The Trashmen

Perhaps the ultimate one-hit wonder, this is certainly more of a curiosity than anything else..... surf music from
Minnesota? Well, one never knows...... I thought the Wikipedia blurb on the history of the song was fairly interesting, so let's just copy/paste that.
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The Rivingtons followed up their 1962 Billboard Hot 100 hit "Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow" with the similar "The Bird's the Word" in 1963. The Trashmen had not heard this version but saw a band called The Sorensen Brothers playing it.^[2] They decided to play the song that night at their own gig. During this first performance, drummer and vocalist Steve Wahrer stopped playing and ad-libbed the "Surfin' Bird" middle section.^[2] Despite not knowing "The Bird's the Word" was a Rivingtons song, the similarity to "Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow" was obvious and The Trashmen added the chorus to the end of their new track.

A local disc jockey, Bill Diehl, was at the gig and convinced the band to record the track.^[2] It was recorded at Kay Bank Studios in Minneapolis. Diehl entered it into a local battle of the bands competition and it won. It was then sent to a battle of the bands competition in Chicago where it also won.^[2] This led to the group being signed to Garrett Records with the single being quickly released. It reportedly sold 30,000 copies in its first weekend^[2] before going on to national success, reaching #4 on the BillboardHot 100. Wahrer was originally credited as the song's writer, but that was changed to the Rivingtons (Al Frazier, Carl White, Sonny Harris, and Turner Wilson Jr.) after the group successfully sued The Trashmen for plagiarism. There is apparently no truth to the urban legend which circulated in the late 1960s that the song had been written by Leonard Bernstein to show his disdain for rock'n'roll by proving that any song could become a hit.

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Covered, of course, by the Cramps and the Ramones, "Surfin' Bird", like it or not, is certainly a piece of Americana......the rest of the album, while moderately interesting, is mostly filler.

SURFIN BIRD-01 Surfin Bird/02 King of the Surf/03 Henrietta/04 Miserlou/05 Malaguena/06 It's So Easy/07 Tube City/08 My Woodie/09 Bird Bath/10 Kuk/11 Money/12 Sleeper/13 Surfin Biird (demo)/14 Bird Dance Beat/15 Walkin My Baby/16 Dancin With Santa