REVIEW BY JOHN BERGER / jberger@staradvertiser.com
‘The Dukes of Surf’
The Dukes of Surf (Coconut Groove Music)
If some of the top Brill Building pop song writer teams of the late 1950′s and early 1960′s — Goffin-King, Greenwich-Mann, Mann-Weil, Sedaka-Greenfield and Pomus-Shuman, to name five — had been tracking what Dick Dale and the Beach Boys were doing in southern California, and if the Beach Boys and Jan and Dean had spent more time in Hawaii than they did, they all might have come together to create a group like the Dukes of Surf. The trio — JP, Lee and Fish — blend key elements of both the Brill Building and SoCal traditions. They do justice to both of them.
The Dukes do nicely at Beach Boys-style harmonizing, and, as their name indicates, many of their songs are about surfing. Several are about surfing and romance in Hawaii. Take “Island Girls,” for example: “Hawaii, Hawaii, it’s Heaven on earth/Girls in bikinis that know how to surf” the Dukes sing in loving tribute to “the grooviest girls in the world.”
Dukes’ song writers JP and Lee evoke memories of Brill Building pop hits with some of the melodies and chord progressions. The aptly titled “Doo-Bee-Doo” echoes the East Coast doo wop tradition in catchy foot-tapping style. Other songs build on the Brill Building genre of songs about teen life — for the Dukes that’s surfing after school, walking on the beach, and the plight of a guy whose girlfriend’s parents don’t approve of his surfing lifestyle.
The SoCal tradition of car songs, another important genre in the Beach Boys’ heyday, is covered when the Dukes sing of “cruisin’ Waikiki with the windows down” in their “Heavy Duty Chevy.”
The trio slips into a soothing romantic style reminiscent of “The Warmth of the Sun” and “In My Room” with other selections.
Ever wonder how Kyu Sakamoto’s 1963 US chart-topper, “Sukiyaki,” would have sounded if the Beach Boys had recorded it? The Dukes close the album with their arrangement.
“The Dukes of Surf” is available at www.TheDukesofSurf.com.
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John Berger has been a mainstay in the local entertainment scene for more than 40 years. Contact him via email at jberger@staradvertiser.com.