www.jananddean-janberry.com/jan-berry_demolished-corvette.jpg
The pre-Beach Boys, Beach Boys-Doubling
Jan and Deanare another piece of the puzzle (and yet another pop music 1966 vehicular highway accident):
Surf's golden boys: 1963?964Jan 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?966). 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. [4] Subsequent top 10 hits included "Drag City" (#10, 1963), "The Little Old Lady from Pasadena" (#3, 1964), and the eerily portentous "Dead Man's Curve" (#8, 1964).In 1964, at the height of their fame, Jan and Dean hosted and performed at The T.A.M.I. Show, a 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 issues). Also in 1964, the duo performed the title track for the Columbia Pictures film Ride the Wild Surf, starring Fabian, Tab Hunter, Peter Brown, 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 for Paramount Pictures, Easy Come, Easy Go, was canceled when Berry, as well as the film's director and other crew members, were seriously injured in a railroad accident while shooting the movie in Chatsworth, California in August 1965.[edit] Changing times: 1965?966
After the surf craze, Jan and 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. The former's album cover shows Berry with his leg in a cast as a result of the accident while filming Easy Come, Easy Go.
[edit] Berry's car wreck and its aftermath: 1966?968
On April 12, 1966, Berry received severe head injuries in an automobile accident just a short distance from Dead Man's Curve in Los Angeles, California, two years after the song had become a hit. Berry was on his way to a business meeting when he crashed his Corvette into a parked truck on Whittier Drive, near the intersection of Sunset Boulevard, 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 & 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 he refused to give up, and ultimately succeeded. Torrence stood by his partner, maintaining their presence in the music industry, and keeping open the possibility that they would perform together again.[5]
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. Torrence 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 with legal wrangles scuttling Torrence's Columbia deal and Berry's disapproval of the project, Save for a Rainy Day remained a self-released album on the J&D Record Co. label.[6]
Besides his studio work, Torrence became a graphic artist starting his own company, Kittyhawk Graphics, and
designing and creating album covers and logos for other musicians and recording artists, including Harry Nilsson, Steve Martin, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Dennis Wilson, Bruce Johnston, The Beach Boys, Diana Ross and The Supremes, Linda Ronstadt, Papa Doo Run Run, Canned Heat, The Ventures and many others. Torrence (with Gene Brownell) won a Grammy Award for Album Cover of the Year, for the group Pollution in 1973.Berry returned to the studio in April 1967, one year almost to the day 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 three singles under the name Jan and Dean, but a 1968 Berry-produced album for Warner Bros.,
the psychedelic Carnival of Sound, remained unreleased until February, 2010, when Rhino Records' "Handmade" label put out CD and vinyl compilations of all tracks recorded for "Carnival," along with various outtakes and remixes from the project.[7]
[edit] Further progress: 1969?978
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.[8] Berry also toured with his Aloha band, while Dean began performing with a band called Papa Doo Run Run.
In 1973, Jan and 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 Berry's accident—backed with live musicians—occurred at the Palomino Nightclub in North Hollywood, June 5, 1976 (ten years after the accident). Backing the duo was Dean's band, Papa Doo Run Run. The day after that performance there was a very positive review in "Variety" and the phones started ringing. By fall 1976, a successful tour of the Pacific Northwest took place. This was followed by four additional nationwide tours between 1977 and 1980.
Jan was still suffering the effects of his 1966 accident, with partial paralysis and aphasia. He had a noticeable limp and his right arm was useless. In addition, his speech was slurred.[9][10]In 1974, attorney Paul Morantz published a landmark article about Jan Berry's recovery in Rolling Stone magazine.[11]
[edit] Back on the road: 1978?004
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),
as well as Berry himself (near the end of the movie, he can be seen sitting in the audience, watching "himself" (Richard Hatch) perform onstage). The part of Jan & Dean's band, Papa Doo Run Run, was played by themselves.
Johnston and Berry had known each other since high school, and had played music together in Berry'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, Papa Doo Run Run left to explore other performance and recording ventures. Berry struggled to overcome drug addiction, so Torrence toured briefly as "Mike & Dean," with Mike Love of the Beach Boys. Once Berry got sober, 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. Though Berry only made a partial recovery, he remained a high-profile example for patients with traumatic brain injury.[12]
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 Torrence's Save for a Rainy Day in 1996 in CD and vinyl formats, as well as the collector's vinyl 45" companion EP, "Sounds For A Rainy Day," featuring four instrumentals versions of the album's tracks.
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. He participated with Berry on Port to Paradise, released as a cassette on the J&D Records label 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.[13] On April 18, 2004, a "Celebration of Life" was held in Berry'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 including the original 1970s version of Papa Doo Run Run.
Torrence now tours occasionally with The Surf City Allstars. He serves as a spokesman for the City of Huntington Beach California, which, thanks in part to his efforts, is nationally recognized as "Surf City USA." His website, Jan & Dean, features—among other things—rare images, a complete Jan & Dean discography, biography, and a timeline of his career with cohort Jan Berry. He currently resides in Huntington Beach, California with his wife and two daughters.
[edit] Jan and 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.[14] Moreover, both Jan Berry and Dean Torrence's anti-establishment attitude toward the music industry is well documented.[citation needed][weasel words][vague] Their music has been covered by numerous Punk and alternative bands since the 1970s.
Along with Phil Spector, Brian Wilson, and Lee Hazlewood, Berry enjoyed a reputation as one of the best record producers on the West Coast.[15] Brian Wilson has cited Berry as having a direct impact on his own growth as a record producer.[16]
In an interview conducted by Jan & Dean fan and historian David Beard for the Collectors' Choice release, Jan & Dean The Complete Liberty Singles [1], Dean Torrence stated that he felt the duo should be in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame: "We have the scoreboard if you just want to compare number of hits and musical projects done. We beat 75 percent of the people in there. So what else is it?
I've got to think that we were pretty irreverent when it came to the music industry. They kind of always held that against us. That's OK with me."The Who covered Jan and Dean's song "Bucket T" on their UK EP Ready Steady Who from 1966. It is one of only a few songs the group performed where Keith Moon (a huge surf music fan) provided the lead vocals.
Not everybody considered Jan and Dean's output to be "real" rock 'n roll is illustrated by disc jockey Steve Propes' calling his early-80s Sunday morning program on KLON Long Beach We Don't Play No Jan And Dean. He subsequently renamed the show Rock-N-Roll-N-Rhythm-N-Blues, which reflected its content equally well.[17]
In February 2010, the legendary unreleased Jan & Dean album "Carnival Of Sound" was released on the Rhino Handmade label. Along with the CD, there is also a limited (to 1500 copies) edition which includes
the CD album plus a 10 track LP. The album will be released in Europe in April 2010.
