The Surfaris

A typical surf album of its era, Fun City USA was about equally divided between surf instrumentals and vocal numbers, some of which had a burly frat rock feel (especially "Go Go Go for Louie's Place" and "Hound Dog"), and others of which plugged in the Beach Boys/Jan & Dean-style vocal surf-hot rod sound. The better songs have come out on Surfaris compilations, leaving this pretty much the territory of hard-bitten collectors. But while none of the instrumentals are as memorable as "Wipe Out," there are some pretty good ones here in "Burnin' Rubber," "Dune Buggy," "Moon Dawg," and "Big Surge," though the covers of "Apache" and "Shazam" are just OK. The only vocal that hits the mark is "Hot Rod High," one of the best vocal hot rod tunes not done by the Beach Boys or Jan & Dean (and penned by hot rod rock stalwarts Gary Usher and Roger Christian), though it owes more than a little to "Surf City." Ron Wilson's drumming is excellent throughout, though he could have done with some more first-rate material onto which to wreak his splash of sound. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide