Phil Dirt - Reverb Central - PO Box 1609, Felton, CA 95018-1609 USA The Bruce Johnston Surfing Band - Campus Pajama Party
 | This album was recorded live at the Sigma Pi fraternity at UCLA on January 6, 1962. It's crudely cut, and mostly pretty lame. "Campus Pajama Party" has little or no relationship to surf styles, but it is a surf-dance classic vocal. Most of the rest of the vocals are pedestrian white bread R&B, sappily sung, and badly recorded. Bruce Johnston is the lad that went on to Bruce & Terry and the Beach Boys, et al. |
Picks: Ramrod, Last Night, Surfer's Delight (Surf Party), Green Onions
Track by Track Review
Ramrod Frat Rock (Instrumental)
An exercise in "give it a surf name and it's a surf song," and bury the melody so bad it's almost impossible to recognize. Sounds more like a basic R&B frat progression, like "Last Night" too fast, or some other boogie nights space waster.
Last Night Frat Rock (Instrumental)
Faster than is natural for this song, and not particularly interesting. A frat standard of the day.
Surfer's Delight (Surf Party) Hollywood Surf (Instrumental)
This track is a basic frat party anthemic dance number, sax oriented, R&B flavored, and rhythmic.
Green Onions Frat Rock (Instrumental)
Oh the sound of that electric piano, and the calls to "mash those potatoes now." Basic, piano instead of organ, and a mechanical trip through hitland. This is the live version from the Surfers Pajama Party album.