What if County Fair had been the a-side instead of Ten Little Indians?

[Jason Penick]

Here's a topic that's sure to draw a slew of responses!  

Okay, so as all good BB fans know, in 1962 Capitol followed up the group's first nationwide hit single "Surfin' Safari" with TSTSNBM (The Single That Shall Never Be Mentioned) aka "Ten Little Indians". Trite even by the standards of its era, TSTSNBM was a massive flop and probably would have finished off the band for good had Brian not come up with "Surfin' USA" in short order.

However, the b-side of TSTSNBM was a neat little number called "County Fair" that told the story of some typical suburban dweeb who takes his girl to said fair in an attempt to impress her, only to lose her to some alpha-male douchebag who can hit the bell with the mallet on whatever that old carnival game is called. (I like to call it "drop a mallet on deeeez nutz", but I don't believe that's the actual name. I could be wrong though.)

Anyway, I gets to thinking that "County Fair" is actually a much more interesting song, and more indicative of where Brian was going than the anonymous "Indians", which should have been a rejected Fabian b-side on its best day.

The carnival barker and bitchy girl ("loser!") spoken bits in lieu of an actual chorus on "Fair" are amazing. I love the novelty of it, and I think it would have fit right on the radio alongside such other noteworthy think pieces as "Stranded in the Jungle", "Be Bop a Lula", "Chantilly Lace" or "Palisades Park".

So what say you? Would "County Fair" have gotten more traction as the featured side of the single? Would it own a guaranteed slot on the new box set that most assuredly won't belong to "Ten Little Indians"? Discuss!

(And yes I know "409" was originally the a-side to their previous single, and that "Surfin' Safari" nevertheless became the hit, but play along with me here, okay?)

[Aegir]

Cuckoo Clock, b-side Chug-a-Lug.

[Cabinessenceking]

SIP

[Jukka]

It has no proper chorus. A hit? Not a chance. And interesting, even experimental piece, but not an anthem to build a 50-year career on (which one can say Surfing USA is).

And it's a good job it wasn't a hit. It would have branded them as a novelty group. They had hard time getting their serious stuff accepted after the surf hits, and if County Fair would have branded them, it would have been impossible.

Among all the what if's of the BB's career, this one turned out the right way.

[dwtherealbb]

isn't the Surfin Safari album considered, by most beach boys fans, among the weakest of all their earlier albums?

[Jukka]

^Not by me! It rocks in a very convincing, garegee way. I'd say Surfin' USA is their weakest early album, although it's a fun listen as well.

[EgoHanger1966]

County Fair is much, much better as I Do. The lyrics are pretty terrible to both of the tunes on that 45.  Any song that contains the line"The most specialist girl I knew" is bound to be pretty awful.

If they had to pick another single from that album (assuming Surfin' and 409 were not in the running) - "Little Girl (You're My Miss America)" would probably have been the best, but still, that's stretching it.

[Aegir]

If Surfin' Safari was the only Beach Boys album, the Beach Boys would still be one of my favorite bands.

[Mike's Beard]

isn't the Surfin Safari album considered, by most beach boys fans, among the weakest of all their earlier albums?

It's easily their weakest album up until post-Holland. Only a handful of good songs on it, Dennis could barely play the drums at that point and oddly enough Mike was the strongest singer out of them all. The band never again took as large a stride as they did between Safari and USA.

[Jason Penick]

Okay, so everyone agrees that either way the single was a bust. I'd still like to see "County Fair" make the box set though. (Although "I Do" probably deserves a spot too. That song's a mindblower!)

[Quzi]

If they managed to have a hit that didn't revolve around cars/surfing in '62 I think there would have been a lot less inward and outward pressure to not fuck with the formula, which is a pretty interesting scenario to hypothesise. Who knows, if something that strayed from the blueprint of surf/car songs succeeded in shooting up the charts, perhaps Brian would have felt comfortable in starting his stride to pushing the boundaries of pop music beyond what the band were comfortable with earlier. Conversely, there's just as good of a chance that Brian tries to model the next single after "Cuckoo Clock"/"County Fair"/whatever, and it flops so hard that the band, dejected at their failure, never return to making music and the only person to be remembered from the quintet is Al Jardine and his extraordinary contributions to the world of dentistry.