SPIRIT OF AMERICA (1963) | The Beach Boys

Spirit of America original song with video montage of The Beach Boys and Craig Breedlove.
Craig Breedlove and his jet powered car, Spirit of America, set a land speed record, at the time of 407 mph (by the end of 1965 he reached a speed of 600 mph). The Beach Boys helped to immortalize and celebrate the triumph with a song--Spirit of America in 1963.
It was originally released on their album, Little Deuce Coupe. In 1975, Capitol Records released a hits compilation LP titled, Spirit of America. This was the follow-up to the Endless Summer Lp of the year before. Although it features only a handful of genuine hits, Spirit of America proved to be another success for The Beach Boys, reaching No. 8 in the US during a chart stay of 43 weeks and going gold. What's your reaction to this song? I've always loved it. So much so that I put this video montage together. I hope you like it.Show more

Lyrics: Spirit of America
The Bonneville Salt Flats had seen some strange things
But the strangest thing yet was a jet without wings
Once as a jet it played in the stars
But now on the ground it's the king of our cars
An airplane an auto now famous worldwide
The Spirit of America, the name on the side
The man who would drive her Craig Breedlove by name
A daring young man played a dangerous game
With a J-47, a jet for his power
Craig Breedlove had averaged four-o-seven per hour
Both man and machine had given fair warn
They'd set a new record on that warm August morn....