When one learns of a genius musician, it\u2019s hard not to research everything one can about that artist\u2019s process. This is especially the case if you\u2019re a musician yourself. I\u2019ve spent quite a bit of time studying the genius of more than a few musicians, hoping to find some trick, detail, or advice that could help me make better music.<\/p>\n
For many of the true musical geniuses of the 20th century, there\u2019s no \u201ctrick\u201d to be found. A lot of those artists were simply gifted. I\u2019d say that Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys<\/a> is one example, as he produced countless glorious gems in the surf rock and experimental rock world, starting with \u201cSurfer Girl\u201d.<\/p>\n But is \u201cSurfer Girl\u201d really Brian Wilson\u2019s very first original composition? Is it truly the first song to usher in a career that will be studied by music historians for decades? According to some of Wilson\u2019s old friends, \u201cSurfer Girl\u201d might not actually be Brian Wilson\u2019s first song. Let\u2019s look at the facts and the hearsay, shall we?<\/p>\n The Truth Behind \u201cSurfer Girl\u201d by The Beach Boys, Brian Wilson\u2019s Alleged First Song<\/p>\n \u201cSurfer Girl\u201d was released by The Beach Boys in 1963 and is often hailed as Brian Wilson\u2019s very first original song. And what a first song it was. \u201cSurfer Girl\u201d made it all the way to No. 7 on the Hot 100 chart. The sunshine pop, doo-wop tune was the title track of the band\u2019s third album of the same name. It was also the first song to credit Wilson as the producer.<\/p>\n The song was written by Brian Wilson about a woman named Judy Bowles. Wilson had dated her for several years, and it was his first serious relationship. The song was also based on, or at least inspired by, a rendition of \u201cWhen You Wish Upon A Star\u201d from Dion And The Belmonts.\u00a0<\/p>\n According to Wilson himself, \u201cSurfer Girl\u201d was his very first original composition. However, this has been disputed by a few close high school friends<\/a> of Brian Wilson, who said that he had written a few songs before recording \u201cSurfer Girl\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n It doesn\u2019t help that Wilson gave different accounts<\/a> of the song\u2019s origins in interviews. He said it was inspired by \u201cWhen You Wish Upon A Star\u201d, but then said that the song simply came to him when he was humming to himself on the road. He also said the song was written about Bowles, but she disputed this herself, citing Wilson\u2019s autobiography<\/a>, which noted that he wrote it \u201cwithout anyone in mind.\u201d<\/p>\n So, is \u201cSurfer Girl\u201d by Brian Wilson truly the genius\u2019s first song? We\u2019ll likely never know the truth.<\/p>\n Photo by Michael Ochs Archives\/Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When one learns of a genius musician, it\u2019s hard not to research everything one can about that artist\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":119496,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[995,171,975,4185,996,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-119495","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-brian-wilson","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-music","11":"tag-rock-music","12":"tag-the-beach-boys","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114973311361969784","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119495\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}