The First Class were a British studio-based pop music group, put together by songwriter and record producer John Carter. Compared by critics to the Beach Boys, they are best known for their hit song "Beach Baby," a top 20 hit in both the US and UK, and number one in Canada.
The First Class was the studio creation of British singer/songwriter John Carter, who hired singers Tony Burrows (previously with The Flower Pot Men and Edison Lighthouse) and Chas Mills to join him as an outlet for material Carter wrote, with his creative partner and wife, Gillian (Jill) Shakespeare. In the 1960s, Carter had formed the group Carter-Lewis and the Southerners with fellow producer Ken Lewis. That band dissolved when Carter and Lewis began working extensively as studio singers, appearing on the hits "It's Not Unusual" (Tom Jones), "I Can't Explain" (The Who), "Hi Ho Silver Lining" (Jeff Beck), "(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me" (Sandie Shaw), "Excerpt From A Teenage Opera" (Keith West), and "Out of Time" (Chris Farlowe). Concurrently with this session work, Carter was a member of The Ivy League, leaving in 1966 to be replaced by Burrows.
Carter and Shakespeare wrote the song "Beach Baby". Carter immediately created a studio band, enlisting musicians Burrows and Mills, to record the song for Jonathan King's UK Records record label – under the name The First Class. In 1974, the song became a hit in the UK, peaking at number 13, and in the US, peaking at no. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was positively reviewed in American media, with Billboard naming "Beach Baby" one of the best tracks on the First Class' eponymous album and Cash Box praising the "perfect surfin' arrangement". Allmusic and Record World called First Class a British answer to American band The Beach Boys.