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"Little Deuce Coupe" is a song written by Brian Wilson and Roger Christian. The song first appeared as the B-side to The Beach Boys' 1963 single "Surfer Girl". The car referred to is the 1932 Ford Model 18 (deuce being for the year). "Little Deuce Coupe" became The Beach Boys' highest charting B-side, peaking on September 28, 1963, at No. 15 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The car referred to is the Ford Model 18; the 1932 coupe model was referred to as a "deuce coupe".
Brian Wilson commented on the song in the liner notes of the 1990 CD re-release of the original Surfer Girl album: "We loved doing 'Little Deuce Coupe'. It was a good 'shuffle' rhythm, which was not like most of the rhythms of the records on the radio in those days. It had a bouncy feel to it. Like most of our records, it had a competitive lyric. This record was my favorite Beach Boys car song." According to author Jon Stebbins in his book The Lost Beach Boy, while the group was on tour in July 1963 Mike Love hit on the idea to use short instrumental segments of the song in the Beach Boys' live set as a way to introduce the bandmembers to the audience, starting with Dennis Wilson on drums, then adding David Marks (and later Al Jardine) on rhythm guitar, Carl Wilson on lead guitar, and finally Brian on the bass, before launching the song from the top.
Reception
In July 1963 Cash Box described it as "a delightful shuffle rhythm rocker."
Chart performance
"Little Deuce Coupe" became The Beach Boys' highest charting B-side, rising to No. 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the week of September 28, 1963. It spent 11 weeks on the chart.
Recording
The song was recorded at Western Studios on June 12, 1963, at the same recording session as "Surfer Girl". The two songs were the first songs recorded for The Beach Boys' third album, Surfer Girl. This was the first Beach Boys recording session where Brian Wilson served as the official producer, and also one of the last sessions before Al Jardine rejoined the band.
Frank Zappa was quoted in his autobiography The Real Frank Zappa Book, "One of the most exciting things that ever happened in the world of 'white-person music' was when the Beach Boys used the progression V-ii on "Little Deuce Coupe." An important step forward by going backward."
In the 2005 film War of the Worlds, directed by Steven Spielberg, Ray Ferrier (played by Tom Cruise) sings part of the song to his daughter (Dakota Fanning) as a lullaby when she is too afraid to sleep, because he doesn't know the lullabies she has heard from her mother (Miranda Otto). Ray's effort succeeds in getting his daughter to sleep.
