Album · The Beach Boys
Surf's Up by The Beach Boys
Surf's Up is an album by The Beach Boys, released in 1971. 3 songs from it have charted on rock radio countdowns, with 6 countdown appearances in total. The biggest is “Surfs Up”, on 4 lists with a best position of #471.
Surf's Up, the Beach Boys' seventeenth studio album, came out on Brother/Reprise on August 30, 1971, and its title and cover, a painting modeled on the old "End of the Trail" sculpture, wink knowingly at the surfboard image they'd long outgrown. It started life as Landlocked. New co-manager Jack Rieley pushed them toward songs about the environment, society and health, made Carl Wilson the official leader, and sold the thing with the line that it was now safe to listen to the Beach Boys again.
With Brian Wilson mostly on the sidelines, the harmonies run thinner than on Sunflower, but Carl steps up with his first big songs, the gorgeous, drifting "Feel Flows" and "Long Promised Road". Then comes the closer, "Surf's Up" itself, rescued from the abandoned Smile sessions, a haunted, fragile marvel. It reached number 29 at home, their best showing with new music since 1967, and NME later ranked it 46th among the greatest albums.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs from Surf's Up on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Surfs Up | 4 | #471 | – | 2004–2020 | |
| 2 | Feel Flows | 1 | #1181 | – | 2020 | |
| 3 | Long Promised Road | 1 | #1755 | – | 2020 |
Only songs that appear on at least one countdown are listed. Release data from MusicBrainz.