"Pipeline" is a surf rock tune by The Chantays

The Chantays

The Chantays are an American surf rock band from the early 1960s, known for the hit instrumental, "Pipeline" . Their music combined electronic keyboards and surf guitar, creating a unique ghostly sound.-History:...

 which was recorded in 1963.

The tune, originally called "Liberty's Whip," was renamed after the band members saw a surfing

Surfing

Surfing' is a surface water sport in which the surfer rides a surfboard on the crest and face of a wave which is carrying the surfer towards the shore...

 movie showing scenes of the Banzai Pipeline

Banzai Pipeline

The Banzai Pipeline, or simply "Pipeline" or "Pipe," is a surf reef break located in Hawaii, off Ehukai Beach Park in Pupukea on O'ahu's North Shore. A reef break is an area in the ocean where waves start to break once they reach the shallows of a reef...

 in Hawaii. The tune, fitting in with the popular surfing craze of the time, swiftly rose up the Billboard Pop

Billboard Hot 100

The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

 charts, reaching #4, and becoming a classic hit of its time. The tune is notable for using Alberti bass

Alberti bass

Alberti bass is a particular kind of accompaniment in music, often used in the Classical era, and sometimes the Romantic era. It was named after Domenico Alberti , who used it extensively, although he was not the first to use it....

 chords.

Although they had a myriad of surf tunes, "Pipeline" was the Chantays' only hit single, and is considered one of the landmarks of the surf genre. The track's distinctive sound was in largely due to the mix being "upside down"; the bass guitar

Bass guitar

The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....

, electric piano

Electric piano

An electric piano is an electric musical instrument.Electric pianos produce sounds mechanically and the sounds are turned into electrical signals by pickups. Unlike a synthesizer, the electric piano is not an electronic instrument, but electro-mechanical. The earliest electric pianos were invented...

 and rhythm guitar

Rhythm guitar

Rhythm guitar is a technique and rôle that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with singers or other instruments; and to provide all or part of the harmony, ie. the chords, where a chord is a group of notes played together...

 were at the forefront, while the lead guitar

Lead guitar

Lead guitar is a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure...

 and drums were buried. Although the 45 was released only in monaural

Monaural

Monaural or monophonic sound reproduction is single-channel. Typically there is only one microphone, one loudspeaker, or channels are fed from a common signal path...

, the track was recorded in wide stereo

STEREO

STEREO is a solar observation mission. Two nearly identical spacecraft were launched into orbits that cause them to respectively pull farther ahead of and fall gradually behind the Earth...

, with the rhythm guitar hard left, the bass and drums hard right, and the electric piano and lead guitar centered. Modern reissues, beginning with the 1984 MCA Records

MCA Records

MCA Records was an American-based record company owned by MCA Inc., which later gave way to the larger MCA Music Entertainment Group , of which MCA Records was still part. MCA Records was absorbed by Geffen Records in 2003...

 7" single, are stereophonic.

In November 1997, the Chantays recorded a new acoustic version of the tune, entitled "Pipeline Unplugged

Acoustic music

Acoustic music comprises music that solely or primarily uses instruments which produce sound through entirely acoustic means, as opposed to electric or electronic means...

", which was released on their album "Waiting For The Tide".

The original release was on Downey 104-B, and was picked up for nationwide distribution by Dot Records

Dot Records

Dot Records was an American record label and company that was active between 1950 and 1977. It was founded by Randy Wood. In Gallatin, Tennessee, Wood had earlier started a mail order record shop, known for its radio ads on WLAC in Nashville and its R&B air personality Bill "Hoss" Allen...

, which released it as Dot 16440-B. The band's 45-rpm releases spelled their name as "Chantay's", with the so-called greengrocer's apostrophe. The ostensible A-side, "Move It", never charted, making this release an example of a "flipped disc".)

The song was previously used as background music for BBC Match of the Day "Goal of the Month" competition. It was also used for many years during the 1980s and 90s as the entrance music for the Edmonton Oilers

Edmonton Oilers

The Edmonton Oilers are a professional ice hockey team based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. They are members of the Northwest Division in the Western Conference of the National Hockey League ....

 ice hockey team at home games in the Northlands Coliseum; "pipeline" being a pun on the oil industry.

Covers

"Pipeline" was covered and recorded by a large number of other musicians including Johnny Thunders

Johnny Thunders

Johnny Thunders, born John Anthony Genzale, Jr. , was an American protopunk guitarist, singer and songwriter.He came to prominence in the early '70s as a member of the New York Dolls...

 (whose live version plays over the closing credits to TV-series The Sopranos

The Sopranos

The Sopranos is an American television drama series created by David Chase that revolves around the New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster Tony Soprano and the difficulties he faces as he tries to balance the often conflicting requirements of his home life and the criminal organization he heads...

 episode 74, entitled "The Ride"), Dick Dale

Dick Dale

Dick Dale is an American surf rock guitarist, known as The King of the Surf Guitar. He experimented with reverberation and made use of custom made Fender amplifiers, including the first-ever 100-watt guitar amplifier.-Early life:Dale was born in South Boston, Massachusetts and lived in nearby...

 (with Stevie Ray Vaughan

Stevie Ray Vaughan

Stephen Ray "Stevie Ray" Vaughan was an American electric blues guitarist and singer. He was the younger brother of Jimmie Vaughan and frontman for Double Trouble, a band that included bassist Tommy Shannon and drummer Chris Layton. Born in Dallas, Vaughan moved to Austin at the age of 17 and...

 and Jimmie Vaughan

Jimmie Vaughan

James Lawrence "Jimmie" Vaughan is an American blues rock guitarist and singer from Dallas, Texas, United States. He is the older brother of the late Stevie Ray Vaughan....

), The Ventures

The Ventures

The Ventures is an American instrumental rock band formed in 1958 in Tacoma, Washington. Founded by Don Wilson and Bob Bogle, the group in its various incarnations has had an enduring impact on the development of music worldwide. With over 100 million records sold, the group is the best-selling...

, Ventures' guitarist Nokie Edwards

Nokie Edwards

Nokie Edwards is an American musician and member of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He is primarily a guitarist, best known for his work with The Ventures...

 in collaboration with The Light Crust Doughboys

Light Crust Doughboys

The Light Crust Doughboys is a quintessential American Western swing band from Texas organized in 1931 by the Burrus Mill and Elevator Company in Saginaw, Texas. The band achieved its peak popularity in the few years leading up to World War II...

 for the 2003 album "Guitars Over Texas", Art Greenhaw

Art Greenhaw

Art Greenhaw is a Grammy Award-Winning recording artist, producer and mixing engineer, having won the Grammy Award in 2003 in New York City for "Best Southern, Country or Bluegrass Gospel Album of the Year" for the album WE CALLED HIM MR. GOSPEL MUSIC: THE JAMES BLACKWOOD TRIBUTE ALBUM...

 in a contemporary world fusion version with sitarist Vatsal Dave for the 2006 album "Lone Star Sitar", Incredible Bongo Band

Incredible Bongo Band

The Incredible Bongo Band, also known as Michael Viner's Incredible Bongo Band, was a project started in 1972 by Michael Viner, a record artist manager and executive at MGM Records. Viner was called on to supplement the soundtrack to the virtually anonymous B film The Thing With Two Heads. The...

, Eero, Jussi and the Boys (1964), Hanoi Rocks

Hanoi Rocks

Hanoi Rocks was a Finnish rock band formed in 1979, whose most successful period came in the early 1980s. The band broke up in 1985 after the death of their drummer, Nicholas "Razzle" Dingley...

, Hank Marvin

Hank Marvin

Hank Brian Marvin is an English guitarist, best known as the lead guitarist for The Shadows. The group, which primarily performed instrumentals, was formed as a backing band for vocalist Cliff Richard...

 (duet with Duane Eddy

Duane Eddy

Duane Eddy is a Grammy Award-winning American guitarist. In the late 1950s and early 1960s he had a string of hit records, produced by Lee Hazlewood, which were noted for their characteristically "twangy" sound, including "Rebel Rouser", "Peter Gunn", and "Because They're Young"...

 on Hank's 1992 album "Into the Light"), Agent Orange

Agent Orange (band)

Agent Orange is an American punk rock band formed in Orange County, California in 1979. The band is one of the first to mix punk rock with surf music. They first gained attention with their song "Bloodstains" which they released on their own 7" E.P. An early demo of the song was presented to...

, The Challengers

The Challengers (band)

The Challengers were an instrumental surf music band started in late 1962. They were located in Los Angeles. They represented a growing love for surf music and helped make the genre popular...

, Anthrax

Anthrax (band)

Anthrax is an American heavy metal band from New York City, formed in 1981. Founded by guitarists Scott Ian and Danny Lilker, the band has since released ten studio albums and 20 singles, and an EP featuring Public Enemy. The band was one of the most popular of the 1980s thrash metal scene...

, Assassin

Assassin (band)

Assassin is a band that was formed in San Diego during the summer of 1983 by guitarists Thom Beebe and Vinnie Cavarra. They are not to be confused with the German thrash metal band of the same name. They sought out noted drummer Leroy Vega and, in recruiting him, also lucked into a vocalist, his...

, Hot Butter

Hot Butter

Hot Butter was an instrumental cover band fronted by the keyboard player Stan Free. The other band members were Dave Mullaney, John Abbott, Bill Jerome, Steve Jerome, and Danny Jordan. They are best known for their 1972 cover of the Moog synthpop instrumental, "Popcorn", originally recorded by its...

, Bruce Johnston

Bruce Johnston

Bruce Arthur Johnston is a member of The Beach Boys and a songwriter, remembered especially for composing "I Write the Songs". Johnston was not one of the original members of the band...

, The English Bay Band and Guitarsaurios .

Personnel

• Bob Spickard — lead guitar
• Brian Carman — slide guitar
• Warren Waters — bass
• Bob Welch — drums
• Rob Marshall — electric piano