When the Surf Came In
For one shining moment in '78, Scene was the sound of summer.
by Erich Burnett
Scene bands rocked stages from the '70s into the '90s, but none of them tasted success like the Euclid Beach Band. Inspired by a conversation about Cleveland's bleak winter weather, delivery driver Rich Reising and Jim Girard wrote music and lyrics for a Beach Boys-inspired single called "There's No Surf in Cleveland."
The first and only release on Scene Records, "No Surf" garnered relentless airplay on WMMS and other stations in the summer of 1978 and moved more than 11,000 copies in just over a month. Euclid Beach Band T-shirts started popping up in clubs, and a working lineup was cobbled together to play live. When Cleveland International Records re-released the single, kids were singing "No Surf" from L.A. to Scandinavia.
"It was a legitimate-selling record," Girard says. "After that, we did an album and it flopped, and it wasn't fun anymore. It became another Cleveland band that didn't make it."
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