the band was formed out of the pioneer surf band called the bel-airs. the bel-airs were still in high school at the time, but scored a hit with an instrumental song titled "mr. moto." their potential was cited by many, but it was an argument about use of the then new fender reverb unit that led to their breakup. the bel-airs were originally formed by two guitarists, eddie bertrand and paul johnson, both 16 years old at the time they recorded "mr. moto". in early 1963, eddie bertrand heard dick dale using the fender reverb unit and wanted to start incorporating heavy reverb into the bel-airs songs. he felt reverb was the sound that would come to define surf music. even at 17, johnson was something of an independent thinker and told bertrand that the bel-airs had done quite well without reverb and he didn't see any reason at all to begin using it. the argument escalated until bertrand finally left the band which then broke up for good shortly after. johnson confirmed this story in the liner notes he contributed to the bel-airs reunion album released in 1986.