The Surfaris – Wipe Out – Dot LP

Rare first album by the Southern California Surf Group who only played two tracks on the album, read background story from ‘The Billboard Book of One-hit Wonders’:

Surfaris Rhythm guitarist Bob Berryhill (b. 1947), lead guitarist Jim Fuller (b. 1947), bassist Pat Connolly (b. 1947), drummer Ron Wilson (b. 1945), and saxophonist Jim Pash (b. 1949) were looking for practice space when they found Dale Smallin. Dale, who had a small recording studio, became the Surfaris’ manager and, with the help of parental funds, arranged a four-hour recording session at the Pal Studios in Cucamonga. “Surfer Joe” (#62, 1963) was to be the single; “Wipe Out” (originally called “Stiletto”) was to be a flip side, so not much thought or time went into doing it.

Gimmicks at the beginning of tunes were, as always, a big thing. Someone simulated the sound of a crashing surfboard by breaking a wooden shingle; Smallin’s “witch laugh” was added, Wilson worked up some drum breaks, and “Wipe Out” was cut and dried in two takes. Smallin pressed 100 copies of the disk on his own DFS label. “Surfer Joe” b/w “Wipe Out” came to the attention of Richard Delvy, the bass player with another surf group, the well-established Challengers. Smallin gave Delvy the go-ahead to manufacture some copies of the disk using his Princess label. One of Delvy’s pressings found its way to Dot Records, which issued the group’s platter nationwide (fanatics, take note: the version of ”Wipe Out” on the DFS label is a full 10 seconds longer than the Dot version).

While “Wipe Out” was to become one of the best selling debut singles ever and one of the most cherished of all oldies, all was not well with the group, and there were soon lawsuits a-plenty. There were fishy goings-on in connection with the group’s first and only LP for Dot, Wipe Out–the only Surfaris cuts on the album were “Surfer Joe” and “Wipe Out,” but all the other tracks had Delvy’s Challengers playing on them! The result was that the Challengers, and not the Surfaris, received performance royalties from the best-selling album. Delvy also managed to swipe publishing rights without the group members’ permission.”

tracklist:

A01 The Surfaris – Wipe Out 2:12
A02 The Challengers – Wiggle Wiggle 2:40
A03 The Challengers – Torquay 2:27
A04 The Challengers – You Can’t Sit Down 4:15
A05 The Challengers – Green Onions 2:45
A06 The Challengers – Tequila 2:05
B01 The Challengers – Wild Weekend 2:33
B02 The Challengers – Teen Beat 3:10
B03 The Challengers – Yep 2:45
B04 The Challengers – Memphis 2:52
B05 The Surfaris – Surfer Joe 2:20
B06 The Challengers-Walk, Don’t Run 2:09