Golden Summer Days

Jan & Dean, The Legendary Masked Surfers | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 11, 2001)
• Original Release Date: July 24, 1996
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Varese Sarabande
• ASIN: B0000014Z0
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #523,126 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Ride the Wild Surf

2. Fun, Fun, Fun

3. Dead Man's Curve

4. Surf City

5. The Little Old Lady from Pasadena

6. Surfin' U.S.A.

7. Honolulu Lulu

8. Popsicle

9. Surfin' Safari

10. Sidewalk Surfin'

11. Little Deuce Coupe

12. Gonna Hustle You

13. I Get Around

14. Drag City

15. Be True to Your School

16. Vegetables

17. Thanks for Buyin' Our Album

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Won't come back from Dead Man's Curve., March 6, 2006

By 

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

This review is from: Golden Summer Days (Audio CD)

In the mid-'70s, a TV movie called "Dead Man's Curve" was made about Jan & Dean. They thought they would be unable to get permission to use Jan & Dean's old songs in the movie, so Dean Torrence and his friends rerecorded Jan & Dean's songs, along with several Beach Boys songs. The TV movie eventually did end up using the original versions of Jan & Dean's hits. Anyway, this album features the rerecorded versions of the Jan & Dean and Beach Boys songs. They are far inferior to the original versions. While they try to come as close as possible to the sound of the old records, something is definitely missing. That missing ingredient is Jan Berry, the lead singer and mastermind behind the original recordings. He is totally absent from the proceedings, and that absence is definitely felt. Stick with the Jan & Dean originals from the 1960s.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Beware - Read The Fine Print, September 9, 2007

By 

AvidOldiesCollector (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Golden Summer Days (Audio CD)

My title - and the assignment of 1 star - is for the benefit of collector's of original charted singles. Like me. One day I was looking for Sidewalk Surfing, and when I saw that this CD had been put out by Varèse Sarabande, I read no further. Their reputation for excellence was well-established in my mind.

However, when I got it home and played it I realized at once something was not quite right from track to track. Then I read the liner notes about the making of the TV movie Deadman's Curve, and saw the fine print on the reverse of the CD: "The majority of the songs on this compact disc were recorded for usage in the film Deadman's Curve."

Of course, that TV movie came out in 1978, so what you're getting here is, in essence, a soundtrack. From that perspective it's a nice little collection and, on that basis, combined with the informative liner notes written by Kevin Elliott in 1996, I'd award it 4 stars.

What it did was teach me a lesson about reading fine print.

4.0 out of 5 stars DEAN TORRANCE ONLY (WITH MASKED SURFERS), February 28, 2010

By 

H. G. Milton (Oro Valley, AZ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Golden Summer Days (Audio CD)

What we have here is really a CD by Dean Torrance which is incorrectly titled. Varese should have deleted the title JAN & DEAN'S GOLDEN SUMMER DAYS. With that sort of title, the consumer will normally think that it is a Jan & Dean CD, which is not true. Varese used that title to capitalize on Jan & Dean's success, but it has confused many consumers who want Jan & Dean recordings.

The CD in it's own right is a very good product. I like it, even though Jan does not appear on it. I like hearing the songs done differently than the original versions. Dean and the Masked Surfers do a good job on recreating the sound (although without Jan). I also like their versions of some of the Beach Boy songs.

Listen to the soundbites on Amazon and then make up your own mind whether you want to buy it or not.