Carnival Of Sound

Jan & Dean (Author) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Original Release Date: 2010
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Rhino Handmade
• ASIN: B003B978RK
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #400,722 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Jan Berry and Dean Torrence rode a wave of popularity in the early '60s that earned the So-Cal duo more than a dozen Top 40 hits, including the #1 smash "Surf City." The group's good fortune came to a tragic halt in 1966 when Berry suffered debilitating injuries in a car accident near Dead Man's Curve, a treacherous road that, ironically, was the subject of one of the group's earlier hits. As he battled tirelessly to recover, Berry spent the next three years recording songs for a new Jan and Dean album to be titled Carnival of Sound. Despite the quality of the music, the album was never released and became one of rock 'n' roll's lost treasures, until now.

This single CD contains 29 songs, including mono and stereo mixes of the album along with bonus tracks from the 1966-68 sessions.

Track listing:

1. Girl, You're Blowing My Mind

2. Mulholland

3. Fan Tan

4. Carnival Of Sound

5. Laurel And Hardy

6. I Know My Mind

7. Love And Hate

8. Tijuana

9. Hawaii

10. Louisiana Man

11. Stay

12. Only A Boy

13. In The Still Of The Night

14. Yakety Yak

15. Don't Drop It

16. Girl, You're Blowing My Mind (stereo mix)

17. Mulholland (stereo mix)

18. Fan Tan (stereo mix)

19. Carnival Of Sound (stereo mix)

20. I Know My Mind (stereo mix)

21. Love and Hate (stereo mix)

22. Tijuana (stereo mix)

23. Hawaii (stereo mix)

24. Louisiana Man (stereo mix)

25. Stay (stereo mix)

26. In The Still Of The Night (stereo mix)

27. Girl, You're Blowing My Mind (Jan's Final Mix)

28. Laurel and Hardy (Jan's Demo)

29. Girl, You're Blowing My Mind (Alternate Backing Track)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Don't you dig the same thing that I'm feeling?, November 6, 2010

By 

Johnny Heering "trivia buff" (Bethel, CT United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Carnival Of Sound (Audio CD)

This is the album that Jan Berry produced after the horrific car accident that left him brain damaged. It was unreleased until 2010. A few of the songs were begun before his accident, but not completed until afterwords. Only one song, "Only a Boy" (his second pro-Vietnam War song; "Universal Coward" was the first one), has a lead vocal by Jan (recorded before the accident). He couldn't sing after the accident, as evidenced by the demo version of "Laurel and Hardy", where he can't stay on key. Instead, The Ron Hicklin Singers handled the vocals for the most part. Anyway, the songs here are very well produced, especially considering Jan's "condition". Most songs are included in both mono and stereo versions. This cd must be heard by all Jan & Dean fans.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great production, not so great compositions., May 28, 2010

By 

Chris Frohring "Bed Whistle" (Cleveland, OH USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Carnival Of Sound (Audio CD)

"Carnival Of Sound" is the LP Jan Berry was working on during his rehabilitation from a very serious car accident, which had remained unreleased until recently. Berry was a noteworthy producer/performer that toiled in the shadow of Brian Wilson. Berry's style at times reminds the listener of a more conventional, less-inspired Wilson or Curt Boettcher. The stand-out track is "Girl, You're Blowing My Mind", the opener. However, the songs get less interesting over the span of the disc. The production is of the period (lots of sitar in strange settings) and enjoyable in retrospect, but the songs are not on par with the ambition on display in the arrangements. One treads carefully when critiquing the disc as it is an amazing feat for Berry to have produced this under those circumstances, but I can't help but be disappointed when the Jan & Dean signature concept LP contains "Tijuana", a re-write of "The Little Old Lady From Pasadena". The good news is that, despite its hefty price, the set contains a plethora of alternate versions and mixes for the collector.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars strange and schizophrenic, but still great, June 13, 2011

By 

S.W. (Hickory, NC) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Carnival Of Sound (Unissued Album) (Audio CD)

This is a great, but strange "album" (according to the notes, there was never a definitive track listing or sequence). The most amazing thing about the music on it, or most of it, is that Jan managed to produce it while in his post-near-fatal-accident condition. The tracks are very schizophrenic; many of them are very much of the rock-music times, instrumentally, lyrically, or both, as well as being original compositions, but there are also more "regular" covers of other artists' "golden oldie" songs, like "In The Still Of The Night," "Stay," and "Yakety Yak." There is even a slightly corny cover of "Louisiana Man." Much of the rest of the music is Indian-flavored, to varying degrees, and several of the other songs touch on the popular late-'60s "rock" themes of love (mostly the non-romantic kind), hate, war, drugs, inner peace, and stuff like that. But not all of them are so "intellectual." "Fan Tan" is a song about...chewing gum?? "Hawaii" sounds, except for the sitar, like something that would have been on one of J&D's earlier singles and/or albums. "Laurel And Hardy" is a salute to that comic duo (dig that almost inhumanly low voice on this song!). "Mulholland" is an ode to Jan's home. Perhaps the strangest song is "Tijuana," which is a mixture, in one track, of "oldie" and "original," as it is a drug-related rewrite of "Little Old Lady From Pasadena," which uses the original backing track from that song. Actually, to call these "Jan & Dean" recordings is pushing it, as most of the vocals, including most of the leads, were done by other people --- done very nicely, though. (Most of them, anyway --- that "falsetto" voice on "Stay" is a bit grating, at least to my ears.) The only finished song sung entirely by Jan (Dean didn't sing any leads) is "Only A Boy," which was actually partly recorded --- including the vocal --- before Jan's accident. It bucks the trend of '60s anti-war songs by being a PRO-war song...or is it? Radio programmers were confused, too (the song was released as a single). There is a load of bonus tracks, including stereo mixes of most of the songs (the extended ending of the stereo "Mulholland" is very comical), a couple of instrumental outtakes (one that goes to a never-finished song called "Don't Drop It" and an alternate backing track for "Girl You're Blowing My Mind"), "Jan's final mix" of "Girl..." and and Jan's HORRIBLE demo of "Lautrel And Hardy" --- without a doubt the very worst track on the whole CD. In fact, I couldn't really even identify the voice as Jan. Thankfully, the rest of the tracks are MUCH better. Is this CD bizarre? You betcha. Is Carnival Of Sound a lost masterpiece? Maybe, maybe not. But this CD definitely deserves to be heard (except maybe that "Laurel And Hardy" demo...). However, there's something I can't figure out: on the CD's cover, the V in the word "Carnival" seems to be upside-down...