I had never heard of this and I was curious: is a song called "Penetration" about what I think it is about? It turns out that it is a surf instrumental, possibly the last one to hit the charts before Beatlemania took over North America. It's less interesting and energetic than other surf instrumentals that I have heard.
The Pyramids were from Long Beach, California, which is about where you would expect a surf band to come from. "Penetration" was originally called "Eyeballs" (good call on the name change) and started off as the B-side of a single release; the original A-side was "Here Comes Marsha", which features a vaguely Latin beat, sad and wistful lo-fi guitar and, unfortunately, adenoidal vocals.
"Penetration" reached #18 on the Billboard Hot 100. Its success led to The Pyramids appearing in Bikini Beach, a film that starred Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello. They performed two songs and played backup on two others; on one of their songs, they came onstage in Beatle wigs which were then pulled off to reveal their shaved heads. Ho ho ho!
This was the high point of their career. The band released singles through 1965 and then split up. Some of them went on to play in a bar band in Orange County, as one does.
Created October 4, 2026.