Download Instrumental     Does the guitar intro to this “Beach Boys” tune sound familiar?  Of course it does.  It’s the exact same intro (note for note) from the Chuck Berry song “Johnny B. Goode”.  Why they had to steal it is beyond me.  But it gets worse.  Chuck Berry first stole the intro from a 1946 tune called “Ain’t That Just Like a Woman” by Louis Jordan.  I guess all’s fair in love and song intros.

“Fun, Fun, Fun” is about a girl who borrows her daddy’s Thunderbird but doesn’t actually go to the library to study – imagine that.  Instead she terrorizes the town with her fast, reckless driving, making the boys adore her but the girls not so much.  But, hey, she’s having fun, at least until “her daddy takes the T-Bird away” – which he eventually did.  The lyrics to this one tell a little story, which was typical back in the 60’s.  Songwriters don’t do that much anymore (sad) and that’s all the more reason to bring The Beach Boys back from rock’n’roll oblivion, although they’re still wildly popular in some age groups.  A “twenty-something” might scratch their head and wonder where in the world did that song come from, but just tell ’em “California” and escort their butt out to the dance floor.  It’s time the younger generation learned what real music is all about.

Murry Wilson was the father of three of the band members (Brian, Carl and Dennis) and was also their manager.  He had very conservative values and thought this song was immoral and didn’t want it recorded (what would Murry do today, I wonder).  He didn’t get his way and was fired soon after “Fun, Fun, Fun” was released.  Take that, Murry!  Don’t you know a hit song when you hear one?  But how do you fire your own father?  That had to be interesting…