Surf's Up (track)
by The Beach Boys
Year: 2011
From the album The Smile Sessions (track #12)
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Surf's Up appears on the following album(s) by The Beach Boys:
- Surf's Up (track #10) (1971)
- The Platinum Collection (track #48) (compilation) (2005)
- The Smile Sessions (track #12) (this album) (2011)
- The Warmth Of The Sun (track #19) (compilation) (2007)
- Sunflower / Surf's Up (track #22) (compilation) (2000)
- Good Vibrations: Thirty Years Of The Beach Boys (track #92) (compilation) (1993)
- Ten Years Of Harmony (track #22) (compilation) (1981)
- The Beach Boys Classics Selected By Brian Wilson (track #12) (compilation) (2002)
- Feel Flows (The Sunflower & Surf's Up Sessions 1969-1971) (track #46) (compilation) (2021)
- Made In California (track #93) (compilation) (2013)
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Surf's Up ratings
Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AVwhere:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
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Showing latest 5 ratings for this track. | Show all 300 ratings for this track.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Track ratings | Avg. track rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 07/06/2026 20:38 | brokenpop | 25 | 81/100 |
| ! | 06/29/2026 23:06 | matterhornrider | 23,121 | 86/100 |
| ! | 05/14/2026 17:54 | michelefarina | 354 | 89/100 |
| ! | 04/27/2026 12:04 | Pienk | 82 | 98/100 |
| ! | 04/01/2026 14:00 | ravidal | 41 | 89/100 |
Rating metrics:
Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some tracks can have several thousand ratings)
This track is rated in the top 1% of all tracks on BestEverAlbums.com. This track has a Bayesian average rating of 91.2/100, a mean average of 90.0/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 91.7/100. The standard deviation for this track is 15.5.
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JulianR 10/20/2017 03:51 | #199828
that ending is so gorgeous
Simply put, one of the greatest songs ever written. My personal favorite song of all time.. the somber melancholy of the instrumental combined with the slightly wacky but profound lyrics has made this track a staple in my life since I first heard it two years ago.
As far as I'm concerned, this is the ultimate pop song, the most perfect expression of what pop at its best is -- a sprawling vision, a wide and vague musical fantasy, condensed by Wilson's instinctive sensibility into four minutes crammed with original ideas and bursting with creativity in all departments.
Atmospheric production worked down to a hair -- the slithery off-beat of the "diamond necklace" verses, the softly sung chord that marks a transition into the narrator's "dream".
Utter genius musically, with the seemingly arbitrarily chosen bass notes striking unexpected chords and adding new layers of mood.
Lyrics that sound awkward at first because they're super-literate poetry, but make more sense the more you hear them until you are genuinely moved by Parks's vivid, semi-abstract descriptions of spiritual enlightenment.
"Surf's Up" is a 10/10 song if I have ever heard one.
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