‘Brian Wilson Tried to Steal the Song’
With their 1963 hit “Surfin’ U.S.A.” the Beach Boys made surfing more than just a southern California sport. For baby boomers coming of age, it represented a break from the staid 1950s.
In the Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll, Jim Miller writes that while the Beach Boys were not the first to celebrate catching a wave, they did seize upon something unique.
“In surfing, the Beach Boys had hit upon a potent image. Leisure, mobility and privacy—it was the suburban myth transported to the Pacific Ocean, but rendered heroic. There had been ‘surf bands’ (such as Dick Dale’s) in California before the Beach Boys, but these bands played a homogenous brand of instrumental rock, crossed with rhythm & blues. The Beach Boys, with their neatly trimmed harmonies, were projecting a world view . . .
“While the blanched vocals harked back to the Four Preps, the guitars had the crude drive of a high school band. Coming in the midst of teen idols, Brill Building pop and seductive girl groups, the first Beach Boys hits managed to sound raunchy and vital, yet clean, somehow safe.”
In I Am Brian Wilson: A Memoir, the Beach Boys’ leader describes how the brother of his girlfriend, Judy Bowles, inspired the group’s first Top 10 hit.
“Judy had a brother, Jimmy, who was a surfer. He was always talking about the points and the spots where the great surfers wanted to go. I knew I wanted to do a Chuck Berry-type song about surfing, and whenever Jimmy talked about surfing I liked the names of the places. I asked him for a list and used the places he gave me to make up the lyrics of ‘Surfin’ U.S.A.’”
Bowles’ list was extensive; no less than 16 surf locations were included in the song, from the famous (San Diego’s Swami’s Beach and Hawaii’s Waimea Bay) to in-spots like Haggerty’s in California. Australia’s Narrabeen even made the cut.
The Beach Boys went into Hollywood’s Western Recorders in January 1963 to cut “Surfin’ U.S.A.” with Mike Love performing lead vocals. Wilson introduced a technique that would become a Beach Boys trademark: double-tracking the vocals to give them a fullness and brightness.
Wilson failed to credit Chuck Berry as co-writer; while the lyrics were different, the rhythm and melody were unmistakably borrowed from Berry’s “Sweet Little Sixteen.”
Chess Records’ ARC Music, Berry’s publisher, noticed the similarities. Producer Marshall Chess said in Brown Eyed Handsome Man: The Life and Hard Times of Chuck Berry that he threatened to sue.
“It was total infringement. Had Brian Wilson’s lawyers come to Chuck and said, ‘We’re doing this with our lyrics; let’s get 50/50 on the copyright,’ it probably wouldn’t have happened. But Brian Wilson tried to steal the song, so it became a copyright infringement.”
The Beach Boys’ publisher settled the case out of court. Brian’s father Murry Wilson, who managed the band’s business affairs, turned the full copyright over to Berry without telling Brian.
Despite the legal wrangling, Wilson refused to hold a grudge. He has included Berry’s songs in his live shows, sometimes weaving the lyrics of “Sweet Little Sixteen” into his take on “Surfin’ U.S.A.”
