Oh? Haven’t You Heard?

Hey guys, Ernie here with another piece from David Buck, who knows the truth about the Surfin’ Bird. Previously, he was talkin’ Y2K.

Today in Tedium: In a recent Tedium piece, Ernie posed the question: “Can one become nostalgic for abrasive noises?” He was referring to alarm clocks, but that got me thinking about songs others may find annoying or abrasive like “It’s Halloween” by the Shaggs, just about anything by the Legendary Stardust Cowboy, and an old surf song that seems to keep popping up in my life—“Surfin’ Bird.” I once owned a 45 RPM record of “Surfin’ Bird” by The Trashmen. Despite its repetitive lyrics and abrasive vocals, I must’ve listened to the silly thing a few hundred times as a kid. There’s no accounting for taste. Lately, I’ve seen the song pop up in some unexpected places and I’m amazed at the mark this one-off novelty tune has left on the pop culture landscape. — David @ Tedium

Today’s GIF comes from the American Bandstand performance of “Surfin’ Bird.” Of the song, Dick Clark said: “If you were to review back and think of all the strange and unusual sounds of 1963, I guess this one would have to win an award of some sort.”

“The Bird’s the Word,” by The Rivingtons, came first. (via 45cat)

The band whose hits strongly inspired “Surfin’ Bird”

In 1962, a popular Los Angeles doo-wop group had a hit with a song composed primarily of nonsense syllables. A deep bass voice begins singing, accompanied by the rest of the group’s divine vocal harmonies. The song, “Papa-oom-mow-mow” is fun, laid back, highly melodic and became a hit on the Billboard charts that year.

One year later, the Rivingtons recorded “The Bird’s the Word,” enjoying further chart success and exposing the world to the fun, upbeat tune that would become the foundation for another big hit from 1963—“Surfin’ Bird.”

If you haven’t heard yet, you should. (via Amazon)

So where did The Trashmen come from, anyway?

It all began with a garage band from Minnesota called The Trashmen, whom—contrary to some accounts—were not Trash men themselves. The name was based on a song they wrote as teens called “Trashmen Blues.” The band started playing both songs at local shows. The band heard “Papa-oom-mow-mow” and “Bird’s the Word” performed by a Wisconsin cover band one night and decided to incorporate the tunes into their own set.

The band’s drummer and singer, Steve Wahrer, decided to experiment with combining the two songs during a gig and “Surfin’ Bird” was the result. The band then recorded the song, which became popular on local radio, eventually hitting the national charts. The band recorded a 12-song album named after their famous song.

The album is mostly instrumental, fun and readily available on streaming services and online. It’s worth every reverb-soaked minute of surf music goodness.

The song has certainly stood the test of time and is quite well known over 50 years later. It even has some famous fans. Rolling Stone magazine says undisputed king of song parodies, “Weird Al” Yankovic loves this song. There’s certainly some validity to this, as a snippet of “Surfin’ Bird” appears in the famous “Yoda Chant” that Al and the band have performed during concert encores since 1991.

Everything isn’t all rosy, however—the Rivingtons sued the Trashmen for plagiarism and are now credited as the songwriters of the song.

Long live The Cramps (via 45cat)

Hey! You got surf in my punk!

Outside TV and film, the song has been covered numerous times since its peak popularity in 1964. Most of these have been in the rich vein of punk rock.

Outsider rockabilly/punk outfit The Cramps recorded their own raucous cover version of the song as the A-side of a single in 1978 (the B-side was “The Way I Walk”). The band had already been performing the song live for few years prior. Another band saw them perform the song live and decided to add it to their own shows, eventually committing it to tape themselves.

The Ramones—whom Paste Magazine refers to as “the quintessential American punk band”—covered the song on side two of 1977’s Rocket to Russia album . As the penultimate song on the record, it neatly wraps up an overall strong record. This version is more straight ahead punk rock, with a clearly defined vocal and superb guitar playing with just the right amount of crunch and noise. Oh, and they nail the “papa-oom-mow-mow” section with magnificent aplomb and skill.

Oh? I guess you really haven’t heard … (via Amazon)

As a completely unrelated bonus, Rocket to Russia contains one of my favorite Ramones songs, “Teenage Lobotomy,” along with several other classic Ramones songs.

Other artists have covered the song, but none as well known—or as good—as The Cramps and the Ramones. The song works as well as a punk song as it does surf music. Outsider artist No Bunny did a superb version of his own on the recent Dr. Demento Covered in Punk double album, released Jan. 12, 2018.

And then there’s The Radioactive Chicken Heads. The California-based band covers a wide variety of songs, compete with theatrical staging and a punk rock aesthetic. On the recent reboot of The Gong Show, the band performed their cover version of “Surfin’ Bird”—until they were gonged. It’s a shame, too, because the band’s rendition of the song is skillful and superb, with just the right amount of zaniness.