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This week our host Jim Adams for Song Lyric Sunday has given us the prompt of Beach, Surf, Swimming.

The goal is to take the prompt and profile a song that has it part of its lyrics or title.

Please consider carving out time to read the posts of other bloggers who responded to the Song Lyric Sunday challenge.

Rules for Song Lyric Sunday

Post the lyrics to the song of your choice, whether it contains the prompt words or not.  If it does not meet the criteria, then please explain why you chose this song.
• Please try to include the songwriter(s) – it’s a good idea to give credit where credit is due.  Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be.
• Make sure you also credit the singer/band and if you desire you can provide a link to where you found the lyrics.
• Link to the YouTube video or pull it into your post so others can listen to the song.
• Ping back to this post or place your link in the comments section below.
• Read at least one other person’s blog, so we can all share new and fantastic music and create amazing new blogging friends in the process.
• Feel free to suggest future prompts.
• Have fun and enjoy the music.

I Love Beach Music

If you live in the Carolinas, you need no introduction to a regional genre of music referred to as BEACH MUSIC. My song choice this week is by a group synonymous with that sound called “The Embers“. They produced a record called “I Love Beach Music“. The song is a tribute to many different beach music songs.

Most music historians agree that in the 1950’s teens wanted to listen to something different. White youth in the South found it difficult to hear the different styles of music they enjoyed. There was one radio station that played rhythm and blues – WLAC, out of Nashville, Tennessee. This 50,000-watt station broadcast throughout the south, but parents tended to frown upon listening to such music in the home.

Originally, Beach Music referred to African American “race” music. This music, which many would call rhythm and blues (or, R&B) could only be found locally on the jukeboxes of South Carolina’s beachside “jump-joints” and saloons. It was considered inappropriate and sexually suggestive, and a tamer version would later evolve which has come to be known as Bubble-Gum Beach.

As a result, teens flocked to the bars and pavilions of South Carolina’s beach towns like Myrtle Beach, Cherry Grove, and Ocean Drive to dance and listen to music on the jukeboxes. The dance became known as “The Shag“. That dance has a very large following with its group known as “Society of Stranders” (SOS). That group has a large party next week called “The Spring Safari“

Some classic artists included the Drifters, Artie Shaw, The Coasters, Sam Cooke, and The Four Tops. Many of the more popular artists of the time produced obscure “b-sides” that rarely made the hit music charts. These are the songs that wound up on beach-side jukeboxes and came to define the genre.

Lyrics-I Love Beach Music

Video-The Embers

Next week the prompt is Anxiety, Delight, Emotions, Pain, Pride