Fun Fun Fun by The Beach Boys

 Fun Fun Fun
1964

The Beach Boys

Back in late 1963 Mike Love and Brian Wilson asked themselves, and each other 'What if we wrote a tune about a rebellious young lady ridin' around in her dad's brand new T-bird while she's supposed to be studyin' at the library...and if we did so, would said song sell??'

The answer, of course, was 'Yes...it will most certainly and definitely sell'. Fun Fun Fun became a classic pretty much from the instant DJs started spinning it and kids of the Sixties first heard that frenetic, high-energy, Chuck Berryesque guitar intro. Everyone knows the story (And has heard the song)...a teenage girl, the allegedly angelic apple of her daddy's eye, asks if she can drive his new Thunderbird to the library so she can study...and instead precedes to take it to the local hangout. Seems she also challenges several guys to a race, and wins said races handily. I've always, BTW, pictured the girl as being pretty, California tanned and Cali-blond and the car as a convertible, either red or white.

Brian Wilson and Mike Love penned this one (With Mike love writing most of the lyrics and suggesting that third of a minute of Guitar intro awesomeness that kicks it off), and The 'Boys recorded it on New Years Day 1964. They released it unto the masses on Feb 6^th. '64, and it cracked the Billboard Hot 100 Top 10 on it's 4^th week before peaking at #5 two weeks later, on March 21^st staying there for a single week. Fun Fun Fun hung around the Top 10 for 4 of it's 11 week chart run.

Wild thing is, it would've probably made it to at least the runner-up spot if not #1 if it hadn't been for four things, and their names were John, Paul, George, and Ringo. The week Fun Fun Fun hit #5, The Beatles held three of the top five spots (1, 2, and 4), and The Four Seasons held down the #3 spot...had it not been for the gents from Liverpool, two legitimate American pop classics would have battled it out for #1...Fun Fun Fun's worthy opponent would have been 'Dawn (Go Away)'.

Another interesting little factoid...Fun Fun Fun almost wasn't released. The Beach Boys' manager... who also happened to be Brian and Dennis Wilson's dad...was a very very conservative guy, and a song about a young girl lying to her dad and essentially committing unauthorized use of a motor vehicle just did not set well with him, so he took his concerns to the band, told then that they would not release the song,...and they over-ruled him and, to the joy of '60s music fans the world over, went ahead and released it anyway. It's said that Murray Wilson, on top of being conservative, was also a very control-oriented kinda guy, and the band was just about fed up with his control issues. His attempt to derail what would become a top ten hit (As well as a classic) was apparently the last straw...they released him as manager a shade over two months after 'Fun Fun Fun was released. Good business decision, but I have a feeling it made for some awkward dinnertime conversation for a while. 

And the fun continues! Fun Fun Fun also gave the world one of the most asked, most researched questions in Pop Music history, that answerless (So far, at any rate) question being 'Just who was this young lady who boldly misrepresented her intentions RE: borrowing Daddy’s T-bird'?

In an interview some years back, Mike Love said that she was based on ‘No one in particular…she was a product of our imaginations’, so I guess that's the official answer. The wild thing is, though, if this young lady is based on a real live girl,  there are at least two good candidates.

One of them was not only one of Dennis Wilson's classmates at Hawthorne High, she was also his girlfriend for a while, and supposedly the ‘Fun Fun Fun Till Daddy Takes The T-Bird Away’ hook came from something he said to her in jest while she was hanging out at their house one evening.

 Then, as a variation o the same theme, supposedly the dad of another young and lovely classmate of the Wilsons owned a Ford dealership…when a customer not too polite refused delivery of a brand spankin' new T-Bird because it was the wrong color (That color being pink) this ambitious and optimistic young lady begged dad to give her the mis-hued ride. Supposedly she got the car. Unknown if she used it to cruise ‘Through the hamburger stand now’ or how being given the car morphed into the classic song.

Confused yet? Good…because it gets better

There is yet another candidate for Subject Of The Song who, if she does indeed exist, may be the best candidate of the bunch.  That’d be the daughter of the manager of a Salt Lake City radio station who was a big fan and big supporter of The Beach Boys. Likewise his daughter was a big fan as well. So, when The ‘Boys were at the station for an on-air promo, she got to be there to meet them.

One minor problem… Dad owned a T-bird that his daughter asked to borrow a couple of nights earlier…wanna make a guess where she was supposed to be going? And where she actually did go?? (If you guessed anything other than 'Library' and 'Hamburger Stand', you haven't been paying attention) And yes, she got caught, did in fact have her keys taken away from her, and was indeed bemoaning her fate at the station at the same day the Beach Boys were there. As the story goes, Brian Wilson and Mike Love knocked out the lyrics on the way to the airport after overhearing her sad, sad tale.

Of course we may never know for sure just who this spunky and slightly rebellious little lady was if she does exist, and a big part of me says that if she did exist we'd know who she was by now. (Being the subject of one of the best loved classics by one of the best loved bands that's every strummed a guitar string and sung a note wouldn't be a bad legacy at all, IMHO.)

The Beach Boys music was all about fun, and Fun Fun Fun is way up there on the 'Fun To Listen To' scale. Admit it...you hear the afore mentioned guitar intro and you smile a bit, start bopping a bit , and start off on 'Well she got her daddy's car and she cruised through the hamburger stand now!' right on cue. Don't even try to deny it!

I have a sneakin' suspicion that Daddy's T-Bird'll be making the rounds of that unnamed hamburger stand (Until it's driver gets her keys taken away) for generations to come...and that's a good thing!

SO Enjoy! Fun Fun Fun by The Beach Boys!

And as a bonus...The 'Boys perform Fun Fun Fun at some unnamed venue n some unknown date shortly after the song as released...wish they'd at least tell us when it was!