Editing Dick Dale (section)

===1960s===
Dale began playing in local country western–rockabilly bars, where in 1955 he met an entertainer who went by Texas Tiny,<!-- Hood County News from Granbury, Texas on January 21, 2003 · Page 9 https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/59092543/ January 21, 2003 - ... Guy Norris Cherry's heart was bigger than his girth ... The big Tolar farm boy became "Texas Tiny" when he went to ... --><!-- https://search.ancestry.com.au/cgi-bin/sse.dll?gl=ROOT_CATEGORY&rank=1&new=1&so=3&MSAV=1&msT=1&gss=seorecords&gsfn=Guy&gsln=Norris&msbdy=1914&msbpn__ftp=&msddy=&msdpn__ftp=&cpxt=0&catBucket=p&uidh=000&cp=0 --><!-- http://www.45cat.com/record/ht176 --><!-- http://oldwax.blogspot.com/2012/11/aint-that-just-like-man.html --> who gave him the name "Dick Dale" because he thought it was a good name for a country singer.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.trustmeimascientist.com/2012/12/03/pipeline-surf-musics-rocky-rise-untimely-death-and-unlikely-return/|title=PIPELINE: Surf Music's Rocky Rise, Untimely Death, and Unlikely Return|website=Trustmeimascientist.com|access-date=May 28, 2018|archive-date=April 17, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210417235609/http://www.trustmeimascientist.com/2012/12/03/pipeline-surf-musics-rocky-rise-untimely-death-and-unlikely-return/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://savingcountrymusic.com/king-of-the-surf-guitar-dick-dale-has-died/ |title=“King of the Surf Guitar” Dick Dale has Died |date=17 March 2019 |website=Saving Country Music |access-date=17 April 2025}}</ref>

[[File:Fender Showman Ampi, MIM PHX.jpg|thumb|upright|right|Fender Showman, owned by Dick Dale]]
Dale employed non-Western [[Scale (music)|scales]] in his playing. He regularly used [[reverb effect|reverb]], which became a trademark of surf guitar. Being lefthanded, Dale would become known for his unorthodox method of playing a right-handed guitar upside-down, doing so (like [[Albert King]]) without restringing the guitar (while Hendrix, by comparison, would restring his guitar). Even after he acquired a proper left-handed guitar, Dale continued to use his reverse stringing.<ref name="last_fm">{{cite web |url=http://www.last.fm/music/Dick+Dale |title=Dick Dale |publisher=Last.fm |date=February 11, 2009 |access-date=March 3, 2012 |archive-date=April 7, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230407225406/https://www.last.fm/music/Dick+Dale |url-status=live }}</ref> He often played by reaching over the fretboard, rather than wrapping his fingers up from underneath.

He partnered with [[Leo Fender]] to test new equipment. In interviews Dale noted that Fender had stated, "When it can withstand the barrage of punishment from Dick Dale, then it is fit for the human consumption." His combination of loud amplifiers and heavy-gauge strings led him to be called the "Father of Heavy Metal".<ref name="auto1" /> After Dale blew up several Fender amplifiers, Leo Fender and [[Freddie Tavares]] saw Dale play at the [[Rendezvous Ballroom]], [[Balboa, California]], and found the problem arose from his creating a sound louder than the audience's screaming. The pair visited the [[James B. Lansing]] loudspeaker company and asked for a custom 15-inch loudspeaker, which became the [[JBL (company)|JBL]] D130F model, and was known as the Single Showman Amp. Dale's combination of a [[Fender Stratocaster]] with a Fender Showman Amp allowed him to attain significantly louder volume levels unobtainable by then-conventional equipment.<ref name="official">{{cite web |url=http://www.dickdale.com |title=Official website |publisher=Dickdale.com |access-date=March 3, 2012 |archive-date=May 17, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140517050026/http://www.dickdale.com/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> Furthering the development, the Showman Amp later added a second 15-inch JBL D-130 speaker, and it was named the Dual Showman Amp.

Dale's performances at the Rendezvous Ballroom in Balboa in mid to late 1961 are credited with the creation of the surf music phenomenon. Dale obtained permission to use the 3,000 person capacity ballroom for surfer dances after overcrowding at a local [[ice cream parlor]] where he performed made him seek other venues.<ref name="surfingmuseum-rendezvous">{{cite web|title=Rendezvous Ballroom|url=http://www.surfingmuseum.org/exhibit/reunion/rendezvous.html|publisher=[[International Surfing Museum|Huntington Beach International Surfing Museum]]|access-date=February 13, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719182831/http://www.surfingmuseum.org/exhibit/reunion/rendezvous.html|archive-date=July 19, 2011}}</ref> The Rendezvous ownership and the city of [[Newport Beach, California|Newport Beach]] agreed to Dale's request on the condition that he prohibit alcohol sales and implement a [[dress code]]. Dale's events at the ballrooms, called "stomps", quickly became legendary, and the events routinely sold out.<ref name="surfingmuseum-rendezvous" />

{{Listen
| filename=Dick Dale - Let's Go Trippin'.ogg
| title=Dick Dale – "Let's Go Trippin'" (1961)
| description=Dick Dale's "[[Let's Go Trippin']]" (1961), which launched the [[surf music]] craze of the early 1960s
| pos=right
| filename2=Dick Dale - Misirlou.ogg
| title2=Dick Dale – "Miserlou" (1962)
| description2=Dick Dale's ''[[Misirlou]]'' (1962), a [[surf music|surf rock]] version of a [[folk music|folk song]]. It is often considered Dale's signature single.
}}

"[[Let's Go Trippin']]" is one of the first surf rock songs.<ref name="rollingstone">{{cite book|last=Marsh|first=Dave|title=The New Rolling Stone Album Guide|year=2004|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=978-0-7432-0169-8|url=https://archive.org/details/newrollingstonea00brac|url-access=registration|quote=Let's Go Trippin'.|editor=Brackett, Nathan |editor2=Hoard, Christian|page=[https://archive.org/details/newrollingstonea00brac/page/208 208]}}</ref> This was followed by more locally released songs, including "Jungle Fever" and "Surf Beat" on his own Deltone label. His first full-length album was ''[[Surfers' Choice]]'' in 1962.  The album was picked up by [[Capitol Records]] and distributed nationally, and Dale soon began appearing on ''[[The Ed Sullivan Show]]'', and in films where he played his signature single "[[Misirlou|Miserlou]]". He later stated, "I still remember the first night we played it ("Misirlou"). I changed the tempo, and just started ''cranking'' on that mother. And&nbsp;... it was eerie. The people came rising up off the floor, and they were chanting and stomping. I guess that was the beginning of the surfer's stomp."<ref>"Washed out for a decade, surf's up again", ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'', February 1, 1981.</ref> His second album was named after his performing nickname, "King of the Surf Guitar".<ref>{{AllMusic|class=album|id=r223252|first=Mark|last=Deming}}</ref>

Dale later said "There was a tremendous amount of power I felt while surfing and that feeling of power was simply transferred into my guitar". His playing style reflected the experience he had when surfing, which he tried to project to his audience.<ref>David P. Szatmary, Rockin' in Time, 8th ed. (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, 2014), p. 73.</ref>

Dale and the Del-Tones performed both sides of his Capitol single "Secret Surfin' Spot" in the 1963 movie ''[[Beach Party]]'', starring [[Frankie Avalon]] and [[Annette Funicello]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.jambase.com/article/dick-dale-surf-guitar-death|title=Guitarist Dick Dale 1937 – 2019|work=Jambase|date=March 18, 2019|access-date=March 18, 2019|archive-date=July 15, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230715024641/https://www.jambase.com/article/dick-dale-surf-guitar-death|url-status=live}}</ref> The group performed the songs "My First Love", "Runnin' Wild" and "Muscle Beach" in the 1964 film ''[[Muscle Beach Party]]''.<ref name=grauniad/>