They really are quite different. Everybody knows that the bird is the word! But the Surfin' Bird is also the King of the Surf, it seems.
Surfin' Bird
You can read the Wikipedia article on The Trashmen to find out that they are from land locked Minnesota but managed to get to Number 4 nationally in 1963 with their big hit Surfin' Bird.
A-well-a everybody's heard about the bird!
Bird bird bird, b-bird's the word.
A-well-a bird bird bird, bird is the word.
A-well-a bird bird bird, well-a bird is the word.
A-well-a bird bird bird, b-bird's the word!
Pa pa oom mow m-mow!
Pa pa oom m-mow mow!
Pa pa oom mow m-mow!
Pa pa oom m-mow mow!
Even Peter Griffin has heard of the Bird!
The trashmen's lead singin, probably Tony Andreason, sang the song, but Comedian,
Andre Van Duin is totally freaking out as he lipsyncs Surfin' Bird on TV in this YouTube clip.
King Of The Surf
The B side of Surfin' Bird is a fast fast surf tune called King Of The Surf. I rocks hard! Pure surf music at a frantic number of beats per minute! Wow!
I picked a video with this song from MusicMike's "Flashback Favorites" since he also gives some color on the band and the song.
Now here's some lyrics:
Well we're takin' my woodie and headin' on down
Where the cool cool surfers all gather round
Got a brand new board and I'm ready to fly
I'll be shootin' the curl before the sun is high
Show those hodads, gremmies, heroes too
The kinda' high ridin' real surfers too
Well I'm a high ridin' surfer and it takes three crunchers and a heavy
To wipe me out
I can do a double spinner before you count to three
Whoa oh, king of the surf that's me.
Whoa oh, king of the surf that's me!
[Super fast and cool guitar solo]
The Ramones cover Surfin' Bird
About 14 years later, The Ramones from NYC put a cover of Surfin' Bird on their third LP called Rocket To Russia. The Ramones basically invented punk rock but now as people look back to 60s Garage Rock and Garage Punk, we see the roots that influenced 70s Punk.
Well hopefully I did my part to make sure that everybody's heard about the word!