Dorinda and Hite Morgan had seen dozens of beginning artists and bands walk through their door, and usually walk right out empty-handed. As the boys stood in the Morgan's office, Dennis suggested that they consider something involved with the latest surfing hype. The Morgans were unaware of this latest craze, and Dennis proceeded to fill them in on surfing. The other boys, not too thrilled about the idea, added that there were already several surfing-themed groups all over Southern California. However, the boys did admit that they had been working on a song called "Surfin." The Morgans decided that they would hear the song when it was completed, so they sent them home to get to work. .
When "Surfin" was finished, the boys returned to the Guild office to present their finished product to the Morgans. The Morgans were pleased with the song and arranged for the boys to have some recording time at Keen Studios. During their rehearsal time, the group had some serious fights with Dennis. They were ready to kick him out of the band when they brought in a replacement to try out for the drummer position. Dorinda Morgan was not pleased with the replacement and put Dennis back in for the recording. "Surfin" was produced by Hite Morgan with help from Dino Lappas, the studio engineer. The two minute and ten second song took only an hour to record and was hardly hit-material. However, it was definitely different-sounding and in authentic surf-song style. The Morgans decided to put "Luau", written by their nineteen year-old son Bruce, on the B side. On September 15, 1961, Brian and Mike signed an official songwriter's contract deed with Guild Music Publishing for the song "Surfin." The Pendletones were to receive 28.5 percent of the wholesale royalty on the sheet music, 50 percent of the publishing and six cents per copy of the record. .
Soon after the record was recorded, the Morgans played it for an artists-and-repertoire man at Candix Records named Joe Sacaceno.