The Fantastic Baggys were a short‑lived studio duo from Los Angeles whose surf sounds barely registered at home but found an unlikely audience in South Africa. The title track off Tell ’em I’m Surfin’ reached number 2 on the Springbok charts in 1966, and soon after TEAL Records kept the momentum going by drafting South African band The Falling Leaves (not to be confused with the UK band of the same name) to record under the Baggys name. Their follow‑up single “Papa Do Ron Ron” also climbed the charts, setting off one of the strangest stories in South African music history. Tertius Louw traced this convoluted tale in 2004, showing how Sloan and Barri’s project was re‑imagined, and reshaped by South African musicians.
The History of The Fantastic Baggys in South Africa
by Tertius Louw, June 2004
The Fantastic Baggys were an L.A. studio project by P. F. Sloan (born Philip Gary Schlein on 18 September 1945, died 15 November 2015) and Steve Barri (born Steven Barry Lipkin, 23 February 1942). The duo recorded one album for Imperial in 1964 Tell ’em I’m Surfin’, as well as three singles. Although there were four Fantastic Baggys pictured on the album cover of Tell ’em I’m Surfin’, only Steve and Phil were band members. While the exact reasons for the commercial failure of the Tell ’em I’m Surfin’ album are a mystery, there is no doubt that mid-1964 was a little late for a surf album in the US. By then the British Invasion was in full swing and surf music had lost it’s magic
The one place where Tell ’em I’m Surfin’ did extremely well was in South Africa where it was a big seller. The single peaked at number 2 on the Springbok charts in August 1966. Upon the album’s success, TEAL Record Company in South Africa was so eager to issue new Baggys albums that, when none were forthcoming, they created their own indigenous version of The Fantastic Baggys. They subsequently signed one of their own bands, The Falling Leaves, to do the job. Their first single release was Papa Do Ron Ron (a cover of Jan & Dean’s New Girl In School) with Anywhere The Girls Are by the US Baggys on the b-side. Papa Do Ron Ron peaked at number 10 on the Springbok charts in November 1966.
Sloan explained in an interview that …”Dunhill felt that they owned the name P. F. Sloan, and could put out material as they liked under that name, as they did with The Fantastic Baggys. Today it would be unthinkable. They had the brand name of The Fantastic Baggys, and therefore they could sell the name wherever they wanted to, without caring about the material, the production or the work. I had written a letter to the South African Fantastic Baggys asking them if they would like any help with what they were doing, but Dunhill forbade me to have any contact with them at all. Their songs are not bad, but they are obviously different from the stuff we were doing.”
Two additional Fantastic Baggys albums were released in South Africa, consisting mostly of songs by the like-named South African group, with a few leftover cuts by the real Baggys. The second album, “Ride The Wild Surf”, was released in November 1966. Although five tracks, drawn from singles and out-takes, did feature Sloan and Barri, more than half the set featured the Falling Leaves themselves. By the release of “Surfer’s Paradise” in 1967, the excitement had run it’s course. The last album only featured one Sloan/Barri composition, Only When You’re Lonely. Some sources incorrectly claim that it was mistakenly drawn from another studio project, the Grass Roots. I have listened to both recordings and there is no doubt in my mind that the track in question was recorded by the local outfit. The last two Baggys albums were commercial flops as the band failed to keep pace with the public’s shifting musical tastes.
The South African Baggys returned to the local singles chart in 1967 with a cover of the Ivy League’s Four and Twenty Hours which did reasonably well for them. Unlike Sloan, the Ivy League toured South Africa during 1966 and were backed on stage by Pete Clifford’s 004s. In 1967 Steve Barri told The Thomas Group that I’ve Got No More To Say was a huge hit in South Africa. Yet another success story for Sloan and Barri in a country renowned for sun, surf and bikini girls.
Incidentally, South Africa’s first indigenous surf song Get Your Baggys On was recorded in 1965 by local boys, The Bats. Bruce Johnston, before his Beach Boys days, recorded an instrumental surf song Capetown as a tribute to the local surfing community. The popularity of P. F. Sloan compositions in South Africa were now almost a given and he subsequently impressed another man with strong South African ties, Mickie Most, who requested him to write a song for Herman’s Hermits. “I wrote the song downstairs in the dressing room of a sunset strip rock club. Donovan was performing that night and his manager Mickey asked me if I would write a song called A Must To Avoid for the Hermits movie… problem was he was leaving the following day and needed it right away… I went downstairs and borrowed one of Donovan’s guitars and sketched out the song… The next day I told Barri about it and he helped with some of the lyrics… I cut a rough demo on it and gave it to Mickey….”
Various South African musicians copied Sloan and information on cover versions of his songs are well documented on various web sites. However, the only cover not listed anywhere is Billy Andrews’ (ex-Staccatos and The Dream Merchants) solo version of Pardon Me (It’s My First Day Alone). Also of importance is the fact that P. F. Sloan’s composition Secret Agent Man fell prey to prison censorship and the song was banned from the Robben Island prison library while Nelson Mandela and other political prisoners were jailed on the Island. Even the cover design of local folk singer, Nick Taylor’s 1965 album Looking Out was copied from P. F. Sloan’s album Songs Of Our Times. P. F. Sloan was indeed an influential musician in mid-sixties South Africa.
The Falling Leaves
Tyron Khoury, skin basher for many South African groups in the sixties confirmed that The Falling Leaves recorded as The Fantastic Baggys. The final line-up was: Art Fisher [lead guitar, ex-The Meteors], George McCauley [bass], Luigi Merola [vocals/ rhythm guitar] and Tyron himself. Martin Sack [guitar] also played for the outfit during 1966-67. The Falling Leaves recorded three singles for PYE and one for Continental. McCauley is an older brother of the well-known Rhema Church personality, Ray McCauley.
The South African Fantastic Baggys were primarily a studio deal! The deal with Teal precluded us from disclosure… so we stayed in the closet all those years. ‘Martin Magnus’ was actually the code we used in the credits for the songs that Martin [Sack] and I wrote. The first South African Baggys’ album – ‘Ride the Wild Surf’ was done by The Falling Leaves … line-up: Art Fisher, Martin Sack, George McCauley, Luigi Merola.
* The Falling Leaves (as The Fantastic Baggys). All the other tracks are by the original Fantastic Baggys from the US.
Papa Do Ron Ron by The Fantastic Baggys, incorrectly credited to Group 66
Release information
LP: November 1966, IMPERIAL, IRL. 374
Comments
“Papa Do Ron Ron” is a cover of the Jan & Dean song “New Girl In School”, though on the LP it is sub-titled as “New Girl In Town”. The song title is styled as “Pa Pa Do Ron Ron” on the single and as “Papa Do Ron Ron” on the album release. Not to be confused with the 1963 hit “Da Doo Ron Ron” by The Crystals.
Ride The Wild Surf – LP (side 1, detail)
“Ride The Wild Surf” is not a cover of the Jan & Dean song. It is actually the instrumental track “Baja” (pronounced ba-ha), composed by Lee Hazlewood and first recorded by The Astronauts in 1963, but played here at a faster pace.
Brian Currin, November 2025
“Ride The Wild Surf” by Jan & Dean
“Baja” by The Astronauts
Surfers Paradise
Tracks
Side One
Four And Twenty Hours (Ford/ Carter)
Only When You’re Lonely (Sloan/ Barri) (The Grass Roots cover)
All tracks recorded by The Falling Leaves (as The Fantastic Baggys).
Release information
LP: 1967, IMPERIAL IRL. 381
Sleeve notes
From LP back cover
It’s all happening, everywhere you go, Surf Sound is in. At the coast, in the Clubs, where there are waves and where there aren’t. And on the “in scene”, the “in sound”, of the “in crowd”, is the Super Surf Sound of the Fantastic Baggys. We won’t argue the merits of the Best Board, or the spot with the best waves, our talk is sound talk and our sound is the pounding sound of the surf. Brought to us by the Baggys. So for Surf Sound catch yourself a few bars of surf by tuning in to the latest and greatest on wax from The Fantastic Baggys. We guarantee you a trip to Surfers’ Paradise.
