SURFIN’ BIRD
“Surfin’ Bird” is a song performed by the American surf rock band The Trashmen, and it is also the name of the album that featured this hit single. It was released in 1963 and reached No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100. It is a combination of two R&B hits by The Rivingtons: “Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow” and “The Bird’s the Word”, which was influenced by Red Prysock’s “What’s the word? Thunderbird!” (More from Wikipedia)
One of my favorite bands that truly does not deserve the one-hit wonder label is the Minneapolis band the Trashmen. Their 1963 song “Surfin’ Bird” is one of my very favorite 1960’s songs to this day – and believe me when I tell you that that is saying something! The story is that they were at a gig when drummer Steve Wahrer stopped playing and improvised a growling, spitfire performance of a doo-wop song called “The Bird’s the Word” that he had previously heard being performed by a group called the Sorensen Brothers. He then coupled that with a similar performance of another doo-wop song “Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow” by the Rivingtons – not knowing that “The Bird’s the Word” was also originally by that band. A local DJ Bill Diehl who was in the audience encouraged them to record the song, and they later won a Battle of the Bands competition.
The Trashmen were signed by Garrett Records and reached #4 on the charts with this wyld recording. On one of the over-priced but essential Born Bad CD’s – also known as Songs the Cramps Taught Us – “Surfin’ Bird” is preceded by the original recordings by the Rivingtons of “Mama-Oom-Mow-Mow” and “The Bird’s the Word”; both songs were follow-up singles to their biggest hit “Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow”. It is in that setting that “Surfin’ Bird” can best be appreciated: Their song could hardly be more different from these other much slower performances, yet in their own way, this surf rock band is also honoring the doo-wop tradition that formed much of the basis for the surf sound in the first place.
I have never gotten a copy of the hit 45 (or their first album Surfin’ Bird either for that matter).
(May 2012)
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