Jan and Dean

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jan and Dean
Jan Berry and Dean Torrence
Jan Berry and Dean Torrence
Background information
Origin Southern California
Genre(s) R&B, Surf, Folk, Sunshine, Psychedelic
Years active 1958-1968
Label(s) Arwin, Dore, Ripple, Challenge, Liberty, J&D Record Co., Jan & Dean, Columbia, Warner Bros., Brer Bird, White Whale
Associated acts Jan & Arnie, Beach Boys, Matadors, Fantastic Baggys
Website http://www.jananddean.com
Former members
Jan Berry
Dean Torrence

Jan and Dean were a rock and roll duo, popular from the late 1950s through the mid 1960s, consisting of William Jan Berry (3 April 1941 – 26 March 2004) and Dean Ormsby Torrence (born 10 March 1940). Although Jan & Dean pre-dated The Beach Boys, they became most famously associated with the vocal "surf music" craze inspired by The Beach Boys.

Contents

[edit] Beginnings: 1958-1963

Jan Berry and Dean Torrence, both born in Los Angeles, California, began singing together as a duo after football practice at University High School. Primitive recording sessions followed soon after, in a makeshift studio in Berry's garage. They first performed on stage as The Barons at a high school dance. With the Barons, Jan Berry was experimenting with multi-part vocal arrangements — five years before he started working professionally with Brian Wilson.[1]

Their first commercial success was "Jennie Lee" (1958), a top 10 ode to a local, Hollywood, California, burlesque performer that Jan Berry recorded with fellow Baron Arnie Ginsburg. "Jan & Arnie" released three singles in all. After Torrence returned from a stint in the army reserves, Jan Berry and Dean Torrence began to make music as "Jan and Dean".

With the help of record producers Herb Alpert and Lou Adler, Jan and Dean scored another top 10 hit with "Baby Talk" (1959), and then scored a series of hits over the next couple of years. Playing local venues, they met and performed with the Beach Boys, and discovered the appeal of the latter's "surf sound". By this time, Berry was co-writing, arranging, and producing all of Jan and Dean's original material. Berry signed a series of contracts with Screen Gems to write and produce music for Jan and Dean, as well as other artists such as Judy & Jill (which included Berry's girlfriend Jill Gibson and Dean Torrence's girlfriend Judy Lovejoy), The Matadors, and Pixie (a young female solo singer).[2]

[edit] Surf's golden boys: 1963-1964

Jan and Dean reached their commercial peak in 1963 and 1964. The duo scored an impressive sixteen Top 40 hits on the Billboard and Cash Box magazine charts, with a total of twenty-six chart hits over an eight-year period (1958-1966). Jan and Brian Wilson collaborated on roughly a dozen hits and album cuts for Jan and Dean, including the number one national hit "Surf City" in 1963. Subsequent top 10 hits included "Drag City" (1963), "The Little Old Lady from Pasadena" (1964), and the eerily portentous "Dead Man's Curve" (1964).

In 1964, at the height of their fame, Jan and Dean hosted and performed at The T.A.M.I. Show, an historic concert film directed by Steve Binder. The film also featured such acts as The Rolling Stones, Chuck Berry, Gerry & The Pacemakers, James Brown, Billy J. Kramer & The Dakotas, Marvin Gaye, The Supremes, Lesley Gore, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, and The Beach Boys (whose sequence was later cut from the film, due to contract violation issues). Also in 1964, the duo performed the title track for the Columbia Pictures film Ride the Wild Surf, starring Fabian (entertainer), Tab Hunter, Peter Brown (actor), Shelley Fabares, and Barbara Eden. The song, penned by Jan Berry, Brian Wilson, and Roger Christian, was a Top 20 national hit.

Jan and Dean also filmed two unreleased television pilots: Surf Scene in 1963 and On the Run in 1966. Their feature film Easy Come, Easy Go was canceled when Jan, as well as the film's director and other crew members, was seriously injured in a railroad accident while shooting the movie in August 1965.

[edit] Changing times: 1965-1966

After the Surf craze, Jan & Dean scored two Top-30 hits in 1965: "You Really Know How to Hurt a Guy" and "I Found a Girl" — the latter from the album Folk 'n Roll.

During this period, they also began to experiment with cutting-edge comedy concepts such as the original (unreleased) Filet of Soul and Jan & Dean Meet Batman.

[edit] Part-time musicians

Unlike most other rock 'n roll acts of the period, Jan & Dean did not give music their full-time attention. Jan & Dean were college students, maintaining their studies while writing and recording music and making public appearances on the side.

Torrence majored in advertising design in the school of architecture at USC. Berry took science and music classes at UCLA, and entered the California College of Medicine (now the UC Irvine School of Medicine) in 1963. By the time of his 1966 auto accident, Berry had completed two years of medical school.[3]

[edit] Berry's car wreck and its aftermath: 1966-1968

On 12 April 1966, Berry received severe head injuries in a motor vehicle accident, ironically just a short distance from Dead Man's Curve in Los Angeles, two years after the song had become a hit. Jan was on his way to a business meeting when he crashed his Corvette into a parked truck on Whittier Drive in Beverly Hills. Berry had also separated from his girlfriend of seven years, singer-artist Jill Gibson, later a member for a short time of The Mamas and the Papas, who had also co-written several songs with Berry.

Berry traveled a long and difficult road toward recovery from brain damage and partial paralysis. He had minimal use of his right arm, and had to learn to write with his left hand. Doctors said he would never walk again; but with a persistent refusal to give up, Jan made it through. Torrence stood by his partner, maintaining their presence in the music industry, and keeping open the possibility that they would perform together again.[4]

In Berry's absence, Torrence released several singles on the J&D Record Co. label and recorded Save for a Rainy Day in 1966, a concept album featuring all rain-themed songs. Dean posed with Berry's brother Ken for the album cover photos. Columbia Records released one single from the project ("Yellow Balloon") as did the song's writer, Gary Zekley, with The Yellow Balloon, but legal wrangling scuttled Torrence's Columbia deal. Save For A Rainy Day remained a self-released album on the J&D Record Co. label.[5]

Berry returned to the studio in April 1967, one year to the month after his accident. Working with collaborators, he began writing and producing music again. In December 1967, Jan and Dean signed an agreement with Warner Bros. Records. Warner issued two singles under the name Jan and Dean, but a 1968 Berry-produced album for Warner Bros., the psychedelic Carnival of Sound, remains unreleased.[6]

[edit] Jan & Dean's place in rock history

According to rock critic Dave Marsh, the attitude and public persona of punk rock can be traced to Jan and Dean;[7], and their music has been covered by numerous Punk and alternative bands since the 1970s.

Along with Phil Spector, Brian Wilson, and Lee Hazlewood, Jan enjoyed a reputation as one of the best record producers on the West Coast.[8] Brian Wilson has cited Berry as having a direct impact on his own growth as a record producer.[9]

[edit] Further progress: 1969-1978

Berry began to sing again in the early 1970s, and he arranged and produced a number of singles (both solo and as Jan & Dean) between 1972 and 1978 on the Ode and A&M labels, facilitated by friend and former manager Lou Adler.[10]

Jan also toured with his Aloha band, while Dean began performing with a band called Papa Doo Run Run.

In 1973, Jan & Dean made an appearance at the Hollywood Palladium, as part of Jim Pewter's "Surfer's Stomp" reunion. But the duo's first performance after Jan's accident — backed with live musicians — occurred at the Palomino Nightclub in North Hollywood, June 5, 1976 (ten years after the accident).[11]

In 1974, attorney Paul Morantz published a landmark article about Jan Berry's recovery in Rolling Stone magazine.[12]

[edit] Back on the road: 1978-2004

On February 3, 1978, CBS aired a made-for-TV movie about the duo titled Deadman's Curve. The biopic starred Richard Hatch as Jan Berry and Bruce Davison as Dean Torrence, with cameo appearances by Dick Clark, Wolfman Jack, Mike Love of the Beach Boys, and Bruce Johnston (who at that time was temporarily out of the Beach Boys). Bruce and Jan had known each other since high school, and had played music together in Jan's garage in Bel Air — long before Jan & Dean or the Beach Boys were formed. Following the release of the film, the duo made steps toward an official comeback that year, including touring with the Beach Boys.

In the early 1980s, while Berry struggled to overcome drug addiction, Torrence toured briefly as "Mike & Dean", with Mike Love of the Beach Boys. But Berry got sober, beating the odds once again, and the duo reunited for good. In "Phase II" of their career, Dean Torrence led the touring operation.

In 1986, Berry helped establish the Jan Berry Center for the Brain Injured in Downey, California. Dean Torrence participated in the promotional campaign for this endeavor. Though Berry only made a partial recovery, he persevered and remained a high-profile example for patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI).[13]

Jan and Dean continued to tour on their own throughout the 1980s, 1990s, and into the new millennium — with 1960s nostalgia providing them with a ready audience. Sundazed Records reissued Save for a Rainy Day in 1996, and the album drew critical praise.[citation needed]

Between the 1970s and 1990s, Torrence issued a number of re-recordings of classic Jan and Dean hits. An album titled One Summer Night / Live was issued by Rhino Records in 1982, and Dean collaborated with Berry on Port to Paradise, released on J&D Records in 1986. In 1997, after many years of hard work, Berry released a solo album called Second Wave on One Way Records. On August 31, 1991, Berry married Gertie Filip at The Stardust Convention Centre in Las Vegas, Nevada. Torrence was Berry's best man at the wedding.

Jan and Dean ended with Jan Berry's death on March 26, 2004, at the age of 62. Berry was an organ donor, and his body was cremated. On April 18, 2004, a "Celebration of Life" was held in Jan's memory at The Roxy Theatre on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood, California. Celebrities attending the event included Dean Torrence, Lou Adler, Jill Gibson, and Nancy Sinatra. Also present were many family members, friends, and musicians associated with Jan and Dean and the Beach Boys.

[edit] Miscellany

 Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.
  • Neil Young's song "Tonight's the Night" is about the drug-overdose death of Jan Berry's brother Bruce Berry, with a lyric that includes: "Bruce Berry was a working man, he used to load that Econoline van."
  • Jan Berry's brother Brian Berry went to Canada during the Vietnam War, purchased trapping rights to the North Selkirk Mountains and became a mountaineering guide, hunter, and fisherman.
  • Another brother, Ken Berry, founded Studio Instrument Rentals (S.I.R) in Los Angeles in 1967, using Jan's instruments to get started, the instruments being unused following Jan Berry's accident.
  • In the movie "High Fidelity" the characters Barry and Dick argue about whether it was Jan or Dean who was in a car crash.
  • Near the end of the movie Deadman's Curve, Jan Berry can be seen sitting in the audience, watching "himself" (Richard Hatch) perform onstage.

[edit] Discography

SINGLES - with Billboard chart positions

1958 (Jan & Arnie)

01. "Jennie Lee" b/w "Gotta Get A Date" (Arwin) #8 - (JL)
02. "Gas Money" b/w "Bonnie Lou" (Arwin) #81 - (JL)
03. "The Beat That Can't Be Beat" b/w "I Love Linda" (Arwin) - (JL)

1959 (Jan & Dean)

04. "Baby Talk" b/w "Jeanette Get Your Hair Done" (Dore) #10 - (AA)
05. "There's a Girl" b/w "My Heart Sings" (Dore) #97 - (AA)

1960

06. "Clementine" b/w "You're On My Mind" (Dore) #65 - (AA)
07. "White Tennis Sneakers" b/w "Cindy" (Dore) - (AA)
08. "We Go Together" b/w "Rosie Lane" (Dore) #53 - (AA)
09. "Gee" b/w "Such a Good Nights Dreaming" (Dore) #81 - (AA)

1961

10. "Baggy Pants" b/w "Judy's an Angel" (Dore) - (AA)
11. "Tomorrows Teardrops" b/w "My Midsummer Nights Dream" (Ripple) (Jan Berry release, misspelled as Jan Barry on label) - (LA)
12. "Heart and Soul" b/w "Midsummer Nights Dream" (Challenge) #25 - (LA) (AJB)
13. "Don't Fly Away" b/w "Julie" (Challenge) - (LA)
14. "Wanted One Girl" b/w "Something a Little Bit Different" (Challenge) #104 - (LA)
15. "A Sunday Kind of Love" b/w "Poor Little Puppet" (Liberty) #95 - (LA) (AJB)

1962

16. "Tennessee" b/w "You're Heart Has Changed Its Mind" (Liberty) #69 - (SG) (LA)
17. "Who Put the Bomp" b/w "My Favourite Dream" (Liberty) - (LA)
18. "Frosty the Snowman" b/w "She's Still Talking Baby Talk" (Liberty) - (LA)

1963

19. "Linda" b/w "When I Learn How To Cry" (Liberty) #28 - (JB)
20. "Surf City" b/w "She's My Summer Girl" (Liberty) #1 - (JB)
21. "Honolulu Lulu" b/w "Someday (You'll Go Walking By)" (Liberty) #11 - (JB)
22. "Drag City" b/w "Schlock Rod Part 1" (Liberty) #10 - (JB)

1964

23. "Dead Man's Curve" b/w "The New Girl In School" (Liberty) #8 / #37 - (JB)
24. "The Little Old Lady from Pasadena" b/w "My Mighty G.T.O" (Liberty) #3 - (JB)
25. "Ride The Wild Surf" b/w "The Anaheim, Azusa & Cucamonga Sewing Circle, Book Review And Timing Association" (Liberty) #16 / #77 - (JB)
26. "Sidewalk Surfin'" b/w "When It's Over" (Liberty) #25 - (JB)

1965

27. "(Here They Come) From All Over The World" b/w "Freeway Flyer" (Liberty) #56 - (JB)
28. "Summertime Summertime" b/w "Theme From Leons Garage" (Brer Bird) (Dean Torrence, Released as "Our Gang") - (GZ-DT)
29. "You Really Know How To Hurt A Guy" b/w "It's As Easy As 1,2,3" (Liberty) #27 - (JB)
30. "It's A Shame To Say Goodbye" b/w "Submarine Races" (Liberty) (Cancelled) - (JB)
31. "I Found A Girl" b/w "It's a Shame to Say Goodbye" (Liberty) #30 - (JB)
32. "The Universal Coward" b/w "I Can't Wait To Love You" (Liberty) - (JB)
33. "A Beginning From An End" b/w "Folk City" (Liberty) #109 - (JB)

1966

34. "Batman!" b/w "Bucket "T"" (Liberty) #66 - (JB)
35. "Popsicle" b/w "Norwegian Wood" (Liberty) #21 - (JB)
36. "Fiddle Around" b/w "A Surfer's Dream" (Liberty) #93 - (LA) / (JB)
37. "School Day (Ring! Ring! Goes the Bell)" b/w "The New Girl In School" (Liberty) - (JB)
38. "Summertime Summertime" b/w "California Lullaby" (J&D Record Co.) - (DT)
39. "Like a Summer Rain" b/w "Louisiana Man" (J&D Record Co.) - (DT) / (JB)

1967

40. "Yellow Balloon b/w "Taste Of Rain" (Columbia) #111 - (DT)
41. "Hawaii" b/w "Tijuana" (Jan & Dean Label) - (JB)
42. "Fan Tan" b/w "Love & Hate" (Jan & Dean Label) - (JB)
43. "Only A Boy" b/w "Love & Hate" (Warner Bros.) - (JB)
44. "Vegetables" b/w "Snowflakes On Laughing Gravy's Whiskers" (White Whale) (Released as Laughing Gravy) - (LG)

1968

45. "I Know My Mind" b/w "Laurel & Hardy" (Warner Bros.) - (JB)
46. "Girl You're Blowing My Mind" b/w "In the Still of the Night" (Warner Bros.) (Cancelled) - (JB)

ALBUMS - with Billboard chart positions

1960

1. The Jan & Dean Sound (Dore) - (AA)

1962

2. Jan & Dean's Golden Hits (Liberty) (LA)

1963

3. Jan & Dean Take Linda Surfin' (Liberty) #71 - (JB)
4. Surf City & Other Swingin Cities (Liberty) #32 - (JB)
5. Drag City (Liberty) #22 - (JB)

1964

6. Dead Man's Curve / The New Girl In School (Liberty) #80 - (JB)
7. Ride the Wild Surf (Liberty) #66 - (JB)
8. The Little Old Ladyfrom Pasadena (Liberty) #40 - (JB)

1965

9. Command Performance (Liberty) #33 - (JB)
10. Pop Symphony No. 1 (Liberty) - (JB-GT)
12. Golden Hits Vol. 2 (Liberty) #107 - (JB)
13. Folk 'n Roll (Liberty) #145 - (JB-GT)

1966

14. Jan & Dean Meet Batman (Liberty) - (JB)
15. Filet of Soul (Liberty) #127 - (JB)
16. Popsicle (Liberty) - (JB) (SG)
17. Golden Hits Vol. 3 (Liberty) - (JB)
18. Save For A Rainy Day (J&D Record Co.) - (DT)

1967

19. Save For A Rainy Day (Columbia) (Cancelled) - (DT)

1968

20. Carnival of Sound (Warner Bros.) (Unreleased) - (JB)

(JL) = Produced by Joe Lubin
(AA) = Produced by Lou Adler & Herb Alpert
(LA) = Produced by Lou Adler
(SG) = Produced by Snuff Garrett
(AJB) = Arranged by Jan Berry
(JB) = Arranged & Produced by Jan Berry
(JB-GT) = Arranged & Produced by Jan Berry and George Tipton
(GZ-DT) = Arranged & Produced by Gary Zekley & Dean Torrence
(DT) = Produced by Dean Torrence
(LG) = A Laughing Gravy Production

[edit] References

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Barons and KJAN recordings (open reel tapes, including "a cappella" harmonies) provided by Joe Lubin, eventual producer for Jan & Arnie, to Mark A. Moore. Dean Torrence is present as a vocalist on some of these garage recordings.
  2. ^ Jan Berry's Nevins-Kirshner and Screen Gems contracts in possession of Mark A. Moore.
  3. ^ Jan Berry's UCLA and CCM school transcripts, in possession of Mark A. Moore
  4. ^ Jan Berry's detailed medical records and psychological evaluations, 1966-2004, in possession of Mark A. Moore.
  5. ^ Studio and Legal documentation in possession of Mark A. Moore.
  6. ^ Moore, Mark A. "Rainy Days in a Carnival of Sound: "The Lost Renaissance of Jan & Dean." Endless Summer Quarterly (Fall 2007). Also Studio, AFM, AFTRA, contract, legal, and company documentation in possession of Moore.
  7. ^ Dave Marsh, "An Analytical Study", in the liners for Jan and Dean's Anthology LP, United Artists, 1971. Moreover, both Jan Berry and Dean Torrence anti-establishment attitude toward the music industry is well documented in period legal and company correspondence in possession of Mark A. Moore.
  8. ^ Peer acknowledgment from Berry's music industry associates, who knew and worked closely with him, included Artie Kornfeld, P. F. Sloan, Steve Barri, Hal Blaine, Bones Howe, Kim Fowley, and Joe Lubin, among others. From in-depth interviews conducted by Mark A. Moore.
  9. ^ Brian Wilson interview with Peter Jones Productions, quoted in article by Mark A. Moore titled: Jan Berry 101: A Study in Composition (Endless Summer Quarterly, Summer 2004).
  10. ^ Studio documentation in possession of Mark A. Moore, plus Alan Wolfson, Jim Pewter, and Lou Adler interviews conducted by Moore.
  11. ^ Documentation provided by Jim Pewter to Mark A. Moore. Pewter took photographs of the Palomino event.
  12. ^ Rolling Stone, No. 179, September 12, 1974.
  13. ^ In association with Rancho Los Amigos and Southern California Rehabilitation Services. Documentation and promotional literature in possession of Mark A. Moore.

[edit] External links