Jan and Dean were a rock and roll duo, popular from the late 1950s through the mid 1960s, consisting of William Jan Berry (April 3, 1941 – March 26, 2004) and Dean Ormsby Torrence (born March 10, 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.

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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 onstage 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), an ode to a local, Hollywood burlesque performer, that Jan Berry recorded with fellow Baron Arnie Ginsburg and which reached #8 on the charts. "Jan & Arnie" released three singles in all. After Dean Torrence returned from a stint in the army reserves, Berry and Torrence began to make music as "Jan and Dean".

With the help of record producers Herb Alpert and Lou Adler, Jan and Dean scored a #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]

During this time, Berry co-wrote and/or arranged and produced songs for artists outside of Jan and Dean, including The Angels ("I Adore Him", Top 30), the Gents, the Matadors (Sinners), Judy & Jill, Pixie (unreleased), Jill Gibson, Shelley Fabares, Deane Hawley, The Rip Chords ("Three Window Coupe", Top 30), and Johnny Crawford, among others.

Part-time musicians

Unlike most other rock 'n roll acts of the period,^[who?] Jan and Dean did not give music their full-time attention. Jan and 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]

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" (#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 violation 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.

Changing times: 1965-1966

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 .

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

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. ^[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. 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. ^[5]

Besides his studio work, Torrence became a graphic artist while Berry recovered, 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, , 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 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]

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. ^[7]Berry also toured with his Aloha band, while Dean began performing with a band called .

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, . 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. ^{[8] [9]}

In 1974, attorney Paul Morantz published a landmark article about Jan Berry's recovery in Rolling Stone magazine. ^[10]

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), 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, , 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. ^[11]

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.

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 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 1970's version of .

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". He officially endorses the Official Jan & Dean Fan Site.

Dean Torrence lives in Huntington Beach, California with his wife and two daughters. Katie Torrence, his oldest daughter, is reportedly recording an album.

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. ^[12] Moreover, both Jan Berry and Dean Torrence's anti-establishment attitude toward the music industry is well documented.^{[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. ^[13] Brian Wilson has cited Berry as having a direct impact on his own growth as a record producer. ^[14]

Dean Torrence believes 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." ^[15]

The Who covered Jan and Deans song "Bucket T" on their album A Quick One 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.

Dean Torrence also played a small part in a more sinister chapter of music history, when he loaned $500 to high school pal Barry Keenan to finance the successful plot to kidnap Frank Sinatra, Jr. ^[16]

Discography

Singles

• Billboard (BB) and Cashbox (CB) chart peak positions shown (Top 10 positions in bold )

1958 (Jan & Arnie)

1959 (Jan & Dean)

1960

1961

1962

1963

1964

1965

1966

1967

1968

Albums

• Billboard and Cashbox chart peak positions

1960

1962

1963

1964

1965 (Note: Mono and Stereo Cashbox album charts were merged by this time)

1966

1967

1968

1971

1974

1975

1982

1985

1986

1996 1997

(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

References

1. Barons and KJAN recordings (open reel tapes, including "a cappella" harmonies) provided by Joe Lubin, eventual producer for Jan and 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. Studio documentation in possession of Mark A. Moore, plus Alan Wolfson, Jim Pewter, and Lou Adler interviews conducted by Moore.
8. Don Zirilli, Manager of Papa Doo Run Run.
9. Documentation provided by Jim Pewter to Mark A. Moore. Pewter took photographs of the Palomino event.
10. ''Rolling Stone'', No. 179, September 12, 1974.
11. In association with Rancho Los Amigos and Southern California Rehabilitation Services. Documentation and promotional literature in possession of Mark A. Moore.
12. Dave Marsh "An Analytical Study", in the liners for Jan and Dean's ''Anthology'' LP, United Artists, 1971.
13. 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.
14. 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).
15. Quote in liner notes to the CD: Jan & Dean The Complete Liberty Singles
16. The Kidnapping of Frank Sinatra, Jr. [1]