On this day in 1963, the Beach Boys entered the Billboard Hot 100 with "Surfer Girl," a song Brian Wilson has long claimed was the first he ever wrote. The single went on to peak at No. 7 about a month later, becoming the band's second top 10 hit, and marked a subtle shift in their catalogue by focusing on romance and harmony rather than the surf-and-cars themes of their earlier singles.

The song was first recorded in February 1962 but deemed not fit for broadcast, with that early version only surfacing publicly in 2016 on a compilation of the band's early sessions. Wilson has given conflicting accounts of the song's origins over the years, disputing who inspired it and how the melody came to him, though most versions place him humming a tune, often noted as Dion and the Belmonts' "When You Wish Upon a Star," while driving before finishing the song at home.