Dick Dale has mentioned numerous times that "surf music" was being played in a live context since the mid-fifties. It wasn't until November 1962 that he had his first hit album, Surfers Choice which sold 80,000 copies and established him as "King of The Surf Guitar". Incidentally, the Fender-style reverb which became closely associated with the "surf" sound had not been invented yet. It was only after Dick's first album was a hit, that he convinced Leo Fender to build him a device to compensate for the lack of natural vibrato in his voice (made from a Hammond Organ spring tank ). The rest, as they say, is history....