Dick Dale Pipeline
Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008
Though Dick Dale was probably responsible for the most popular version of the song “Pipeline”, he was not its originator. Rather it was first recorded by the surf rock band The Chantays. It was their one and only hit that managed to reach the charts, and was the headlining song on their first album, Pipeline.
“Pipeline” has since been re-recorded by a number of bands and artists, including Johnny Thunders, Agent Orange, The Challengers and Anthrax. But the best-known version of the surf song is still probably that done by Dick Dale and Stevie Ray Vaughan, as it received a Grammy nomination.
“Pipeline” continues today to be a standard in surf rock music (though, admittedly, the very end of the music video - provided below - is a bit weird, with a surfer taking to the skies across the front of the stage for no reason whatsoever).