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Jan & 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.
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. 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 friend Herb Alpert and record producer 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 DeanTorrence's girlfriend Judy Lovejoy), The Matadors, and Pixie (a young female solo singer).
Jan Berry and Brian Wilson collaborated on roughly a dozen hits and album cuts for Jan and Dean, including the number one national hit "Surf City" (1963). Subsequent top 10 hits for Jan and Dean included "Honolulu Lulu" (1963), "Drag City" (1963), "The Little Old Lady from Pasadena" (1964), and the eerily portentous "Dead Man's Curve" (1964). Their commercial peak came between 1963 and 1966, and the duo scored an impressive sixteen Top 40 hits on the Billboard and Cash Box magazine charts, with total of twenty-six chart hits over eight years.
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.
In the burgeoning post-surf era, Jan and Dean had three Top 30 hits in 1965-1966, and began to experiment with cutting-edge comedy concepts such as the original (unreleased) Filet of Soul and Jan & Dean Meet Batman.
According to rock critic Dave Marsh, the attitude and public persona of punk rock can be traced to Jan and Dean; 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 Berry enjoyed a reputation as one of the best record producers on the West Coast. Brian Wilson has cited Jan Berry as having a direct impact on his own growth as a record producer.
Jan and Dean filmed two unreleased television pilots: Surf Scene in 1963 and On the Run in 1966.
Jan and Dean's feature film Easy Come, Easy Go was cancelled when Jan Berry, as well as the film's director and other crew members were seriously injured in a railroad accident while shooting the movie in August 1965.
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