George Tomsco and the Fireballs led the way in "Surf Guitar" music, though Duane Eddy arrived earlier but did not really have the "Surf Sound". The British group, the Shadows, never had that sound, though their recording of "Kon Tiki" does come near. Santo and Johnny's "Slave Girl", played on electric steel guitar, to my mind was very much part of the "Surf Guitar" sound. I feel that from 1963 on, popular music as we knew it before began to take a dive for the worse and has never recovered since. These of course are very much my own personal views, but I am old enough to have been around at the time, to enjoy it as it happened! Very much enjoyed your own excellent video.

me and my roommate have been listening to tons of surf music lately and it was like midnight and I was high and was like "type in history of surf music into youtube" and this vid came up we ended up pausing to listen to all the tracks mentioned. nothing beats Miserlou (although it's sorta sad how little dancing the bands were able to do at the time) and I loved watching some Chuck Barry. We even watched the Animaniacs short "Little Old Lady From Pasadena" for a laugh! times are freakin hard right now but I'm glad there's educators out there still keeping strong right now! thanks for the video and helping me rock out for a bit

I'm 42 yrs old I'm a guitarist I absolutely love the early 60s era surf music and pop era

Nice synopsis of Surf Music here. I've been teaching the History of Rock'n'Roll officially for 5 years now as a course in an International boarding school for high school students. I do not refer to this time period between the Golden Era of Rock'n'Roll (1955-1959) and the Classic Rock Era (which began with the British invasion in 1964) as the dark ages. There is so much incredible music, as you alluded to it, in this time period. I call it the Middle Years and I'm really fascinated by it. The Girl Groups, Rockin' Soul (The Falcons, Valentinos, Nolan Strong and the Diablos, The 5 Royales and James Brown), Surf Music, The Folk Boom and the start of Dylan's recording career in 1961. Meanwhile Motown Records, SAR and Stax Records are founded and behind the scenes The Beatles are evolving and covering a lot of the great R'n'B that is coming out of everywhere in the USA. This era is as vibrant and essential to the Classic Rock Era as was the late 40's to the 50's Rock'n'Roll Era. IMHO.

Thanks so much! Great video.

The Sentinels Latin'ia brought Latin and Hawaiian influences, a song in turn inspired by Santo and Johnny's steel guitar in Slave Girl and Malaguena cover by Ritchie Valens... And don't forget Torquay by the Fireballs...another influential group

Brian Wilson is a genius but even he looked up to Dick Dale. Nuff said....

great job, thx

Man what a great content you present.respect

One has to wonder what the music of the latter 20th century would have looked like if Surf and Instrumental Rock had dominated and grown rather than than being displaced by the British Invasion.

Instrumental surf IS surf music, I think. It's surf pop that has the singing.

Thank you for this very informative video. I was interested in the history as an amateur musician and curious about the roots of Surf Music and simply did a search. I was wondering if you would cover the legal battle over "Telstar". My relative attends Rochester University and I had the good fortune to visit the beautiful campus surrounded by great history.

Yes, Dick Dale played “left-handed”. With a regular guitar, strung for a right handed person. Which causes the strings to be “upside down “ when play left-handed. As opposed to people restringing the guitar for lefties which would put the heavy strings on top. The way you explained it doesn’t state this.

Great synopsis of the early surf music scene in SoCal. Probably worth mentioning how strongly Fender guitars and amps were associated with the genre, especially since it was Dick Dale who inspired Leo Fender to come up with a larger, louder amp to facilitate the bigger venues and larger crowds resulting from his popularity. Vox underwent a similar process with the Beatles, who played increasingly larger venues to increasingly larger (and louder) crowds, and found themselves drowned out completely by screaming.

Excellent! Just one thing, it's not the Safaris but the Surfari who wrote wipe out.

Was Miserlou the only middle eastern influenced song that Dick dale played or wrote?

The spelling of the Surfaris was spelled wrong as Safaris. That's a separate group. Please make a note of it.

Miser lou 🤣

Well the influence of Dick Dales instrumental style can be easily heard and is cited by the likes of Jimi Hendrix and Eddie Van Halen

You didn't mention the 2nd, 3rd wave of instrumental surf and where it is now.

Ms. er-lou, not Miser lou.

What’s the difference in origin between Vocal Jazz Harmony and Doo Wop?

Err "Wipe Out" is by The Surfaris not Safaris ....

Actually surf music has no topics. True surf music has no vocals. Dick Dale said that and I feel it's true. "Apache" was written by Jerry Lordan, an English man that also wrote "Atlantis" and "Wonderful Land".

The Ventures started out in Tacoma, not Seattle.

Surfaris, not Safaris.

Uniquely American? It's rooted in Hawaiian music and culture that existed before the US did.

Wow. You need to do some extensive research about the genre before you go making videos filled with bad content. Surf music is an instrumental form of rock and roll. Vocal groups like Jan and Dean and The Beach Boys are NOT surf music. Of the few instrumental acts you mention only two are surf music and you don't even get your facts right on those. You totally omit true surf bands like the Belairs, The Challengers and others who were legit, seminal groups in the early days of the genre. Also, anyone who is familiar with Dick Dale knows he played right handed guitars with the strings in standard configuration. You can find dozens of photos of him online that confirm this.

You don't know squat about surf music. Stop disseminating bad information.

F****** surf punk's rule! This guy just watered down the history of the greatest genre to f****** give birth to proto-punk and punk!