“The day the music died” refers to February 3, 1959, the day Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson died in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa. But on December 31, 1961, a musical event memorializing the late Valens would become music’s reincarnation—this time, in the form of harmony-rich surf pop courtesy of Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, Mike Love, and Al Jardine.
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New Year’s Eve 1961 marked The Beach Boys’ first paid engagement. And indeed, the band was as green as they ever were. They had only just adopted their name after performing under monikers like Carl and the Passions and The Pendletones. (‘The Beach Boys’ came from the record label.) With their new name that reflected their sunny sound, The Beach Boys made their professional debut at the second Ritchie Valens Memorial Dance at the Long Beach Municipal Auditorium.
Other performers on the bill included The Rivingtons, a doo-wop band that was still a year away from their biggest hit, “Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow”. Also on the bill were Ike & Tina Turner. The soul duo had just released their debut album, The Soul of Ike & Tina Turner, earlier that year. The Beach Boys earned $300 for a three-song set.
The Beach Boys Knew This Professional Debut Meant Big Things
Prior to their appearance at the Ritchie Valens Memorial Dance on New Year’s Eve 1961 in Long Beach, California, The Beach Boys were still trudging their way through the early stages of making demos and hoping the record label would like them enough to cut a record. But after they landed that holiday gig through local radio station KFWB, the surf-pop group knew they were on their way up.
“We knew we were beginning to happen when a radio station hired us to play a show on New Year’s Eve,” Carl Wilson told Tiger Beat, per The Beach Boys: The Definitive Diary of America’s Greatest Band. “Three days before the show, my dad bought Brian [Wilson] an amplifier and a bass. He learned to play in those three days. Al [Jardine] gave up the bass and bought an electric guitar like mine. Although we were still raw recruits in the music business, the producer of the show dug our performance enough to book us for more shows.”
The next engagement The Beach Boys booked, they got $200 more than they got on New Year’s Eve. “We were on our way!” Carl added.
That’s not to say The Beach Boys weren’t still a little bit green. According to Keith Badman’s The Beach Boys: The Definitive Diary, the group was so happy with their performance at Long Beach Auditorium that they forgot to break down their drum kit after the set.
Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
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