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Still more surf-styled instrumentals for 2023 from this band located in Bruce Springsteen country, Freehold, NJ. In this case, we get the surf treatment for a familiar Christmas song, mildly influenced by the Phil Spector arrangement of this song. Click the cover for Amazon or go to Bandcamp and get it.

More surf music from this Cambridge, UK instrumental band for 2023. Original instrumentals often have the disadvantage, in the Christmas sphere, of lacking anything that points toward the holiday, and this one falls into that classification, at least until it sneaks in a little Christmas riffing and jingle bells at the end. Grab it from Bandcamp.

This Charlotte, NC band likes the exotica sound, and for 2023 they've dropped this EP dedicated to this world-music-as-perceived-by-Americans form of music. "Snowfall" is a languid opener, "Christmas Day" ups the tempo with a bit of rock backing with a steel guitar melody, "Matchstick Girl" drops the tempo back a bit and features marimba with low reverb guitar, and "Christmas Every Day" is more of the same. All instrumentals, in keeping with the band's heritage in the surf-instro scene. Download, stream, or grab a vinyl EP from their Bandcamp page.

This mostly female Toronto surf band is pretty popular in the surf scene. For 2022 they throw us a holiday single featuring the Mariah Carey classic and an original, "Marshmallow March," that is sprightly but doesn't have much in the way of holiday trappings. Nevertheless, any chance to subvert the omnipresent Carey classic with a different arrangement should be taken, and this one is just peaches. Grab it from Bandcamp or stream it.

Well, this is exuberant. Haven't encountered these folks before, but they're clearly in the surf realm, based on this two-sided single. "Los Chrismos" basically hangs its holiday hat on the shouted lines "Christmas time/Sexy time!" But that's OK. Flip side "Tipp Tapp" brings in organ and some muttered comments about tiptoeing through the forest that don't appear to have a holiday connection. Fun stuff for the playlist. From 2022.

From 2004, this instrumental group recorded this album in Vancouver, which is appropriate, as this is a collection of West Coast 60s-style instrumentals of familiar Christmas carols. Although you'll hear surf music in this collection, there's also nods to Western swing and Cliff Richards' Shadows in their approach and song selection. "Jingle Bells" and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," for example, combine swing and bluegrass influences, "Angels On High" has a Joe Meek-Phil Spector flavor about it, "Deck the Halls" throws in just a hint of "Tequila," "We Three Kings" nods to the Animals' version of "House of the Rising Sun," and "Jingle Bell Rock" hews closely to the almost-country sound of the Bobby Helms original. The one left-of-center choice is a cover of The Chessmen's early 1960s hit "Meadowlands," adapted from a Russian folk song. A nice selection of instrumentals. Amazon has it for download and streaming, but hardcopy was scarce at this writing.

The Southeast's greatest party band is no stranger to the holiday music scene, and they've got a new single in 2020 that is a fine tribute to 60s surf music, right down to the Wilson-esque falsetto yelps, not to mention the Dick Dale guitar that is a factor in most all this band's songs. Must have.

The surf-music subculture just keeps hanging in there year after year, and this Santa Monica-based artist gets the jolly elf to hang 10 for us one more time in 2020. Interestingly, this particular version of the surf beat relies way more on keyboards for its uptempo sound than on guitar. Swing over to Bandcamp for your copy of this digital single. While you're there, note that Lex previously released "Keep Xmas Coming" in 2018 and "Santa's Got a Self-Driving Sleigh" in 2016, more of the same.

The Double Crown record label is a small indie that's dedicated to surf music and guitar instrumentals in the vein of the Ventures, they've been around for almost two decades, and they've got an intermittent tradition of compiling albums of Christmas music in their specialized genres, this one being the 2019 edition of the series. As it's a compilation, you may find you've run into one or another of these tunes before, and in this case Double Crown borrowed a bit from the Western Star compilation of a couple of years ago. That accounts for "Cadillac Under My Christmas Tree" by the Bad Detectives," "Santa Was a Rockin'" by the Elfish Presleys (great name, btw), and "Christmas in December" by the Pat Winn Combo. We've covered "Santa! I Know Him!" by the Supraphonics here before as well. That leaves us with Frankie & the Pool Boys' vocal rendition of the Ramones' "Merry Christmas (I Don't Want to Fight Tonight)," the Hang-Ten Hangmen's "Christmas Boogaloo" and the Doltones' "Twistin' Reindeer," both punchy and hooky uptempo melodies, the Razorblades' rendition of "Frohliche Weihnachten Uberall," what I'm assuming is a traditional German number, The Ogres' original vocal "Santa's Got It In For Me,"  and Cannibal Mosquitos' "Go! Go! Go! Jingle Bells," a frantic cross between "Blitzkrieg Bop" and the traditional carol. Black Flamingos add a bit of 60s pop movie soundtrack to the mix with their instrumental "A Hint of Nutmeg," Blackball Bandits throw a tiny bit of bluebeat into their "Yuletide Ride," The Incredible Mr. Smith give us an instrumental of the Slade classic "Merry Xmas Everybody," Los Venturas offer "The Balls of Saint Rudolph," no clues as to the derivation from the song, and "Ne Tennes Tusen Julelys" by the Twang-O-Matics. Wrapping things up are "Let's Throw Presents and Burn the Christmas Tree" by Mr. Smith and the Jazz Police, a more sedate number than the title suggests, and the self-explanatory "Auld Lang Surf" by MFC Chicken. If you haven't compiled a bunch of these tunes on your own already like I have, you'll find a lot to enjoy here. Only available via CD ordered directly from the mothership.

Instrumental surf bands may not be easily found in the music charts, but since the 80s they've hung on as a cult attraction, and every once in a while you'll go see an act you like and a surf band you never heard of will be the opening act. It's great stuff and though it's simple, it has to be played well or it just doesn't work. These guys are right in the tradition, but they're not afraid to step outside the genre and throw in modern guitar effects that didn't exist in the early 60s when this style started. If you have a taste for this style, you probably already know about this; if you don't, you might want to consider blending into your mix their versions of "Silver Bells," "Little Saint Nick," "Blue Christmas," "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear," "Holly Jolly Christmas," "O Come All Ye Faithful," "I'll Be Home For Christmas," "Christmas Time Is Here," "Jingle Jingle Jingle," "Little Drummer Boy" and "Winter Wonderland." They also throw in a nod to the movie "Elf" with "Santa! I Know Him!" 

I mentioned these guys in the Seasonal Favorites: Vol. 4 post and they got back to me to mention that their "How the Gurch Stole Christmas" from that album is also on a vinyl single for the first time in 2016. This is the B-side, a slightly mellower surf instrumental than their frenetic A-side. Apparently it's just out, so new it's not even mentioned on their website, but I'm sure that will change shortly. Meanwhile, enjoy. UPDATE: The single's downloadable at Amazon.

This surf music label sporadically comes up with a Christmas compilation, and 2016 is the year for the latest entry. Some of the individual tunes we've seen before, like "Lump of Coal" by the Barbary Coasters, "Hot Rod Hanukkah" by Meshugga Beach Party, "Groovy Old Saint Nick" by Los Straitjackets, and "Ye Merry Gentlemen" from the Falcons is from a decade-old album. The majority of these tunes are surf-style instrumentals, with a bit of late-50s-early-60s balladry mixed in, as in disc opener "Christmas in July" by Martin Cilla. Black Flamingos give us "How the Gurch Stole Christmas," their spelling not mine, which taps on the mood if not the precise melody of the Grinch's theme song, while the Twang-o-Matics go more spaghetti western on "Staffan Var En Stallendrang," a Swedish tune I could get very little about from Google Translate. The Other Timelines bring us "Public Access Christmas Special," a neat guitar-organ duet, the Crazy Aces give us a medley of popular carols called "Crazy Acemas," and the Kanaloas do "X-Mas Palm Tree." The Nutcracker gets a couple of different takes as Fronkensteen's "Nutty Sweet" is essentially a cover of "The Nutrocker," while Travelers of Tyme bring a bit of the tiki hut to "Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy." More familiar carols are performed by Aqualads, "Angels We Have Heard on High," "Santa Claus Is Coming to Surf" by the Takeoffs, and "Jingle Bells" by Tiki Joe's Ocean. Vocals aren't completely ignored here, as Whoa Nellie Vera and Johnny recast the Johnny B. Goode story as "Little Johnny Got a Japanese Guitar For Christmas," The Beagles take on "Snoopy's Christmas" with a "Hang On Snoopy" chorus, and the best cut here, "Xmas Is a Bust" by the Ogres, is a snarky original with more of the garage sound about it. Apparently only available from the label's website, no download or streaming at this time. UPDATE: "I Saw Three Ships (Mr Rebel Version)" by Urban Surf Kings was recorded new for this collection; I erroneously assumed it was from a previous album by them.

Well, the title surely dispenses with the need for a Hanukkah alert. These guys (and a gal) have been a going concern in the southern California region, playing traditional Jewish songs in the surf music style. (I love that the bass player's name is Steve Bacon, by the way.) For 2011 they tighten the focus of their schtick to the eight crazy nights of light, although a cursory look at their discography suggests they've put "Hava Nagila" on every one of their albums, including this one. They even slip a bit of it into "Shleppin' and Kvetchin'," which features a guest appearance by Duane Eddy (it's really his "Moovin' & Groovin") on those big low strings. Now I'm not Jewish, so I don't have a deep knowledge of the traditional Hebrew folk song repertoire, but I'm guessing that a number of the songs on here are either originals or have been renamed for entertainment's sake. For example, I doubt that "Czech Mate" is a traditional Yiddish song, at least under that name. Info at the website is a bit sketchy in regard to songwriting credits. But I'm pretty sure the title song is an original, which treads a little closer to the Beach Boys/Standells realm than the rest of the album, which is more like the kind of stuff Dick Dale does. Probably due to it being the only tune with vocals, unless you count the Jewish mother bit at the front of "Bubbie's Kitchen." And there's little doubt about the provenance of "Oh Hanukkah" or "Dreidel Dreidel." Eighteen songs may be a bit much for what is a one-joke concept, but there's plenty to like here.

Their 2009 entry "I Wanna Go Surfin' With Santa" was received well enough that this group went back into the studio for another bite at the apple. This year's entry is not a lot different, except it's more overtly a tribute to the Beach Boys. Also of note is the participation of guest artists Jonathan Paley of the Paley Brothers and Pamela Des Barres, best known as an author but formerly of the Frank Zappa-produced GTOs. I personally can't get enough Beach Boys, so this is aces with me.

Fans of the Double Crown label are already up to speed with the first two volumes, so here's another one for 2010. As in the past, the artists featured are from the label, mostly in the early 60's guitar combo sound that stretches from Duane Eddy to the surf music scene. Much of this is instrumentals, kicking off with The Razorblades' "Morgen Kinder Wirds Was Geben," as you might expect from a German band. The Excelsiors take a lot of delightful liberties with "Good King Wenceslas" and The Frankie Handwax Experience superimposes "We Three Kings" over Jimi Hendrix's "Manic Depression." Previously released items from the label show up here, like "Greensleeves" from King of Hawaii's Chrismas disc and The Barbary Coasters' "Secret Santa." Burt Rocket gets a little Joe Meek/Telestar on us with "Santa's Hot Rod," The Balboas throw in a vocal with "This Is Santa Claus," and also resorting to the microphone are The Polkaholics with "Sausage and Sauerkraut For Santa," a rock/polka hybrid. Tiki Joe's Ocean goes exotica on us with their version of "Jingle Bells," and OJ Watson and the Ludlow Ramblers do "We'll Be Home With Bells On," which is straight old-school country, and Peter Curry and Dick Chiclet wrap things up with a twangy "Old Anxiety," better known as "Auld Lang Syne." This is right in line with the previous two collections, and if you grab it from the mothership (assuming your local record store doesn't have the hard copy, that's the only place online that has it) there's an additional song downloadable from the site, "Silent Night Twist" by The Beechwoods, which is just a little sedate for twisting but more uptempo than the song is usually performed. The Balboas did a video, like to see it? Here we go:

This Bellingham, WA record label specializes in garage/surf bands, and this CD had been previously compiled in 2000. We missed it then, but we have it now, reissued for 2006 with three additional cuts over the original. As we've compiled a number of surf-oriented Christmas tunes over the life of this site, we're not particularly surprised that several items, like Jon & the Nightriders' "Sleigh Ride," Urban Surf Kings' "We Three Kings," Death Valley's "Carol of the Bells" and "Little Drummer Boy" by The Bonesharks, have been done in similar ways by other artists elsewhere. But with 19 tracks to choose from, that's not necessarily a disqualifying point. Some of the more fun tracks on this CD are the Tacoma 4's "Christmas is a Drag" and The Boss Martians' "It's Christmas Time," the latter previously on the Santa's Got a GTO compilation, both in the non-Beach Boys car/surf vein; "Santa Claus Go Straight to the Ghetto" by Frigg A Go Go, a straight rock version of the James Brown arrangement; "Hang On Rudolph," a witty appropriation of the "Rudolph" and "Sloopy" songs by The Ebeneezer Scrooge Appreciation Society; The Firebirds' "Living Doll," a plea for Santa to bring a girlfriend; and "Rocknuts," The Lunatics' version of "Nutrocker" done entirely with surf guitars. Also notable is "Sigue Sigue X-mas," an upbeat surf "Jingle Bells" with spoken word samples ladled over it from old TV shows, and yes, of course from "It's a Wonderful Life." "Jingle Bells" returns in a spaghetti Western version from The Bitch Boys, and the whole thing wraps up with The Surfites' "Santa Claus Goes Surfin'," a straight-up surf instrumental worthy of Dick Dale or The Surfaris. Doesn't appear to be in print, although Amazon has it via 3rd parties and the label had cut-price copies as of this update.

The surf and garage rock authorities at DC are back for a second go-round in the Christmas realm in 2007. The 20 cuts on here are heavy on the surf guitar and the instrumentals, but they manage to mix things up pretty nicely for those inclined to listen all the way through. Pollo Del Mar kicks things off with their "Carol of the Bells," a fairly stately rendition two-thirds of the way through before the drums start double-timing things. "Drums For Christmas" by the Pete Curry Orchestra is as advertised, heavy on the jungle drums, and The Pyronauts bring a bit of "Pipeline" to "O Come All Ye Faithful." Give musicologist The Incredible Mr. Smith props for surfing up the German carol "Leise Rieselt Der Schnee," Surfin' Santa with the Meshugga Beach Party covers the Ventures' version of "Sleigh Ride," and The Dusty Warren Complex's "Little Drummer Boy" goes all Sandy Nelson drum-wise, with a hint of "Wipe Out." Mustn't give short shrift to the vocals on this disc, though, with the winner being The Barbary Coasters' "I Want a Monkey For Christmas," its fanciful lyrics set to Chuck Berry's "Roll Over Beethoven." The Icicles are right in there with their 60s girl-group take on "Snowman," Speedball Jr. knows "Rudolph's Secret," and The Daytonas want to keep "Christmas Time For Fun." Amazon only has this via 3rd parties, but the label still has copies, albeit at premium prices.

These guys won't be having any trouble with the Federal Trade Commission with an album title like this one. Here we have a cool dozen classic Christmas carols rendered as surf instrumentals, except for vocals on "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas," which lapses into a bit of "Small World" with different verses in different languages. The rest is straight 60's surf guitar soloing over good old-fashioned drums. The band even credits their source for vintage instruments in the liner notes, too. From 1996. UPDATE: Biographical information for this group is hard to come by, but the folks at Fat City Cigar Lounge seem to think they're a bunch of studio musicians from Amsterdam.

More surf music for Christmas, but with a twist; a lot of these tunes are apparently originals, unless I somehow overlooked the Percy Faith Orchestra's version of "Santa Drives a Super Stock Dodge:" "And I heard him exclaim as he headed down Vine/Merry Christmas to all, now hear my Hemi whine!" These guys apparently are trying to channel the Beach Boys and come pretty close on many of these songs. This album is a reissue of A Malibu Kind of Christmas, circa 1992; they changed the title but very little else to tie in with another album of theirs, Malibooz Rule. The group is John Zambetti and Walter Egan, the latter the author of a solo album produced by Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, and they have a website. "It's Just Not Christmas" evokes middle-period Brian Wilson after the breakdown but before "Smile," and many others, like "When Santa Comes to Santa Cruz," "And a Happy New Year" and "Santa Man" definitely touch on several Beach Boys hits. Non-originals include "Little Surfin' Drummer Boy," something that's been done before but the Malibooz throw in a little "Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow" vocalizing, and "Carol of the Swells" surfs up the carol about the bells. Then there's "Rudy, the Hodad Surf Dude," based on Rudolph's song, in which a stranded Santa gets a loan of a surfboard to salvage the holiday. And the album ends with "Christmas Wrap," another surf adaption, in this case "A Visit From St. Nicholas," who was, wait for it, surfing. Fourteen tunes was a little too many for a one-joke album, but there's plenty of good stuff here. UPDATE: Malibooz Rule has one more holiday tune, "Santa's Gone Surfin'."

This trademark 1963 Beach Boys Christmas song gets a good bit of radio play at Christmas, but it hasn't traveled well over the years, since the car culture it was based on hasn't maintained its place in the popular consciousness. Nevertheless, it was inspired for its time and is still fun to hear; I imagine Little Saint Nick drag-racing the sleighs in "Jingle Bells" and "Sleigh Bells," not to mention chasing after Chuck Berry's Rudolph. A full album followed a year later.

The first surf-oriented Christmas song, beating the Beach Boys to the racks by a year (1963). It uses the time-tested "tell Santa what you want" method of writing Christmas songs, but their way was influential enough to inspire the Turtles' update "Santa and the Sidewalk Surfer," more of a spoken-word novelty, and the spoken bridge to The Ravers' "Punk Rock Xmas." UPDATE: Thanks to Radio Rumpus Room (KFAI-FM Minneapolis St. Paul) for telling us the B-side of the original vinyl single was "Santa's Speed Shop."

A little South Pacific surf, a little boogie and lots of steel guitar and you have The Blue Hawaiians. And what could be more natural for a band like this one than to do a Christmas album? Lots of things. Nevertheless, this short (10 songs) but energetic album from 1995 has plenty to recommend it. Most of the tunes are instrumentals, except for "Jingle Jangle," "Blue Christmas," the title song and "Mele Kalikimaka," the official Hawaiian Christmas song. The band manages to maintain a tension between their trademark sound and the material, which also includes "Christmas Time is Here," "White Christmas," "Have Yourself a Quiet (Merry) Little Christmas" and a medley of "We Four Kings (The Little Drummer Boy)" in which the little drummer played on the Surfaris' "Wipe Out" in a former life.