Bruce Johnston "Surfin' 'Round The World" 1963

Bruce Johnston was a member of the early 1960s pop/rock/surf duo Bruce and Terry (Terry being Doris Day's son Terry Melcher) and an on-and-off member of the Beach Boys. But back in 1963, he decided to strike while the iron was hot and recorded this strange surf-inspired "cash-in" album. (His timing was good--a year or so later, the first British Invasion would, sadly, bury surf music.) SURFIN' is mostly instrumental, featuring some cool surf-y guitar, drenched in reverb, and, unusual for the genre, interesting horn and keyboard parts. - cduniverse
Bruce Johnston had quite a prolific recording career prior to being tabbed as a Beach Boy of the future, and this self-produced effort was one of the more notable installments. From the "Twistin' U.S.A."-styled knockoff title song, this is a really fun album, despite the rigidness of the concept inherent in the title. Noisy tracks like "Hot Pastrami, Mashed Potatoes, Come on to Rincon-Yeah!!!" sit nicely next to the jazzy but rockin' "Surf Nova," the eerie but beautiful instrumental "Maksha at Midnight," the gas'n'go romp of "Capetown," and the experimental fuzz ravers "Jersey Channel Islands, Pt. 7" and "Virginia Beach." Even portents of Johnston's future rear their stylistic heads on "The Hamptons" and "Surfin's Here to Stay." Falling stylistically somewhere between the frat rock party noise of Surfers' Pajama Party and his later, more streamlined hot rod efforts with Terry Melcher, this is one fun, rockin' album indeed. - Review by Cub Koda
trax:
01 Surfin' 'Round The World 02 Maksha At Midnight 03 Down Under 04 Capetown 05 Biarritz 06 Jersey Channel Islands - Part 7 07 The Hamptons 08 Virginia Beach 09 Surf-A-Nova 10 Hot Pastrami, Mashed Potatoes, Come To Rincon - Yeah 11 Malibu 12 Surfin's Here To Stay 13 Down Under (instrumental) 14 The Hamptons (instrumental) 15 Surfin' 'Round The World (alternate take)