CD CORNER : The Beach Boys Get Their Feet Wet

Thanks to the Oliver Stone film, the Doors are the ‘60s Los Angeles rock band that is undergoing yet another revival--a process invariably accompanied by claims of “greatest Los Angeles rock band ever.”

But there are at least two other ‘60s-era bands that would get considerable backing from rock critics and historians if the “greatest ever L.A. band” question were put to a vote: the Byrds and the Beach Boys.

Columbia Records recently saluted the Byrds with a four-disc retrospective album, and Capitol Records has released almost 20 Beach Boys albums in CD, including various greatest-hits packages.

By contrast, DCC Compact Classics’ new “The Beach Boys/Lost and Found 1961-1962” might best be described as a “pre-hits” collection, and it is a disarming, 38-minute look at the group’s early musical instincts. The album contains 16 recordings--most of them previously unreleased--made by the Beach Boys before the group was signed by Capitol in 1962.

In a reflection contained in the album’s liner notes, Dorinda Morgan, who ran a music publishing company with her husband, Hite, tells about the September day in 1961 when Brian Wilson and the other Beach Boys stopped by the Hites’ office on Melrose Avenue in Hollywood.

“They (sang) several ‘Top 10’ numbers for us and were very good, with a smooth vocal blend and catchy arrangements,” Morgan recalled. “But . . . my husband asked Brian if he thought he could write something along the lines of Chuck Berry; something with a good backbeat and simple chords.”

The group--then known as the Pendletons--returned a few days later and played a rough version of “Surfin’ ” for the Morgans. Two weeks later, the group recorded the song and the Morgans placed it on Candix Records, where the single reached No. 75 on the national charts in 1962 and led to a contract with Capitol Records.

Besides the original home studio and hit versions of “Surfin’,” the DCC package contains early versions of “Surfer Girl” and “Surfin’ Safari,” as well as a song--titled “Lavender” and arranged in the Four Freshmen style so admired by Wilson--that has never before appeared on record.

Steve Hoffman, who specializes in historical packages and who compiled and mastered the disc for DCC, said some of the “Lost and Found” material has been available on poor quality bootlegs and he decided to search for and obtain rights to the original master tapes.