Please reorganize this content to explain the subject's impact on popular culture, providing citations to reliable, secondary sources, rather than simply listing appearances.

This article appears to contain trivial, minor, or unrelated references to popular culture. Wahrer was originally credited as the song's writer, but that was changed to The Rivingtons (Al Frazier, Carl White, Sonny Harris, and Turner Wilson Jr.) after the group threatened to sue The Trashmen for plagiarism. It reportedly sold 30,000 copies in its first weekend before going on to national success, reaching No. This led to the group being signed to Garrett Records with the single being quickly released. It was then sent to a battle of the bands competition in Chicago where it also won. Diehl entered it into a local battle of the bands competition and it won. It was recorded at Kay Bank Studios in Minneapolis. Despite not knowing 'The Bird's the Word' was a Rivingtons song, the similarity to 'Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow' was obvious and the Trashmen added the chorus to the end of their new track.Ī local disc jockey, Bill Diehl, was at the gig and convinced the band to record the track. During this first performance, drummer and vocalist Steve Wahrer stopped playing and ad-libbed the 'Surfin' Bird' middle section. They decided to play the song that night at their own gig. The Trashmen had not heard this version but saw a band called the Sorensen Brothers playing it. The Rivingtons followed up their 1963 Billboard Hot 100 hit ' Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow' with the similar 'The Bird's the Word' in 1963. The Trashmen also recorded an album named after the track, released two months later. The song was released as a single in 1963 and reached No.

It is a combination of two R&B hits by The Rivingtons: ' Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow' and 'The Bird's the Word'.

' Surfin' Bird' is a song performed by American surf rock band The Trashmen, containing the repetitive lyric 'the bird is the word'.

Youtube surfin bird