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26 Miles (Santa Catalina)

Field	Value
name	26 Miles (Santa Catalina)
type	single
artist	The Four Preps
album	The Four Preps
B-side	It's You
released	1957
genre	Pop
length	2:31
label	Capitol
writer	Bruce Belland, Glen Larson
prev_title	Dreamy Eyes
prev_year	1956
next_title	Big Man
next_year	1958

| B-side = It's You "26 Miles (Santa Catalina)" is a popular song by the 1950s and 1960s pop band The Four Preps. The band's biggest hit, it reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100, number six on the Billboard R&B chart, and number 11 in Canada in 1958. The song sold over a million copies and the group appeared on several television shows, including The Gisele MacKenzie Show (March 15, 1958) and The Ed Sullivan Show.

Credits

Conductor [Orchestra]: Lincoln Mayorga (tracks: B)
Writers: Bruce Belland, Glenn Larson*

History

At the age of 15, the band's lead singer Bruce Belland broke his ankle and took up the ukulele to pass the time while recuperating. He learned four chords, which ended up becoming the song's opening music. The chorus was developed some time later when, while body surfing at a California beach, Belland's friend said he could see Santa Catalina 26 miles away. The main theme is summed up in the last line in the refrain, stating that Santa Catalina is "the island of romance", with the word "romance" repeated four times.

Cover versions

The song was covered by Dent May on his album Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele.

Influences

The song served as an influence to Beach Boys singer Brian Wilson, as well as Jimmy Buffett.

In popular culture

The song was one of many California-related songs played throughout "Sunshine Plaza" in the original Disney California Adventure.

The song was featured playing on a radio in the opening scene of Bad Times at the El Royale.

References

"secondhandsongs.com".
"Artist Search for "the four preps"". [[AllMusic]].
"CHUM Hit Parade - February 17, 1958".
(July 6, 2007). "Catalina Island". [[Long Beach Press-Telegram]].
(2007-07-15). "'26 Miles (Santa Catalina)' The Four Preps | 1957". LA Times.
"26 Miles (Santa Catalina) - Dent May Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele".
(August 2007). "Magnetic Mirages". NeilPeart.net.
"Sunshine Plaza". Theme Park Music.
Frazier, Adam. (2018-10-11). "Review: Goddard's 'Bad Times at the El Royale' is Nothin' But a Good Time". First Showing LLC.

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

american-pop-songs 1957-singles 1957-songs capitol-records-singles the-four-preps-songs songs-written-by-bruce-belland songs-written-by-glen-a.-larson

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