Roger Val Christian (July 3, 1934 – July 11, 1991) was an American

radio personality A radio personality is a person who has an on-air position in radio broadcasting. A radio personality who hosts a radio show is also known as a radio host (North American English), radio presenter (British English) or radio jockey. Radio personali ...

and songwriter from Buffalo, New York. After moving to California in 1959, he became a lyricist for

the Beach Boys The Beach Boys are an American Rock music, rock band formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian Wilson, Brian, Dennis Wilson, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and their f ...

Brian Wilson Brian Douglas Wilson (June 20, 1942 – June 11, 2025) was an American musician, songwriter, singer and record producer who co-founded the Beach Boys. Often Brian Wilson is a genius, called a genius for his novel approaches to pop compositio ...

. From the early to mid-1960s, they wrote many songs together, mostly about cars, including the singles "

Little Deuce Coupe ''Little Deuce Coupe'' is the fourth album by the American rock band the Beach Boys, released October 7, 1963 by Capitol Records. It reached No. 4 in the U.S. during a chart stay of 46 weeks, and was eventually certified platinum by the RIA ...

" (1963), " Shut Down" (1963), and " Don’t Worry Baby" (1964).

Biography

Christian was born in

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is a Administrative divisions of New York (state), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and county seat of Erie County, New York, Erie County. It lies in Western New York at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of ...

, United States. Roger Christian began his radio career in

Rochester, New York Rochester is a city in and the county seat, seat of government of Monroe County, New York, United States. It is the List of municipalities in New York, fourth-most populous city and 10th most-populated municipality in New York, with a populati ...

at WSAY and later worked in Buffalo under the name Mike Melody. While working as a lifeguard, Christian got his break in radio after saving a radio executive's wife from drowning in a New York lake in the mid-1950s. In 1959, he moved to California, where he initially worked for a radio station in San Bernardino, KFXM-590AM. Christian worked as a radio personality in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. He was one of the original "Boss Jocks" when 93/KHJ debuted in 1965. He worked for other radio stations in Los Angeles, including

KRLA KRLA (870 AM) "AM 870 The Answer" is a commercial radio station broadcasting a conservative talk radio format. Licensed to Glendale, California, it serves Greater Los Angeles and Southern California. The station is owned by Salem Media Group, ...

(AM),

KFWB (AM) KFWB (980 AM) is a commercial radio station in Los Angeles, California. KFWB is owned by Lotus Communications, and airs a classic regional Mexican music radio format. The station has a colorful history, being the radio voice of Warner Bros. S ...

KBLA KBLA (1580 AM) is a broadcast radio station in the United States. Licensed to Santa Monica, California, KBLA serves the Greater Los Angeles area. The station is owned by Multicultural Broadcasting, through licensee Multicultural Radio Broad ...

, KGBS ( AM- FM),

KDAY KDAY (93.5 FM, "93.5 KDAY") is a radio station that is licensed to Redondo Beach, California and serves the Greater Los Angeles area. The station is owned by Meruelo Media and airs a classic hip hop format. The station's studios are locate ...

, KRTH-FM, and

KIQQ-FM KIQQ-FM (103.7 MHz) is a radio station that is licensed to Newberry Springs, California and serves the Barstow area. The station is owned by Lazer Media and broadcasts a regional Mexican music format. The station signed on in January 2001 by ...

. Having raced cars until 1955, Christian had a keen interest in hot rods and became known as the "Poet of the Strip".Murphy, James B. ''Becoming the Beach Boys, 1961–1963'', McFarland, May 29, 2015, p. 261,

Murry Wilson Murry Gage Wilson (July 2, 1917 – June 4, 1973) was an American songwriter, talent manager, record producer, and music publisher, best known as the father of the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson, Brian, Dennis Wilson, Dennis, and Carl Wilson. Af ...

, father of three of the

Beach Boys The Beach Boys are an American rock band formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and their friend Al Jardine. Distinguished by thei ...

as well as their manager, heard Christian one night on KFWB explaining the group's hit song " 409" to a listener on the air. Realising Christian knew a lot about cars, Murry met Christian and later sent his son

to meet him. Looking at some of Christian's poems about cars, the pair collaborated on " Shut Down", "

" and later "

Don't Worry Baby "Don't Worry Baby" is a song by American rock band the Beach Boys from their March 1964 album '' Shut Down Volume 2''. Written by Brian Wilson and Roger Christian, Wilson's lead vocal is considered one of his defining performances, and he late ...

". He also co-wrote many songs recorded by

Jan and Dean Jan and Dean were an American rock music, rock duo consisting of William Jan Berry (April 3, 1941 – March 26, 2004) and Dean Ormsby Torrence (born March 10, 1940). In the early 1960s, they were pioneers of the California Sound and vocal surf m ...

, including " Dead Man's Curve", "

The Little Old Lady from Pasadena "The Little Old Lady (from Pasadena)" is a song written by Don Altfeld, Jan Berry and Roger Christian, and recorded by 1960s American pop singers Jan and Dean. The song was performed live by The Beach Boys at Sacramento Memorial Auditorium on ...

", " Drag City", " Honolulu Lulu", " The New Girl In School", " Ride The Wild Surf", and " You Really Know How to Hurt a Guy" with Christian writing new lyrics for " Catch a Wave" that became " Sidewalk Surfin'" involving

skateboarding Skateboarding is an extreme sport, action sport that involves riding and Skateboarding trick, performing tricks using a skateboard, as well as a recreational activity, an art form, an entertainment industry Profession, job, and a method of tr ...

. Christian, along with

Gary Usher Gary Lee Usher (December 14, 1938 – May 25, 1990) was an American rock musician, songwriter, and record producer, who worked with numerous California acts in the 1960s, including the Byrds, the Beach Boys, and Dick Dale. Usher also produced fic ...

, collaborated on several songs that were either featured in or specifically written for the films '' Beach Party'', '' Muscle Beach Party'', '' Bikini Beach'', '' Ride the Wild Surf'', '' Beach Blanket Bingo'', '' Ski Party'', ''

Beach Ball A beach ball is an inflatable ball for beach and water games. Their large size and light weight require little effort to propel them. Beach balls became popular in the beach-themed films of the 1960s starring Annette Funicello and Frankie Ava ...

'', and '' Catalina Caper'' - including three songs for

Dick Dale Richard Anthony Monsour (May 4, 1937 – March 16, 2019), known professionally as Dick Dale, was an American Rock music, rock guitarist. He was a pioneer of surf music, drawing on Middle Eastern music scale (music), scales and experimenting wit ...

. Christian also made several appearances in some of these films. He was one of the writer/narrators on the 1964

Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007), and simply known as Capitol, is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-base ...

documentary LP, '' The Beatles' Story''.

Death

Christian suffered from periodic depression. He was the only original KHJ "Boss Jock" not to appear at the station's 25th anniversary reunion on May 9, 1990. He died July 11, 1991, of complications of kidney and liver failure, eight days after his 57th birthday, in Tarzana, California.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Christian, Roger 1934 births 1991 deaths 20th-century American composers 20th-century American male musicians American lyricists American male songwriters American radio DJs Musicians from Buffalo, New York