The Beach Boys - Surfin' Safari ( S1/3 )

Album and alternate releases

The song was first released on a single 45 RPM record and then later, it was released on the band's debut Surfin' Safari album, and on a number of later 'greatest hits' compilations. The song's appearance on the 1993 Good Vibrations box set is sourced from the original demo tape master, lacking the fade-out added before its release as a single.

Three takes of the early World Pacific Studios recordings of the song were eventually released on CD in 1991 on the archival release Lost & Found (1961-62) as well as subsequent re-issues of that album which featured alternate album titles. A live concert performance of the tune "Surfin' Safari" is featured in the short documentary "One Man's Challenge", written and directed by Dale Smallin. Filmed July 28, 1962 (with the same lineup as the official Capitol single) at the Azuza Teen Club, this particular visual version of the song is, according to author Jon Stebbins in The Lost Beach Boy, "The only known performance footage of the Pendleton-shirt era Beach Boys."

Personnel

• Brian Wilson – backing vocals; bass guitar
• Dennis Wilson – backing vocals; drums
• Carl Wilson – backing vocals; lead guitar
• Mike Love – lead and backing vocals
• David Marks – backing vocals; rhythm guitar

Other versions

Jan & Dean, with uncredited instrumental and vocal support from the Beach Boys, recorded the song for their 1963 album Jan and Dean Take Linda Surfin'. The song was also recorded by the Hot Doggers (a studio-only group headed by future Beach Boy Bruce Johnston along with Terry Melcher) on their 1963 album Surfin' U.S.A., by the Challengers on their 1963 album Surfbeat, and by the Lively Ones on their 1963 album The Great Surf Hits!. More recently it has been recorded by the Ramones on their 1993 album Acid Eaters and by Rockapella on their 2002 album Smilin'.

In popular culture

• The Beach Boys' recording of "Surfin' Safari" was featured in the soundtrack of the 1973 film American Graffiti.