The Surftones - Cecilia Ann (1988) 

Today we're going to check out a classic surf rock instrumental and dig a little bit into its history.

I first heard the Pixies cover of Cecilia Ann as the opener to their 1990 album Bossanova. I knew it was a cover but I hadn't heard the original. Years later I came across the compilation Surf Legends (And Rumors) - Rockin' Instrumentals 1961-1964 at a used record store. I saw Cecilia Ann by The Surftones was the first track listed and it was filled with songs I already knew by The Rumblers (Boss) and The Revels (Church Key) amongst others, so I bought it on the spot. Because of the album subtitle (1961-1964) I had every reason to believe Cecilia Ann had been released in that time frame and assumed this was the original that the Pixies had covered.

A couple days ago I was going through my surf playlists to find listings for release dates and kept seeing 1988 for this song, which I figured was wrong. I kept searching and then I came across an article that blew my mind.

To summarize, in the late 80s Steve Hoffman worked for DCC Compact Classics and was putting together a surf comp of lesser known songs from the original surf rock era as a passion project. He wanted a big opening track to kick it off so he decided to make a song himself. Along with an associate they created Cecilia Ann based on a classical piece, "Sicilenne" by Gabriel Fauré, with retro instruments and equipment and the recording style of the old surf rock bands. Notice the split channel. He dives further into the specifics in the article linked above. Then they added the band name and boom... a legend was born.

After the Pixies cover, the song got more ears on it and over time The Surftones version became pretty widely known. What doesn't seem to be all that well known is that it was somewhat of a trick or a "lark" as Hoffman calls it, granted one out of love for the music. (They also didn't take royalties until after the Pixies asked if they could cover it. So no funny business here.)

Also note - the big wash of reverb at the intro was created by actually kicking the amp. That's pretty cool.