The Rip Chords, "One Piece Topless Bathing Suit" c/w "Wah-Wahini," Columbia 4-43093 (rel. 7/1964)

Columbia Records did their best to have their own Beach Boys with today's group, The Rip Chords, and with Bruce and Terry, which did feature a future Beach Boy member, Bruce Johnston, and future Byrds producer Terry Melcher. Both groups shared members and managed some hits, but there weren't the cash cow that the label hoped they had. 
    Today's single is special in that it comprises two songs by Phil Sloan and Steve Barri. Mere months away from the creation of "Eve of Destruction," Sloan's timeless piece of societal exasperation, the two cleffers were prolific and eager to get some hits. They wrote answer songs to current hits, songs in the style of certain performers, whom they hoped might record them, and topical songs created in best fire-drill mode.
    This news item from the July 4, 1964 Cash Box reveals the origin of the single's A-side:

Sloan and Barri get their names mis-spelled, which happened many times during their partnership, but zipping out the au courant song may have earned them brownie points with Lou Adler, who took an interest in their work and would soon found Dunhill Records as a showcase for Sloan-Barri songs, productions and performances.
    By the time this single was recorded, Bruce and Terry were part of The Rip Chords, which started as a duet called The Opposites. Two SoCal high schoolers, Ernie Bringas and Phil Stewart, got together and sang. They auditioned for Marty Melcher, husband of film actress Doris Day. He liked their sound and called up some friends at Columbia Records. They liked what they heard and Melcher's son Terry got the two into the studio. Their first single was a cover of r&b singer Wade Flemons' 1956 hit "Here I Stand," which just missed the Top 50 in the spring of 1963.
    The two singers weren't instrumentalists, so Melcher solicited the services of LA go-tos known as The Wrecking Crew. Here, they didn't usurp working musicians' chance to play on their own records, so their presence is an asset. Producer Melcher renamed the group; perhaps he had seen Coleman Francis' hallucinatory Z-movie The Skydivers.
    From their third single on, the duo were guided into surf and hot-rod material, with Melcher and Bruce Johnston as vocalists and co-producers. Ernie Bringas was studying to be a minister, and his schoolwork prevented his touring for public appearances. Two outside vocalists were drafted for the on-the-road version; they never made recordings with the group.
    By the time of today's single, issued 62 years ago to the day, Melcher was the main singer for The Rip Chords. They drafted their musical friends to perform uncredited vocal and instrumental parts for the group's recordings. Sloan and Barri are heard on this 45; their layered background vocals, which would debut that July on their own surfin' group The Fantastic Baggys, are heard, as is Sloan's feisty lead guitar.
    "Wah-Wahini" is the best of the two sides. A Beach Boys/Jan & Dean emulation, it evokes the musical excitement of Brian Wilson's best early efforts with its twisty chord progressions and soaring melody. This ode to a surfin' femme who doesn't care what the world thinks; she just does her thing is sung by Melcher, with Sloan and Barri on backup vox, mixed way the heck down for some reason. This is summer music, and apt for this hot July day.

 

A quick beat delighter AND a sizzler: Cash Box proclaims their approval.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/h21ltkbwdb6kcmxnckiy6/2250a.mp3?rlkey=206mncc96nvahouj7a9lhlswc&st=aetwasef&dl=0

The intended A-side, "One Piece..." is a novelty number that builds up to a surprise ending that's supposed to be cute, and probably was in 1964. To a slow-cookin' mid-tempo beat, it features Sloan's guitar. Melcher and Ernie Bringas duet on this side. Sloan and Barri's voices are more front-and-center on this melodic shaggy-dog story that plays on male objectification and pulls the rug from under the listener.
    It sounds great, with a big sound and a keep 'em guessin' arrangement that moves from section to section: a surfin' symphonette!

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/75e6im91soi8xzhs4cd8u/2250b.mp3?rlkey=k25d5iftxcy7widinokpoihz7&st=sircucas&dl=0

"One Piece..." reached #96 on the Billboard Hot 100. The group's next and last single wouldn't be issued until February 1965, by which time the breezy surfin' style was less commercial; rock 'n' roll was becoming serious. Sloan changed his image and became a solo artist with his Dylanesque efforts, which still packed a pop punch with hooks galore. He continued to write and produce with Steve Barri, and some of his critics denounced him for leading this creative double life. Haters gotta hate, and all that.

Tomorrow: an unusual single written and produced by John D. Loudermilk for Norro and The Nor-Folks, via a scarce 1963 Monument Records 45.