Almanac Music: ‘I Can See You, Your Brown Skin Shining in the Sun’: Songs Connected to the Beach

Gold Coast, Australia. [Wikimedia Commons.]
Almanac Music: ‘I Can See You, Your Brown Skin Shining in the Sun’: Songs Connected to the Beach
Hi, Almanackers! This piece in my long-running series about key popular song themes concerns songs connected to the beach in some specific way. We’ve covered Australian summer songs before – and Christmas songlists appear all over the place – so I figured we could deal with material relevant to this time of year from another angle. And please also keep in mind that not all beach songs are summery in feel – some can specifically relate to the non-summer period, too. THE BOTTOM LINE HERE IS THAT ALL BEACH SONGS OF WHATEVER KIND ARE WELCOME IN THIS THEME’S SONGLIST.
So, dear readers, please put your relevant ‘beach songs’ in the ‘Comments’ section. Below, as usual, are some examples from me to get the ball rolling.
‘Wipeout’, written by Bob Berryhill, Pat Connolly, Jim Fuller and Ron Wilson, performed by the Surfaris (1963)
‘Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, wipe out!’
‘Surfer Girl’, written by Brian Wilson, performed by The Beach Boys (1963)
‘Little surfer little one / Made my heart come all undone’
‘Beach Baby’, written by John Carter and Gillian Shakespeare, performed by The First Class (1974)
‘‘Beach baby, beach baby, give me your hand’
‘Deep Water’, written and performed by Richard Clapton (1977)
‘We used to go down to the beach at night / Fireflies dancing in the promenade light’
‘(Section 5) Bus to Bondi’, written by Martin Rotsey, Jim Moginie, Rob Hirst & Peter Garrett, performed by Midnight Oil (1979)
‘Then I’ll catch the bus to Bondi, swim the beach and wonder’
‘Hoochie Gucci Fiorucci Mama’, written by James Reyne and David Briggs, performed by Australian Crawl (1980)
‘So it’s a back beach in the summer’
‘Boys of Summer’, written by Don Henley and Mike Campbell, performed by Don Henley (1984)
‘But I can see you / your brown skin shining in the sun’
‘On the Beach’, written by performed by Chris Rea (1986)
‘On the beach, yeah, yeah’
‘Deeper Water’, written by Paul Kelly and Randy Jacobs, performed by Paul Kelly (1995)
‘On a crowded beach in a distant time’
………………………………………………..
Now, dear readers / listeners – it’s over to you. Your responses to this topic are warmly welcomed. In the ‘Comments’ section, please add your own choice of a song (or songs) connected to beaches along with any other relevant material you wish to include.
[Note: as usual, Wikipedia has been a good general reference for this piece, particularly in terms of checking dates and other details.]
Read more from Kevin Densley HERE
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About
Kevin Densley is a graduate of both Deakin University and The University of Melbourne. He has taught writing and literature in numerous Victorian universities and TAFES. He is a poet and writer-in-general. His fifth book-length poetry collection, Please Feed the Macaws ... I'm Feeling Too Indolent, was published in late 2023 by Ginninderra Press. He is also the co-author of ten play collections for young people, as well as a multi Green Room Award nominated play, Last Chance Gas, published by Currency Press. Other writing includes screenplays for educational films.

A couple of surf songs to start the ball rolling.
‘Surf City’ – Jan & Dean, also The Delltones
‘Hanging’ Five’ – The Delltones
The first song to come to mind was:
On The Beach (1974) – Neil Young
‘Now I’m livin’ out here on the beach
But those seagulls are still out of reach’
A terrible song but suggestive if not explicit, much like the song, of the beach, Mondo Rock’s Come Said The Boy
Come said the boy,
Let’s go down to the sand.
[Errrk errk, snigger snigger, ad nauseum]
Thanks, Col, for (as is often the case) opening the batting in connection with my latest musical theme. Certainly some surfing/beach classics there!
Thank you for Young’s ‘On the Beach’, Karl – what an atmospheric, evocative song!
Thanks, Matt, for your input in connection with ‘Come Said the Boy’ – in general terms, the song is certainly on theme, and I share your aversion to it. For me, it’s riddled with cliches about a young man’s sexual ‘awakening’ (for want of a better word).
The Pogues – “House of the Gods”
“I’m just a wally hanging out on Pattaya Beach…”
Nothing says the 6:30pm telecast of a January Saturday arvo Beach Girl contest from Glenelg Beach (hosted by Dean Davis) like Beach Baby.
Here’s some KD
Rockway Beach – Ramones (“it’s not hard, not hard to reach”)
The Beach – Jonathon Richman (“it’s not what you have on but what you have not”)
Echo Beach – Martha and the Muffins (“faraway in time”)
Redondo Beach – Patti Smith (“down by the ocean it was so dismal”)
He’s On The Beach – Kirsty MacColl (“he’s in Australia”)
His Last Summer – Barracudas (“sometimes late at night on the beach”)
Pulling Mussels – Squeeze (“behind the chalet, my holiday is complete”)
Peaches – Stranglers (don’t go there Swish)
Every Day Is Like Sunday – Morrissey (‘trudging slowly over wet sand”)
Sand and Sea – Frank Sinatra
The Sea Song (That’s where we’ll spoon on the sand) – Frank Sinatra
Beyond the Sea – Bobby Darin
Can’t Wait for Summer (In the summer girls look cute dressed up in a bathing suit) – Steve Lawrence
Here’s two from Elvis Presley
Beach Shack
Beach Boy Blues
Yellow Beach Umbrella – Perry Como
Moments of Pleasure (Lying on a beach somewhere) – Kate Bush
On the Beach – Cliff Richard
Thanks, Smokie, for the Pogues song – I don’t normally associate the band with ‘beach songs’, but there you go!
Thank you, Swish, for your fine array of beach numbers.
And re ‘Beach Baby’, two words immediately come to mind: ‘quintessentially 70s’.
Many thanks, Fisho, for your opening sets of songs connected to the beach; as usual, a fine collection of singers are present: Sinatra, Darrin, Como, Presley … basically every artist you mentioned.
Omaha Beach – Paul Anka
Itsy, Bitsie, Teeni, Weeni, Yellow, Polka Dot Bikini – Brian Hyland
Paper Sun – Traffic
“So you think you’re having good times
With the boy that you just met
Kicking sand from beach to beach
Your clothes are soaking wet
But if you look around and see
A shadow on the run
Don’t be too upset because it’s just a paper sun”
(i have posted this in a previous thread but it belongs here.)
Best Years of our Lives – Richard Clapton
“I wish I had been around when the Bondi Icebergs reigned
Sometimes I sit and think of it, and I dream of better days
Whatever happened to the days way back, in the 1930s
All those endless parties
I’m still too young to understand, how it was back then
And the party ends
I say, “Don’t waste time
These are the best years of our lives”
I say, “Don’t waste time
These are the best years of our lives”
From St Kilda to King’s Cross – Paul Kelly
“I want to see the sun go down from St Kilda Esplanade
Where the beach needs reconstruction, where the palm trees have it hard
I’d give you all of Sydney Harbour (all that land, all that water)
For that one sweet promenade”
Thanks, Fisho, for your latest two. I recall Brian Hyland’s ‘Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini’ was in my parents’ singles collection. The song was a big hit in many countries around the world, by different artists and in various languages.
Some of Dave Warner’s from the Suburbs best songs:
Mug’s Game (Zongo’s story)
Summer of 78 (put on our Hawaiian shirts and rock)
African Summer (stretched out on Scarborough Beach, can’t find my way to the OBH – Ocean Beach Hotel)
Sidewall Surfin’ *Scarborough Beach, again!)
San Tropez (Dave goes international)
Three fine songs, thanks Dave N.
Your inclusion of Clapton’s ‘Best Years of Our Lives’ reminded me of his earlier ‘Capricorn Dancer’, another wonderful song of his connected to our current theme.
Great, Rick. Thanks for the Dave Warner suite of beach connected songs. Warner, it seems, has highly fitting work for every theme and occasion.
In The Summertime – The Mixtures/Mungo Jerry
‘When the weather’s fine, we go fishing or go swimming in the sea’
Thanks, Karl, for ‘In the Summertime’ – definitely part of the soundtrack of my childhood. Probably The Mixtures version was to the forefront in my young world.
And now, some vintage Bruce:
Backstreets (One soft infested summer, me and Terry became friends/Trying in vain to breathe the fire we was born in/Catching rides to the outskirts, tying faith between our teeth/Sleeping in that old abandoned beach house, getting wasted in the heat and/Hiding on the backstreets)
Thunder Road (There were ghosts in the eyes of all the boys you sent away/They haunt this dusty beach road/In the skeleton frames of burned out Chevrolets)
Born to Run (The amusement park rises bold and stark/Kids are huddled on the beach in a mist/I wanna die with you, Wendy, on the street tonight/Yeah, in an everlasting kiss, huh)
4th of July, Ashbury Park – Sandy (Now the greasers, ah, they tramp the streets/Or get busted for sleeping on the beach all night/Them boys in their high heels/Ah, Sandy, their skins are so white/And me, I just got tired of hangin’ in them dusty arcades/Bangin’ them pleasure machines/Chasin’ the factory girls underneath the boardwalk/Where they all promise to unsnap their jeans)
Jersey Girl (technically a Tom Waits songs but even Tom agrees, Bruce has made it his own)
Some great Bruce songs there, Rick – it’s easy to forget (for me, anyway) how much beaches were part of Bruce’s New Jersey.
True KD and that’s before geography and landmarks (for example, Highway 9, in BtR runs alongside the beach) are considered even.
‘Springsteen and beaches’ is certainly an interesting topic in itself, Rick.
Keela Valley Coals (Get those boats out on the beach) – Slim Dusty
99 Miles from L. A.(Passing a white sandy beach we’re sailing) Nancy Sinatra
Dover Beach – Bangles
Silver Moon Upon the Golden Sands – Guy Mitchell
Can’t believe that one of the Bobniks hasn’t got here before me.
Hey Mister Tambourine Man – Bob Dylan
“And take me disappearing through the smoke rings of my mind
Down the foggy ruins of time, far past the frozen leaves
The haunted, frightened trees, out to the windy beach
Far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow
Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free
Silhouetted by the sea, circled by the circus sands
With all memory and fate driven deep beneath the waves
Let me forget about today until tomorrow”
V A C T I O N (Write love letters in the sand) – Connie Francis
Love Letters in the Sand – Pat Boone
Beach Party – Annette Funicello
The Shining Sea (We’d sit here on the sand) – Peggy Lee
Thank you, Fisho, for your latest beach song batches, including the all-time classic ‘Love Letters in the Sand’.
Seems you’ve out-Bobbed the Bobniks in this instance, Dave. Thanks for ‘Mr.Tambourine Man’ and the quoted lyrics.
Hey KD – seasons greetings!
Bob certainly spent a lot of time watching the river flow, but (from his lyrics) he rarely built sandcastles on the shores of the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans. The best and one of barely a handful of beach related lyrics (some tenuous) is from Sara, off the 1976 ‘Desire’ album.
(V1) ‘I laid on a dune, I looked at the sky
When the children were babies and played on the beach
You came up behind me, I saw you go by
You were always so close and still within reach…’.
(V6) ‘Now the beach is deserted except for some kelp
And a piece of an old ship that lies on the shore
You always responded when I needed your help
You give me a map and a key to your door’
Daughters of the northern coast: Australian Crawl
Lakeside: Australian Crawl
My day at the beach: Australian Crawl
Circle in the sand: Belinda Carlisle
Gladstone Pier: Redgum
We have no secrets: Carly Simon
Sons of summer: Carly Simon
Beach ball: Jimmy Hannan
Sun tan baby: City Surfers
As a follow-up to a couple of earlier posts, I quite like Mondo Rock’s Come said the boy (without thinking too much about the content). On the other hand, Beach ball (also covered by the City Surfers) and Sun tan baby are definitely awful.
Hi Karl. Seasons greetings to you, too. Thanks for Sara – yes, Bob has never struck me as a guy who put his towel on the sand, so to speak, in any significant way.
Galveston (And she was waiting there for me on the beach where we used to run) – Glen Campbell
Marianne (Down by the seaside sifting sand) – Burl Ives
Rub It In (Lie beside me in the sand. put some lotion in your hand) – Billy Crash Craddock
It Might as well Rain Until September (My friends look forward to picnics on the beach) – Bobby Vee
Summer Nights (She got friendly down in the sand) – Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta
Rockaway Beach – Ramones.
Thank you, Liam, for you ‘beach song’ offerings, as well as your – so far in this discussion, anyway – alternative opinion on ‘Come Said the Boy’. Also, as a note note, Oz Crawl’s third studio album was titled Sons of Beaches – it contained ‘Daughters of the Northern Coast’, of course, which included the lines:
‘Daughters of the northern coast
Sons of beaches, don’t deliver the post…’
Thanks, Fisho, for your latest inclusions to our songlist. I’d like to give a special nod to ‘Galveston’, a particular favourite of mine.
Sea Shell – Teresa Brewer
The Thing (While I was walking down the beach one bright and sunny day, I aw a great big wooden box a-floatin’ in the bay) – Teresa Brewer.
Roll With The Tide (So I roll with the tide, roll with the tide, though the waves never seem to find the shore) – Wanda Jackson.
Elusive Lover (You’re the disappearing footprints on the beach) – Suzi Quatro
Born to Run (Kids are huddled on the beach on a mist) – Suzi Quatro.
Thanks, Fisho, for your latest batch of songs. Interesting to see Teresa Brewer’s name crop up. As you’d know, she was a major recording star in the 1950s – but, I feel, is largely forgotten these days.
A bit more suggestive than actual re the beach theme, but both worthy songs in their own right.
And The Tide Rushes In (1970) – Moody Blues
Castles Made Of Sand (1967) – Jimi Hendrix
Hi Kevin, yes Teresa Brewer was a favourite of mine. I’m finding this exercise most interesting as I often sing in my mind so many of the songs I list. Galveston and Love Letters in the Sand are real favourites of mine.
Thanks, Karl, for the Moody Blues and Hendrix songs – two fine numbers that strongly evoke their time, as well as, I feel, connecting well to our current theme..
Hi Fisho. Glad you’re finding this exercise highly interesting and enjoyable. Regarding ‘Galveston’, I remember watching Glen Campbell sing it on TV when his version first came out – must’ve been around 1969, when I was seven – but even then something in me recognised how great the song was. Music is like that.
Kokomo, The Beach Boys
Under the Boardwalk, The Drifters
Oldest Surfer on the Beach, Jimmy Buffett (and written by Mark Knopfler who also played guitar on the track)
The Rosarita Beach Café, Warren Zevon
Oh, and Fisho, Born to Run by Suzi Quatro is a ripper version of this magnificent song, but I think we need to reference Bruce. Aussie Nashville based singer, Annie McCue also does a good version
I believe this is still to be added to the list:
B52’s – Rock Lobster
‘We were at the beach
Everybody had matching towels….’
Snow on the Beach – Taylor Swift
On the Beach – The Playmates
Oh Pleasure Man (We sat on the shore and then the thunder roared) – Cilla Black
It’s Alright (Building sand castles, being little rascals. Having fun, playing on the beach just staying) – Shania Twain.
Thanks, Rick, for your latest selection. To pick just one for comment, ‘Under the Boardwalk’ would have to be one of those quintessential beach / seaside songs, wouldn’t it? The boardwalk I have in the forefront of my mind (when I think of such structures) is the one at Eastern Beach in Geelong, a roughly circular art-deco style structure which starts and ends on land – it encloses a shark-proof salt water swimming area where I learnt to swim as a kid, as did so many Geelong-ites.
Thanks, Karl, for ‘Rock Lobster’ – good pickup!
Thank you, Fisho, for your very latest input. Great to see this beach theme has provided you with so much inspiration.
And we’ve just passed fifty comments. I raise my bat on behalf of all who have participated so far.
While I’m at it, I’ll add ‘Cuttlefish Beach’ by Do-Re-Mi, from their Domestic Harmony album (1985).
Orinoco Flow (We can reach. We can beach, on the shores of Tripoli) – Enya
Brighton Beach – Rod Stewart
Sea and Sky (The sea goes on forever, goes on forever. It’s all a vast unmeasured shore) – Michel Legrand
Go West (Together we will love the beach) – The Village People
Beach Comber – Conway Twitty
Here is an ‘under the radar’ Dylan song – written in 1963 but not released until the 1985 Biograph compilation set. The Byrds did a cover version in 1965. Interestingly, theologian Stephen H. Webb has linked many of the images of the song to the Bible and calls it “one of the greatest theological songs since King David composed his psalms.” Now that is high praise!
Lay Down Your Weary Tune
‘The ocean wild like an organ played
The seaweed wove its strands
The crashing waves like cymbals clashed
Against the rocks and the sand’
Many thanks for your most recent choices, Fisho. I thought ‘Orinoco Flow’ was an especially good pickup in this context.
And speaking of especially good pickups, thanks, Karl, for ‘Lay Down Your Weary Tune’ – only a
Dylan specialist would have put forward that one. The quoted lyrics do sound biblical, too (particularly the last two lines).
When the Ship Comes In (OH the seas will split and the ship will hit and the sand on the shoreline will be shakin’) – Peter, Paul and Mary
Thanks, Fisho, for another Dylan composed song on this beach theme – this time performed by that iconic trio Peter, Paul and Mary.
“Seasons in the Sun” – Terry Jacks
“Malibu” – Hole
“Escape (Pina Colada Song)” – Rupert Holmes
Thanks, Smokie, for these three very different beach songs. For me, ‘Malibu’ is the pick of them, though, of course, that’s a matter of opinion.
Honolulu (They’ve got the million buck hotels and girls on the beach in bikinis) – The Everley Brothers
Sea of Heartbreak (Oh what I’d give to sail back to shore) – Everley Brothers
Sitting on the Sands All Night (On the seaside sands all day through folks may romp and lark) – George Formby
Down at the Beach – The Teddy Bear Band
And when it’s time for leaving Mozambique
To say goodbye to sand and sea
You turn around to take a final peek
And you see why it’s so unique to be
Among the lovely people living free
Upon the beach of sunny Mozambique
(Bob Dylan)
Thanks for your latest four, Fisho. To select just one of the artists concerned, I’ll state the obvious – jeez, the Everly Brothers’ harmonies, as evidenced by ‘Sea of Heartbreak’ and ‘Honolulu’, were / are a thing of beauty! (All in the genes, I suppose.)
Thank you, DB, for the Dylan / Levy composed ‘Mozambique’. Bob’s list of beach connected songs is continuing to grow, which of course is a fine thing!
Tubular Greens – Celibate Rifles, 1983
You’ll Never Catch My Wave – New Christs, 1987
There’s a few other 1980s Sydney bands that referenced the beach. Not surprising, given the history and culture.
The Ataris did a great cover of Boys Of Summer. All these songs would make a fantastic playlist.
Thanks so much, Earl, for your interesting additions. And welcome aboard, by the way!
Mykanos, Fleet Foxes
When the River Meets the Sea (Like a flower that has blossomed in the dry and barren sand) – John Denver
Remember It’s Me (Stars need the sky above, sea needs the shore) – Dave Clark Five
Loveboat (We’ll just float cause the beach is boring) – Kylie Minouge
Thanks, Rick, for the Fleet Foxes song. Season’s greetings!
Thank you for your latest songs, Fisho. Compliments of the season!