Surfin Bird

If this sounds appealing (and there's no earthly reason it shouldn't), there are more delights within, although only "Bird Bath" attempts (unsuccessfully) to match the hit. You get some nicely executed surf instrumentals, slightly surf-inflected covers of "It's So Easy" and "Money," and some especially commissioned (from a friend of the band) surf and hotrod songs crammed full of period jargon. Bonus tracks include a demo of "Surfin' Bird"'s too-close-for-comfort followup, "Bird Dance Beat," and a sweetly goofy Christmas single that has Santa and his reindeer doing the Watusi with Peggy Sue, Short Fat Fannie, and other regular partygoers of the era. --Ken Barnes