copyright 1997 by Michael "Doc Rock" Kelly

This 2-CD set is a curiosity. The title makes no sense at all. From "Surf City" to "Drag City" would suggest music from May, '63 to November, '63, and creatively from one city to one other city.

In reality, the cuts on the CD go from "Jennie Lee" in May, '58, to "Batman" in February, 1966. And EVERYPLACE in between, and I do mean everyplace.

Further, this set might best be described as a Non-Bootleg release. That is, it is official, but contains such weird rarities as have previously been available only on bootleg LPs.

And another point should be made before we go on. The act called Jan & Dean, contrary to popular belief and logical expectation, was not a duo. It was a group. The group included, at various times, front-men Jan Berry, Dean Torrence, and Arnie Ginsberg; drummers Earl Palmer and Hal Blaine; backgrounds singers the Matadors, the Fantastic Baggies, and the Honeys; auxiliary falsetto singers Brian Wilson (of the Beach Boys), PF Sloan (composed "Secret Agent Man" and "Eve of Destruction" among others), Gary Zekely (composed "Sooner or Later" and "Yellow Balloon"), and Bones Howe (engineer, later VP for music at Colombia pictures); guitarist and singer Glen Campbell; and musicians from Leon Russell to Herb Alpert, to name a few.

Incidentally, when I asked PF Sloan recently what he got paid for singing falsetto on Jan & Dean records, session fees or record royalties, he told me, "Nothing. I was just hanging around and did it for Jan." I was curious how he and Dean, the "Official" falsetto voice of J&D, got along. "Fine," he said. "But I felt bad when Jan used me. I still feel bad about it. Tell Dean for me. I really liked Dean's falsetto, myself!"

Something else is unusual about Jan & Dean. When most artists' hey day had passed, they'd left a lot of unreleased material in the vaults over the years. However, Jan & Dean were full-time college students in their hit days, and between classes, homework, live shows, and TV and movie work, they had just about enough time in the studio to get their 45s and LPs finished.

After a couple dozen hits over 10 years, their career was really heating up with their new TV series opposite the Monkees when it all ended in the Spring of 1966. Jan's Stingray lost a wheel and struck a truck that was illegally parked on the freeway. Because of the kind of schedule than had worked under, they did not leave much of anything unreleased when all was said and done.

Since that time, each new J&D LP or CD has been the same old-same old. Until now. Almost every cut on this new release is new, either in mix, version, take, intro, or fade, and there are a few totally new tracks, as well.

The first cut, "Jennie Lee," was originally issued in 1958 on a mono 78 and a mono 45 on Arwin, and later on a mono EP and a mono LP on Dot. But this song is presented here for the first time in TRUE STEREO. A shocker!

Well, maybe "true stereo" is too strong a term. EMI's Steve Kolojian and Tom Moulton have come up with a new process, as yet unnamed, to remix a mono track, electronically, into stereo. And not treble-bass stereo, either. "There's ways of doing these things, and we haven't fully explored the possibilities yet," says Steve. It is a new procedure that was not around when EMI issued the Jan & Dean "Legendary Masters" CD in 1990.

"Tennessee" is also in stereo for the first time, from two-track tapes.

"Fiddle Around" was a song recorded in 1961, but rejected by J&D for release. It came out after Jan's accident, because it was about the only thing unreleased in the vault, and it superficially resembled their last hit, "Popsicle." It was remixed into passable stereo, along with the rest of the J&D hit catalog, for Legendary Masters Series, but this new version is in improved stereo.

"When Summer Comes (Get A Chance With You)" is a lost gem, previously unreleased, except for a lo-fi mono Australian bootleg in the '80s where it was called "Getta Chance With You." It is a transitional recording, a cleaned up version of a Brian Wilson tune "(When Summer Comes) Gonna Hustle You," but Liberty record execs felt the new version still had inappropriate lyrics. The tune later became the Jan & Dean hit song "New Girl In School."

The rest of CD one's 25 songs appears to be primarily the same remixes that appeared on the Legendary Masters CD, with the following slight variations. "New Girl In School" has a different fade and is missing the studio-talk intro, as is "Anaheim Azusa."

"Hot Stocker" is from the DRAG CITY LP, and it always had a long fade out, mainly because Jan lost the lyrics to the last verse when he recorded it. But here, the fade out is longer than ever. In fact, one of the attractions of this CD set is that almost every cut features a longer-than-ever fade out. Some are so long that you can just about hear the musicians put their instruments away in their cases and snap the lids shut!

In 1964, there were two versions of "My Mighty GTO." One was on the DEAD MAN'S CURVE LP, the other only on the flip side of the "Little Old Lady" 45. Cut #21 is the first stereo mix of that rare 45 version.

"Three Window Coupe" was also on the DEAD MAN'S CURVE LP, before it was a hit for the Rip Chords. Here, it features studio talk. And "Quasimodo" is an alternate version of the instrumental, 'Old Lady's Seldom Power Shift," from the LITTLE OLD LADY LP.

The music on CD one closes with the 45 version of "Dead Man's Curve," but remixed. The track is brilliant, the car effects are enhanced and in very good stereo, and the fadeout lasts about an extra half minute over the 45!

Non-musical bonus tracks on CD one are a real rarity from the Fall of 1964. Tracks 25-45 are brief, spoken liners (plugs) for Jan & Dean Day at KFWB radio in LA. Jan & Dean's humor was a hallmark of their recordings and especially of their live performances, and that is illustrated here in a wonderful, lost time-capsule of J&D comedy dialog. Cut 46 is a Christmas greeting from 1961, less the Christmas carol background music from the original that was sent to radio stations only.

The real meat of this set comes on CD two. First are a few slight revisions from the Legendary Masters CD. "The New Girl In School" is first, minus the studio talk of the earlier release, but with a different fade out. "The Little Old Lady (From Pasadena)" is the same as before. "The Anaheim, Azusa, and Cucamonga Sewing Circle, Book Review and Timing Association" was shorn of studio talk at the intro. "Sidewalk Surfin'" was remixed, and in the process the skateboard sound effects in the middle of the tune were left out. "That was an oversight" explained Steve Kolojian when he was contacted for comment. "I didn't realize we had left that off. This set was a real rush job."

"(Here They Come) From All Over the World (The Theme from the T.A.M.I. Show)" was remixed, with lots of horns at the fadeout. And "Freeway Flyer" was remixed, with the initial studio talk from the Legendary Masters CD removed, but new siren effects and the car crash at the end redone.

Next come five hits, flip side, and LP cuts that have been remixed and brightened. "A Beginning From and End" is a mature reworking of the "Dead Man's Curve" theme. But here, the death is of a wife in child birth instead of a friend in a drag race! The remix far surpasses the old LP stereo mix or the 1965 45 cut.

The oddities start piling up at cut 17. There, we have the old Jamies' hit "Summertime, Summertime." Dean issued various mixes of this post-accident falsetto recording on singles on the UA, Magic Lamp, and J&D labels. But the previously unreleased version here features not Dean's falsetto, but Dean's friend Gary Zekely! A J&D cut with neither J nor D!

"Popsicle" appears again, this time in an unreleased mix, with extra vocals during Glen Campbell's guitar-as-banjo solo and a long fadeout. At the end, Jan asks ironically, "That wasn't flat, was it?" Noooooo, Jan, of course not!

J&D Trivia: "Popsicle" is the only Jan & Dean song (besides the LP cut "Mr. Bassman," not really a J&D song) that has Dean singing the bomps in falsetto, along with Jan's traditional bomps.

"Popsicle" is followed by an alternate take of "Little Old Lady" with an extra verse, heard previously on another EMI CD. But after that is a track heretofore heard only on a bootleg cassette.

"Music City" is an altered reincarnation of "From All Over the World," the theme from the TAMI show. The main change is a much fuller background sound, a new refrain "Come on to Music City," and a change of home town for the Rolling Stones. The hit version has irked those in the know, as it assigned the Stones to Liverpool! At last, these lyrics put them in London, where they belong. The booklet says this version was recorded the same day as the hit version, 12-20-64, which is obviously incorrect.

An alternate take of "You Really Know How To Hurt A Guy" (Jan's homage to "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'"), with slightly altered lyrics, percussion, and fade out, fill cut 21. At the very end, past the place for the fadeout, the singing falls apart, and that falsetto sure sounds like Dean. This is worth mentioning because the story, as told to me by both Jan and Dean, is that Dean objected so much to this cut that Jan threw him out of the studio and recorded it by himself. At which point Dean went down the hall to another studio, crashed a Beach Boys' recording session, and sang lead on "Barbara Ann." Dean's voice on this version of "Hurt a Guy" shows that he was with Jan for at least some of the session, and may have even been somewhere deep in Jan's Wall-of-Sound mix of the hit version.

A real treat is next: a six-minute instrumental-track recording session excerpt for the first version (not the hit version) of "Dead Man's Curve," with Jan telling the musicians how to play it. The next three cuts are similar: sparkling, stereo, background tracks for the hits "Surf City," "Drag City," and "Ride the Wild Surf."

Finally come some radio promos for the legendary radio DJ Dick Biondi, and a 1961 spoken New Years greeting.

Steve Kolojian did a fine job on the liners, providing a great summary of the career of Jan & Dean. However, it almost feels like these liners were written for a different package. That is, the cuts, especially on CD 2, are aimed mostly at collectors. Yet the liners simply re-tell the oft-told tale of J&D, something even casual fans already know, instead of shedding light on the rarities on the discs and providing inside info for the dedicated collectors who might by this disc.

Still, this CD is a must for any collector of alternate versions and outtakes, for J&D fans, or for that matter any fan of vocal surf music. It holds little attraction for DJs, as much of the material is not suitable for radio airplay. Jan told me that he hates all remixes of his original recordings, and when I asked Dean about it, he said that he wished he had been consulted on track selection and packaging.

Looking-a-Gift-Horse-in-the-Mouth department:

Why can't EMI get its act together for Jan & Dean?

First off, why did EMI release this 2-CD set in the Winter, instead of the Summer? After all, Jan & Dean are second only to the Beach Boys in the car and sand department, and are featured every June on the oldie stations.

Second, J&D had more hits than most '50s and '60s acts. They wrote, arranged, and produced most of their songs. They were featured on scores of TV shows and films, hosted the TAMI show, and were the focus of the 1978 CBS telefilm "Deadman's Curve."

Which begs the question, when is there going to be a comprehensive Jan & Dean box set, with detailed liners and interviews? The J&D catalog has been leaking out on CDs by dribs and drabs for years on One Way, ERA, Sundazed, KTEL, Varase Saraband, Curb, CEMA, and Fat Boy. A few cuts appeared on Sequel's THE SURF SET and Rhino's COWABONGA. EMI itself has issued the occasional CD. And the present 2 CD set is a collector's dream.

But to paraphrase the old burger commercial, "Where's the box?"

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