California surf music sensations Jan Berry and Dean Torrence rode the currents of fame in the early 1960s when they performed as the surfin’ rock ‘n’ roll duo known as Jan & Dean. On record and onstage, the pair evoked an aura of unfettered youth, singing upbeat songs about big waves, sandy beaches, beautiful girls, and fast cars. Theirs was an image that readily captured the imagination of young people worldwide. Jan & Dean records sold by the millions until a shocking tragedy brought the wave of success crashing down. The pair weathered the storm and orchestrated a comeback in the late 1970s.
William Jan Berry was born on April 3, 1941, in Los Angeles, California, where he grew up in the Bel Air community of Los Angeles. One of ten siblings, he was the son of an electrical engineer and a homemaker. At that time, schools recorded students’ intelligence quotients (IQs), and Berry’s IQ was tested at well over 150. With 100 being average, he was regarded as a genius. He possessed an affinity for electronics—especially sound equipment—and worked in his spare time as a disc jockey. Berry, who aspired to be a doctor, also harbored a desire to become a recording artist.
Intelligence notwithstanding, Berry was a rowdy and reckless child who fell from a moving car at age two and on occasion was expelled from school. In high school, he enjoyed the rugged sport of football. He played tight end for his school team, the Warriors, and developed a close friendship with his teammate, Dean O. Torrence, who played wide receiver and free safety. Torrence was born on March 10, 1941, in Los Angeles and also grew up in Bel Air. The two friends were former schoolmates from Jefferson Junior High School in West Los Angeles, and by the twelfth grade, a bond of friendship had solidified between them.
As high school athletes, Berry and Torrence belonged to an informal letterman club called the Barons Hi Y. The two loved to sing, and in the locker room after football practices they habitually led the rest of the Barons in a capella harmony, causing the school’s shower room to resonate with their impromptu renditions of popular songs. The notion of performing as a singing group first surfaced in preparation for a school talent show when Berry and Torrence assembled the Barons for a formal rehearsal in Berry’s converted garage, which had been outfitted to function as an amateur recording studio. There, along with drummer Sandy Nelson and pianist Bruce Johnston (who later joined the Beach Boys), the Barons practiced a repertoire consisting of three songs:"Short Shorts," "Get a Job," and "Rock and Roll Is Here To Stay." After the school talent show, all of the Barons abandoned the chorus with the exception of Berry and Torrence.
Early Hit Single
After graduation from University High School in Los Angeles in the summer of 1958, Torrence signed with the United States Army Reserve and prepared to leave for a six-month stint of active duty at the Ford Ord military base in Monterey, California. Berry, meanwhile, was in the final stages of writing a song called"Jenny Lee," which he planned to record on tape using the equipment in his garage, then use as a demonstration record. In Torrence’s absence, another one of the Barons, Arnie Ginsberg, sang on the demo record with Berry. When Berry brought the tape to a professional recording studio in Hollywood for conversion to record, Joe Lubin of Arvin Records overheard "Jenny Lee" and recognized the hit potential of the recording. He offered to dub the existing vocal cut with instrumentation by professional musicians and to promote the record for Berry."Jenny Lee" received regular radio play and rose to number eight on the American music charts.
Torrence rejoined Berry upon his return from boot camp, and Ginsberg took his leave from the group. The ensemble that came to be known as Jan & Dean thus went into regular collaboration. Berry and Torrence solicited the assistance of two well-respected musicians, Lou Adler and Herb Alpert, to help with song-writing. Adler and Alpert wrote an arrangement of "Baby Talk," which Jan & Dean recorded with Berry performing triple duty, as pianist, sound technician, and tape editor. Alpert handled the background orchestration, which he dubbed onto the master voice tape, and "Baby Talk" was released on Dore Records in 1959. Dick Clark gave the song airplay on American Bandstand in July of that year, and a short time later, the
single had reached number ten on the charts. Five more singles followed on the Dore label during 1960, including "We Go Together" and"Gee." The label had compiled a self-titled Jan & Dean album and released two additional singles,"Judy’s an Angel" and"Don’t Fly Away," by 1961. That year, the duo signed with the singing cowboy, Gene Autry, on his Challenge Records label. "Heart and Soul," released on that label, reached number 25 on the Billboard charts and was the top-selling single in Los Angeles during the summer of 1961. "Wanted, One Girl," followed soon after, and Berry and Torrence signed with Liberty Records by the year’s end. They released four Liberty singles including the seasonal favorite,"Frosty the Snowman," in 1962.
Superstardom and More
By 1963, Berry and Torrence had achieved not only chart-topping success in the music business, but they both graduated from college as well. Berry completed a pre-med curriculum at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1962, and Torrence received a bachelor’s degree in design from the University of Southern California (USC). Their 1963 release, entitled"Linda,"reached number 28 on theBillboard charts, and that year Jan & Dean collaborated for the first time with Brian Wilson, singer and songwriter in the surf music supergroup the Beach Boys.
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