A Surf and Monster Mash: "It's Monster Surfing Time" Returns!

A Surf and Monster Mash: “It’s Monster Surfing Time” Returns!

What happens when monsters meet rock-and-roll? Vee-Jay Records answered that question in 1964 with the release of the fiendishly fun It’s Monster Surfing Time. The LP credited to The Deadly Ones (who else?) has, over the past decades, become a highly-collectable title in its original vinyl format. On April 8, this slice of summery surf rock with a gleefully ghoulish slant will return to vinyl from Concord Records in a special translucent, slime-green pressing!

It’s Monster Surfing Time has all the rockin’ elements of a classic surf record – twang and reverb a-plenty – on such memorable selections as “There’s a Creature in the Surfer’s Lagoon” (watch out!), “Igor Goes Surfing,” “Outer Limits Surf,” and “The Mad Drummer (Parts 1 & 2)” plus covers of familiar tunes like “Raunchy” and “Rebel Rouser.” Though the players on the album are unknown, The Deadly Ones were led by songwriter Joe South (of “Games People Play” fame) out of Nashville. Guitars, electric bass and drums figure prominently along with organ and saxophone. (It’s Monster Surfing Time just might be the apex of a tiny surf sub-genre that also encompasses such fun releases as The Ghouls’ Dracula’s Deuce, produced by Gary Usher on Capitol and featuring “The Little Old Lady from Transylvania” and “Be True to Your Ghoul”…!)

If you’ve never heard this monster-surf classic, now’s your opportunity to buy it for far less than the three-figure sum it’s long commanded on the secondary market. Concord’s slime-green vinyl reissue of It’s Monster Surfing Time is available for pre-order at the links below…just in time to kick off the warmer weather and get a few months’ jumpstart on your Halloween festivities!

The Deadly Ones, It’s Monster Surfing Time (Vee-Jay VJLP 1090, reissued Concord, 2016) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Side One

It’s Monster Surfing Time
Outer Limits Surf
There’s a Creature in the Surfer’s Lagoon
Surfin’ Dock Side
The Mad Drummer Part I
The Mad Drummer Part II

Side Two

Raunchy
Rebel Rouser
The Moonlight Surfer
Help
Igor Goes Surfing
The Lone Surfer

Joe Marchese

JOE MARCHESE (Editor) joined The Second Disc shortly after its launch in early 2010, and has since penned daily news and reviews about classic music of all genres. In 2015, Joe formed the Second Disc Records label. Celebrating the great songwriters, producers and artists who created the sound of American popular song and beyond, Second Disc Records, in conjunction with labels including Real Gone Music and Cherry Red Records, has released newly-curated collections produced and annotated by Joe from iconic artists such as Dionne Warwick, Diana Ross and The Supremes, Smokey Robinson and The Miracles, The Spinners, Johnny Mathis, Bobby Darin, Meat Loaf, Laura Nyro, Melissa Manchester, Liza Minnelli, Darlene Love, Al Stewart, Michael Nesmith, and many others.

Joe has written liner notes, produced, or contributed to over 200 reissues from a diverse array of artists, among them America, JD Souther, Nat "King" Cole, Paul Williams, Lesley Gore, Dusty Springfield, BJ Thomas, The 5th Dimension, Burt Bacharach, The Mamas and the Papas, Carpenters, Perry Como, Rod McKuen, Doris Day, Jackie DeShannon, Petula Clark, Robert Goulet, and Andy Williams.

Over the past two decades, Joe has also worked in a variety of capacities on and off Broadway as well as at some of the premier theatres in the U.S., including Lincoln Center Theater, George Street Playhouse, Paper Mill Playhouse, Long Wharf Theatre, and the York Theatre Company. He has felt privileged to work on productions alongside artists such as the late Jack Klugman, Eli Wallach, Arthur Laurents, Betty Comden and Adolph Green. In 2009, Joe began contributing theatre and music reviews to the print publication The Sondheim Review, and in 2012, he joined the staff of The Digital Bits as a regular contributor writing about film and television on DVD and Blu-ray.

Joe currently resides in the suburbs of New York City.

3 thoughts on “A Surf and Monster Mash: “It’s Monster Surfing Time” Returns!”

Jon
April 2, 2016 at 11:59 am

Joe South’s first chart single was “The Purple People Eater Meets the Witchdoctor” in 1958, so this isn’t such a stretch.

Reply
adam wolak
April 5, 2016 at 8:02 pm

Just got my pressing of the vinyl and it sounds like it was ripped from 128kbps mp3 files…nice to have on wax but it’s real soupy sounding

Reply
Paddle Boards Lessons
January 6, 2017 at 1:06 am

Though the players on the album are unknown, The Deadly Ones were led by songwriter Joe South (of “Games People Play” fame) out of Nashville. Guitars, electric bass and drums figure prominently along with organ and saxophone.

Reply