The music that grew out of the surf scene was forged in 1960 by a number of garage bands hailing from various beach-side areas in Southern California.

One of the first of these, the Belairs, formed in Redondo Beach. The band consisted of Paul Johnson and Eddie Bertrand on guitars, Jim Roberts on piano, Chaz Stewarts on saxophone and Richard Delvy on drums. Adopting their own take on the instrumental rock style, they put on shows around South California attracting a predominantly surfing crowd.

In 1961 the Belairs released one of the first true surf instrumentals, Mr Moto, a cute little guitar and piano tune with some snappy snare drum work.

A reformed Belairs play Mr Moto at the South Bay Surf Revival, California, 1986.

King of the Surf Guitar

Meanwhile, on the peninsula of Balboa Island, Dick Dale was kicking up a storm at the Rendezvous Ballroom.

Born Richard Monsour, in 1937, he started out as a country guitarist and vocalist but later changed his name and started playing with his band the Del-Tones at the Southern Californian beach clubs. These gigs were packed with surfers, and Dick himself became interested in the sport, enabling him to identify more closely with his audience.

As a result Dale started to develop his guitar style to greater reflect the surfing experience. He was left handed but played a right-handed Fender Stratocaster guitar, upside down, without changing the strings around - an early influence on Jimi Hendrix, another lefty who played a right-handed Strat (although Hendrix did re-string his correctly).

Dale’s guitar requirements were unique, and he worked closely with the people at Fender musical instruments in search of his own sound. One prime requirement was volume - he managed to blow over 40 amps before Fender came up with the rugged Showman amplifier that delivered the output he was looking for.

But the pieces really fell into place with Dick Dale’s pioneering use of the portable reverb unit, which, combined with his vibrant staccato attack, provided that wet and wild roar that perfectly depicted the sound of the waves engulfing the surfer on a tube ride. Dale was soon being dubbed the ‘King Of The Surf Guitar’ and his shows started to attract audiences of 3000-plus. They even invented a dance, the Surfers Stomp, to go along with instrumentals like Shake N’ Stomp and Surf Beat.

Dick Dale, Surf Beat, 1962.

Surf goes mainstream

In August 1961, Dick Dale went into the studio to record Let’s Go Trippin’, which garnered airplay and sold well in local record shops.

The LA producer Joe Saraceno sniffed the beginning of a movement and hastily assembled a band called the Marketts, made up of West Coast session musicians, who recorded Dick Dale’s Surfer Stomp and scored the first national Top 40 surf hit. An album of the same name followed up this success (even though it was recorded by a different set of session musicians under the name of the Marketts).

Meanwhile, Dale himself continued a run of influential singles, including Misirlou, Jungle Fever and Shake ‘N’ Stomp. He released his own album, Surfer’s Choice, in early 1962, the first to feature a surfer on the cover, with a shot of Dale himself riding the waves.

Dick Dale and the Del-Tones, Misirlou, from the movie A Swinging Affair, 1963.

He also started to get his name known nationally - in 1963 he made the cover of Life magazine, appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show and played a cameo in the movie Muscle Beach Party, including a genre-defying duet with the young Stevie Wonder.

Dick Dale and the Del-Tones and Stevie Wonder, from the movie Muscle Beach Party, 1963.

A string of Dick Dale albums followed: King Of The Surf Guitar (1963), Checkered Flag (1963), Mr Eliminator (1964) and Summer Surf (1964) all cemented his reputation as the real deal, but Dale couldn’t secure the breakthrough national hit he was looking for and he spent the rest of his career trading on his status as the originator of the surf rock sound.

Occasionally Dick Dale’s fortunes revived; in 1987 he played a guitar duet with Stevie Ray Vaughan on a cover of the early surf hit Pipeline for the film Back to The Beach, and in the 90s his wave was once again on the rise when Quentin Tarantino used Misirlou on the Pulp Fiction soundtrack.

Stevie Ray Vaughan/Dick Dale, Pipeline, from the movie Back to the Beach, 1987.

The Surf Beat

Following Dick Dale’s innovations, a tidal wave of garage bands crashed onto the West Coast, putting forward their own variations of the surf beat sound: The Surfaris, The Pyramids, The Trashmen, The Frogmen, The Tornadoes, The Chevells, The Vibrents, The Revelairs, and many more, rushed to respond to the new demand for surf instrumentals.

These surf bands all took a similar approach: the music was lively, fast, loud, and above all fun. Many were characterised by wild vocals, manic giggles and crazed shouts - check out the Trashmen’s Surfin’ Bird or the Surfaris’ Wipeout, for examples of this unique surf rock sound.

The Surfaris, Wipeout, 1963.

The Trashmen, Surfin’ Bird, 1963.

Recommended recordings

• Dick Dale, Surfer’s Choice - the first surf rock album.
• Dick Dale, King Of The Surf Guitar - Dale establishes the definitive surf instrumental sound.
• Various Artists, Rock Instrumental Classics Volume 5: Surf - includes classic surf instrumentals Mr Moto, Wipeout, Pipeline, and many more.

Further Reading

• The Complete Guide to Surf Rock Part 1: Rock Guitar Instrumentals

Next week: The Complete Guide to Surf Rock Part 3: The Beach Boys.