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"Bruce & Terry"
(active 1963 - 1976) U.S.A.

Bruce & Terry

Musical duo

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Bruce & Terry were Bruce Johnston and Terry Melcher. The pair were instrumental in the development of surf rock, recording originally as "The Rip Chords" and later under a variety of names. They began working together while Johnston was a well-known session musician and Melcher had a minor solo career as Terry Day before becoming the youngest staff producer in Columbia Records' history. Together, they began recording with 1963's Surfin' Round the World. as The Rip Chords, they released Hey Little Cobra in 1964; the song was the first in a series of hit singles (most of which were released under the name "Bruce & Terry"), and the only one to have stood the test of time. Johnston joined The Beach Boys, while Melcher became a producer.

Best known for their hits as the Rip Chords, the vocal duo of Bruce Johnston and Terry Melcher collaborated on countless hot-rod and surf records during the mid-1960s, working under a seemingly endless variety of studio guises. While Johnston was already a well-known West Coast session player, Melcher (the son of Doris Day) had released a series of singles

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Bruce JohnstonBruce Johnston was born June 24, 1944, in Chicago, and raised in Beverly Hills, where he was a member of a band named "The Sleepwalkers". He also participated in one song with "The Teddy Bears2, he was a member of the "Ritchie Valens2 band, and founder of the "Surf Stompers" as well as leader of "The Rip Cords". He played various instruments in each of those bands, including the bass, guitar, keyboard and drums.

Bruce is a musician who is better known as a former member of The Beach Boys. Contrary to what many might believe, Johnston was actually not one of the original members of the band. He joined in 1964 after Brian Wilson announced he would retire from live performances. Johnston, subsequently would abandon the band many times, then return. This pattern continued until the late 1970s.

Bruce is frequently credited as one of the original greatest supporters of the Beach Boys' 1966 signature album Pet Sounds. He also helped, as a songwriter, to create some Barry Manilow hits and he released his own solo album, Going Public, in 1977. Johnston is still currently touring with the Beach Boys.

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Terry MelcherThe son of Doris Day and her first husband Al Jorden, adopted by her third husband Martin Melcher, Terry was born on February 8, 1943 in New York, NY. Terry Melcher was a key player on the L.A. music scene in the '60s and early '70s. Melcher's career started with the surf craze that was kicked of by the Beach Boys in the early part of the decade. Teaming up with future Beach Boy Bruce Johnston, Melcher formed the Rip Chords who scored a hit with "Hey Little Cobra."

Terry was the produced The Byrds' number one smash hits, "Mr. Tambourine Man" and "Turn! Turn! Turn!" both in 1965. As a producer for Columbia Records who once auditioned and turned down Charles Manson's "band" for a recording contract, Melcher was thought to have been the original target of the infamous Manson murders. Just a few months before the killings, Melcher and his then girlfriend Candice Bergen had lived in the house where the murders occured.

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Hit:

  • Here Comes Summer (1964)
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