The Very Best of Jan & Dean [Import]

Jan & Dean | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 28, 2005)
• Original Release Date: 2006
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: EMI Gold Imports
• ASIN: B0009LNQTC
• Also Available in: Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #82,292 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Surf City

2. Little Old Lady

3. Hang On Sloopu (My Girl Sloopy)

4. Honolulu Lulu

5. Surfin' Safari

6. Dead Man's Curve

7. Walk Lika A Man

8. Little Deuce Coupe

9. Summer Means Fun

10. Who Put The Bomp (In The Bomp, Bomp, Bomp)

11. Heart And Soul

12. Tennessee

13. Linda

14. Ride The Wild Surf

15. Sidewalk Surfin'

16. New Girl In School

17. Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)

18. Drag City

19. (Here They Come) From All Over The World

20. I Get Around (Live)

Editorial Reviews

20 Tracks. EMI GOLD 2005

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sixties surf music, August 15, 2005

By 

Peter Durward Harris "Pete the music fan" (Leicester England) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Very Best of Jan & Dean (Audio CD)

Jan Berry and Dean Torrence made music that was very similar in many ways to the early Beach Boys music. Actually Jan often collaborated with Brian Wilson on songwriting - Surf city, Drag city, Dead man's curve and Ride the wild surf being among the songs they wrote together. Further evidence of their close ties is provided here by the inclusion of several covers of Beach Boys classics. Although not included here, Barbara Ann (originally released on the Beach Boys Party album) features one member of Jan and Dean as lead singer - I've seen different reference source naming Jan or Dean so I can't say which one.

Jan and Dean's music was about more than just surfing as some of their other recordings (Linda, Heart and soul, a cover of Norwegian wood) but if you don't enjoy surf music, you won't find much to get excited about here. The duo's career ended abrubtly when Jan nearly died in a horrific accident. He recovered sufficiently to be able to record again in the seventies but was unable to recapture past glories. Meanwhile, Dean quit music and established a successful career in graphics design, though Jan and Dean re-united to provide the support act for the 1978 Beach Boys tour.

If you enjoy the early music of the Beach Boys, you'll probably enjoy this too, especially as Brian Wilson contributed so much tothese recordings.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More than Surf City, June 12, 2008

By 

Edward Rasen Jr. "ExecEditor" (Maui) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Very Best of Jan & Dean (Audio CD)

Jan Barry and Dean Torrence met at University High School in West Los Angeles during the mid-1950s and by June 1958 broke in the national Top 10 chart as Jan and Arnie with their single "Jennie Lee." The following year as Jan and Dean, they again entered the Top 10 chart with "Baby Talk" which inspired Brian Wilson to write "Surfin" which became the first hit from the Beachboys.

Jan and Brian Wilson during the winter of 1963 wrote "Drag City." Jan produced the song with a group of session musicians which included Glen Campbell.

Jan and Dean more than the Beachboys were the early heralders of the Southern California lifestyle and were the seminal messengers of the idyllic sun, fun and cars lifestyle. This is a great album which features more than the hits and includes songs that later became hits for groups such as the Beatles, Four Seasons, Beachboys, and the McCoys. More than Surf City, this is Southern California in the late 50s and early 60s. Enjoy.

4.0 out of 5 stars one of the best J&D collections I've heard, May 23, 2011

By 

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

This review is from: The Very Best of Jan & Dean (Audio CD)

I think this CD is one of the best J&D collections I've ever heard. In addition to their hits, it also has several songs that you probably won't find on many other J&D comps. Those songs are "covers" of other artists' songs. (In a weird sort of way, I actually think that their "hammed-up" take on "Hang On Sloopy" is better than the version by the McCoys!) For some reason, the songs are in a strange mixture of stereo and mono versions, but they all sound good to me. The CD has some mostly good liner notes --- I say "mostly good" because, for one thing, part of them are missing! Don't know how the notes got put out like that! There also seems to be at least one misleading claim in the notes, as they state that the "most recent" single on the CD is "Here They Come." Technically, that song is the most recent A-side, but "Norwegian Wood" was a B-side (backing "Popsicle," which isn't here) later on, after Jan's accident. ("Norwegian Wood" was supposed to be the A-side, but Dean managed to get the songs reversed.) Oh well. What really matters is the music. No, Jan & Dean may not have been as good as the Beach Boys, at least not in my opinion, but most of their stuff is still pretty cool. The only thing about this CD that I really don't like is that it's copy-protected, so you can't put any of the tracks on it on any of your own custom CDs...but even that's not really a major problem, at least not if you want to copy the hits, because there are plenty of other CDs that you can copy them, or most of them, from! (By the way, I am by no means advocating piracy!)