Ask “Mr. Music”
Jerry Osborne



FOR THE WEEK OF APRIL 3, 2000

DEAR JERRY: I enjoyed the recent ABC-TV “Beach Boys, An American Family,” though I do have something about it I'd like to go over with you.

I think I caught a real blooper. In the scene where they just made their first record, “Surfin,” and brought it home, it is shown playing on a phonograph. What really jumped out at me at that moment was that the record spinning had a yellow and orange Capitol label.

As any Beach Boys fan knows, “Surfin” did not yet exist on Capitol. It became a hit on the Candix label, though it came out even earlier on the “X” label. Did you notice this and do you agree with me?

Overall, they did a pretty good job on the story, though they completely skipped over the other early recordings, such as “Barbie” and “The Surfer Moon.”
—Edwin McCorkle, Stendal, Ind.

DEAR EDWIN: I did check intermittently with the “Beach Boys, An American Family,” but only during the commercial breaks of something else that had my attention that night. Sorry to say, I did not catch the scene you described. Had I, it would have annoyed me too.

You are absolutely right, “Surfin” should have been on the “X” label, since that was the original issue. Candix picked the tune up for national distribution and theirs became the charted hit.

After “Surfin” ran its course, Capitol put out their first Beach Boys single, “Surfin' Safari.” Capitol apparently had better proofreaders than the “X” and Candix outfits — they added the requisite apostrophe to the end of “Surfin.”

While “Surfin” rode the charts, the boys recorded “Barbie,” which came out with credited to Kenny and the Cadets.

Though not a Beach Boys recording, Bob and Sheri's 1962 release of “The Surfer Moon” is a Brian Wilson production, a Brian Wilson composition, and it is on Brian's own short-lived label, Safari.

The following year, Brian and the boys issued their own version of “The Surfer Moon” on their Capitol “Surfer Girl” LP.

This brings to mind an essential CD for Beach Boys fans, titled “Lost & Found: 1961-1962” (DCC DZS-054). This 1991 issue features 21 tracks, including several previously unreleased gems.


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DEAR JERRY: A nagging question has bothered me a lot of late, and I hope you can shed some light on it.

Who sang the lead on the No. 1 hit by the Raiders, “Indian Reservation”?

Some books say that it is Mark Lindsay, others say it's Freddy Weller. I do have one CD that credits “Raiders Featuring Mark Lindsay.” Please help!
—Greg Stucki, York, PA (gregstucki@yahoo.com)

DEAR GREG: Then let's cast out the nagging once and for all. Mark Lindsay sings the lead on “Indian Reservation,” as he did on most of their hits.

It's a reach, but it could be that some have confused “Indian Reservation” with “Indian Lake,” a completely different song, despite a similar title. “Indian Lake” became a country music hit just a couple of months after “Indian Reservation” hit the charts. Weller's “Indian Lake” is a remake of the 1968 Top 10 hit for the Cowsils.


IZ ZAT SO? Most American Pop devotees know that before they were named the Beach Boys, this Hawthorne (Calif.) quartet called themselves the Pendletones, a catchy reference to the Pendleton shirts popular with surfers at the time.

Until release of “Lost & Found,” however, even the most knowledgeable students of the Beach Boys were unaware that they actually recorded two tracks as the Pendletones: “Luau,” and a primitive version of “Surfin.”






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