (disambiguation), several other rivers with the name * Don, Benin, a town in Benin * Don, Dang, a ...

wrote in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' that the song "bears easy comparison with the best of The Beatles' ''Sgt. Pepper'' songs". ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

''s Arthur Schmidt judged the song to have lived up to its legend, although its placement on the record gave "something of the effect of Brian saying: 'Oh yeah, that’s our new album, but hey, you wanna hear something we had left over around here? He added that while it "would have more than given a run to anything on ''Sergeant Pepper''", the song was "dazzling" to a fault. Geoffrey Cannon of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' opined that Parks' lyrics were "pretentious", but compared the song favorably to "

You Still Believe in Me "You Still Believe in Me" is a song by American rock band the Beach Boys from their 1966 album ''Pet Sounds''. Initially conceived as "In My Childhood", it was the first songwriting collaboration between Brian Wilson, the group's ''de facto'' l ...

" and "

I Just Wasn't Made for These Times "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times" is a song by American rock band the Beach Boys from their 1966 album ''Pet Sounds''. Written by Brian Wilson and Tony Asher, the lyrics describe the disillusionment of someone who struggles to fit into socie ...

" from ''

Pet Sounds ''Pet Sounds'' is the 11th studio album by American rock band the Beach Boys, released on May 16, 1966, by Capitol Records. It was initially met with a lukewarm critical and commercial response in the United States, peaking at number 10 on th ...

'': "Its subtle shifts of pace and timing, and delicate harmony singing, put it in the top flight of Beach Boys' numbers."

Legacy

Other releases and performances

In 1995, the

Wondermints The Wondermints are an American rock band from Los Angeles that released four studio albums between 1995 and 2002. The main line-up consisted of Darian Sahanaja (keyboards); Nick Walusko (also known as Nicky Wonder; guitar), and Mike D'Amico (per ...

– a band that included Sahanaja as a member – performed a live cover of "Surf's Up" at the Morgan-Wixon Theater in Los Angeles with Wilson in the audience, who was then quoted saying "If I'd had these guys back in '66, I could've taken ''Smile'' on the road." Wilson rerecorded the song as part of his 2004 album, ''

Brian Wilson Presents Smile ''Brian Wilson Presents Smile'' (also referred to as ''Smile'' or the abbreviation ''BWPS'') is the fifth studio album by American musician Brian Wilson, released on September 28, 2004 on Nonesuch. It features all-new recordings of music that ...

'', with new string orchestrations arranged by himself, Parks, Sahanaja, and Paul Mertens. For the 2011 compilation ''

'', Mark Linett created a new mix of the song that mashed up the 1966 backing track to the vocals from Brian's contemporaneous piano demo. In 2000,

Radio City Music Hall Radio City Music Hall is an entertainment venue and Theater (structure), theater at 1260 Sixth Avenue (Manhattan), Avenue of the Americas, within Rockefeller Center, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Nicknamed "The Showplac ...

held the All-Star Tribute to Brian Wilson, a concert that included a performance of "Surf's Up" by Jimmy Webb,

David Crosby David Van Cortlandt Crosby (born August 14, 1941) is an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter. In addition to his solo career, he was a founding member of both the Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash. Crosby joined the Byrds in 1964. They got ...

, and

Vince Gill Vincent Grant Gill (born April 12, 1957) is an American country music singer, songwriter and musician. He has achieved commercial success and fame both as frontman of the country rock band Pure Prairie League in the 1970s and as a solo artist b ...

. Gill had accepted the invitation to perform the song without having heard it before, expecting it to be in the style of the band's uptempo hits. He remembered his reaction to hearing the song for the first time: '' Love & Mercy'', the 2014

biopic A biographical film or biopic () is a film that dramatizes the life of a non-fictional or historically-based person or people. Such films show the life of a historical person and the central character's real name is used. They differ from docudra ...

of Wilson's life, features a recreation of the ''Inside Pop'' performance with actor

Paul Dano Paul Franklin Dano (; born June 19, 1984) is an American actor. He began his career on Broadway before making his film debut in ''The Newcomers'' (2000). He won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Debut Performance for his role in '' L.I.E.' ...

portraying Wilson. Dano told a ''Rolling Stone'' interviewer, "My second day of filming, I had to perform 'Surf’s Up' over and over. It remains one of the best days I’ve ever had a film set.... but it's tough o play I simplified a lot of the left hand work on the piano. Brian’s left-hand work is pretty complicated."

Retrospective assessments

Writing in his book ''Inside the Music of Brian Wilson'' (2007), Philip Lambert named the song "the soul of ''Smile''" and the "sum total of its creators' most profound artistic visions" with its "perfect marriage of an eloquent lyric with music of commensurate power and depth." Musician

Elvis Costello Declan Patrick MacManus Order of the British Empire, OBE (born 25 August 1954), known professionally as Elvis Costello, is an English singer-songwriter and record producer. He has won multiple awards in his career, including a Grammy Award in ...

said that when he discovered a bootlegged tape of Wilson performing the song, "It was like hearing a tape of

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...

. It's just Brian and his piano and yet it's all there in that performance. The song already sounds complete." ''

Record Collector ''Record Collector'' is a British monthly music magazine. It was founded in 1980 and distributes worldwide. History The early years The first standalone issue of ''Record Collector'' was published in March 1980, though its history stretches ba ...

''s Jamie Atkins said it was "so far ahead of the work of their contemporaries that it is not entirely surprising Wilson found himself recoiling from its sophistication and majesty; the songwriting equivalent of scaling

Everest Mount Everest (; Tibetan: ''Chomolungma'' ; ) is Earth's highest mountain above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas. The China–Nepal border runs across its summit point. Its elevation (snow heigh ...

, only to find yourself thinking, 'Well, what now? Critic

Dave Marsh Dave Marsh (born March 1, 1950) is an American music critic, and radio talk show host. He was an early editor of ''Creem'' magazine, has written for various publications such as ''Newsday'', ''The Village Voice'', and ''Rolling Stone (magazine), ...

was less favorable towards the song. Writing in ''

The Rolling Stone Record Guide ''The Rolling Stone Album Guide'', previously known as ''The Rolling Stone Record Guide'', is a book that contains professional music reviews written and edited by staff members from ''Rolling Stone'' magazine. Its first edition was published in 1 ...

'' (1983), he bemoaned the hype that continued to surround Wilson and the ''Smile'' project throughout the 1970s and opined that "Surf's Up" "was far less forceful and arguably less innovative than Wilson's surf-era hits." In a 1995 radio interview, Wilson referred to his singing on the recording as an "atrocious" performance. He said, "I'm embarrassed. Totally embarrassed. That was a piece of shit. Vocally it was a piece of shit. I was the wrong singer for it in the first place.... And in the second place, I don't know why I would ever let a record go out like that." A few years later, he added that his vocal "was a little bit limited. It's not my favorite vocal I ever did, but it did have heart." In a 1975 interview,

Mike Love Michael Edward Love (born March 15, 1941) is an American singer and songwriter who co-founded the Beach Boys with his cousins Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson and their friend Al Jardine. Characterized by his nasal tenor and occasional bass-bari ...

voiced appreciation of the song's musical form and content, which he believed went beyond what was normally expected of commercial pop music.

Accolades and polls

, "Surf's Up" is listed as the 744th highest rated song of all time on Acclaimed Music. * In 2006, ''

'' ranked Wilson's solo piano performance of the song at number 134 in its list of "The 200 Best Songs of the 1960s". * In 2011, ''

'' staff members voted it the greatest Beach Boys song. The song's entry stated, "Not so much timeless but a song out of time, Surf's Up is an elegy the richness and mystery of which only deepens with age." * In 2016, ''Pitchfork'' ranked the ''Surf's Up'' version at number 122 on its list of "The 200 Best Songs of the 1970s". Contributor Andy Beta stated, Surf's Up' bade farewell to the Beach Boys' outdated surf-boy personas, right there in the title; it was complex, impressionistic, and the crowning achievement of Wilson and lyricist Van Dyke Parks’ collaboration. The lyrics alight on

Tennyson Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was an English poet. He was the Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of his ...

Maupassant Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant (, ; ; 5 August 1850 – 6 July 1893) was a 19th-century French author, remembered as a master of the short story form, as well as a representative of the Naturalist school, who depicted human lives, destin ...

, and children’s songs; the coda of 'The child is the father of the man,' easily the most effervescent chorus the Boys ever harmonized on, is also a stunning quote of a

William Wordsworth William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication ''Lyrical Ballads'' (1798). Wordsworth's ' ...

poem."

Personnel

Per Craig Slowinski, Mark Dillon and Keith Badman. Musicians on November 1966 instrumental track * Jimmy Bond – upright bass * Arthur Brieglab – overdubbed French horn * Roy Caton – overdubbed trumpet *

– car keys, hi-hat * Al Casey – electric baritone guitar * David Duke – overdubbed French horn *

– Fender bass * George Hyde – overdubbed French horn *

Al de Lory Alfred V. De Lory (January 31, 1930 – February 5, 2012) was an American record producer, arranger, conductor and session musician. He was the producer and arranger of a series of worldwide hits by Glen Campbell in the 1960s, including John H ...

– upright piano * Nick Pellico –

glockenspiel The glockenspiel ( or , : bells and : set) or bells is a percussion instrument consisting of pitched aluminum or steel bars arranged in a keyboard layout. This makes the glockenspiel a type of metallophone, similar to the vibraphone. The glo ...

* Claude Sherry – overdubbed French horn Additional musicians on 1971 track * Bill DeSimone – backing vocals (outro) * Stephen W. Desper - Moog programming *

– backing vocals *

– lead vocal (outro), backing vocals *

- backing vocals *

– backing vocals * Brian Wilson – lead vocal and piano (second-movement), backing vocals; possible

* Carl Wilson – lead vocal (first-movement), backing vocals, Hammond organ, shaker; possible Moog synthesizer *

- backing vocals *

Marilyn Wilson Marilyn Wilson-Rutherford (née Rovell; born February 6, 1948) is an American singer who is best known as the first wife of the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson. Raised in Los Angeles, she started her singing career in the late 1950s, initially as part ...

– backing vocals

Notes

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

External links

* * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Surfs Up (song) 1967 songs 1971 singles The Beach Boys songs Brian Wilson songs Songs written by Brian Wilson Songs written by Van Dyke Parks Song recordings produced by Brian Wilson Song recordings produced by the Beach Boys Reprise Records singles Capitol Records singles Musical compositions completed by others Songs based on poems