Met while playing for the University High school Football Team, "The Warriors". Jan played tight end and I played wide receiver on offense and free safety on defense. Did you ever read that before? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . didn't think so. Our coach, Milton "Uncle Milty" Anisman when asked about what it was like to have Jan and Dean on his football team, he said "who? . . . gee I don't remember having a girl on any of my teams".

One day we heard about a school talent show to be held in the school auditorium. We thought it was now time to take this whole singing group thing a lot more seriously. We started meeting at Jan's parent's Bel Air home after school. They had converted a garage into a music room complete with a piano and two Ampex reel to reel tape recorders. Jan had found a way to create a delay echo effect by using the two tape recorders at the same time. We worked on our favorite three songs, " Get a Job ", " Rock and Roll is Here to Stay " and " Short Shorts ". Once we, who were now officially known as "The Barons" singing group, had learned the songs as well as we could possibly learn them, we added in Jan's neighbor Bruce Johnston on piano and my neighbor Sandy Nelson on drums. The Barons singing group was now for real, so look out Coasters and The Drifters, look out Dion & the Belmonts, look out Danny and the Juniors, The Barons will now be ruling the charts.

At the recording studio Jan handed his tape to a recording engineer who then loaded it onto a professional tape machine. Then he got a blank disc and put it on a disc cutting lathe. Next he played the tape a couple of times to get the right disc cutting levels. Then it was time to cut the disc. He started the tape and the disc cutting lathe. In the middle of all of this a older guy, who has heard the song through the recording studio door, comes into the studio to find out what was this primitive but interesting song all about. Jan explains that it is a home recording done by he and a school buddy and that the only plans he has for this song is for it to be played at the Barons party next weekend. The man introduces himself as Joe Lubin, record producer for Arwin Records. He tells Jan that if he allows him to take the vocal tape and add instruments to it and put it out on the Arwin Record label, that he will make Jan and his school buddy bigger than The Everly Brothers.

I get a call from Jan later that evening and he tells me the exciting news. Jan says he wants to introduce Mr. Lubin to me and the rest of the group. I explained to Jan that I was leaving the next day for Fort Ord where I will be stationed for the next six months. Jan is fit to be tied, he explains to me that The Barons will be bigger than The Everly Brothers, he tells me to call up the Army and tell them about the impending record deal, and to be sure to mention the bigger than The Everly Brothers thing, and they will no doubtly cut you loose. I told him, yeah sure, I'll get right on it.

Herb and Lou said that they had some songs that they felt were just right for Jan & Dean One of these songs was titled "Baby Talk". The four of them worked on " Baby Talk " for about a month at Jan's house. To record, Jan and I would sit at the piano and sing into one microphone while Jan played the piano. We would record sometimes ten or more versions of the same song. Jan would then pick out his favorite parts of each version and then he would painstakingly splice all these pieces together until he had a master version. Herb would write the arrangement for the rest of the instruments and then he would hand pick the musicians to play the background music track. Once in the professional recording studio, the studio musicians would put on earphones and the studio engineer would play the Jan and Dean vocal track to them through the earphones and the musicians would play along with it. The original vocal track and the new instrumental track would be blended together onto a new tape. This procedure was very unique because it was totally opposite than the way rock and roll records have, for the most part, always been made. Normally the instrumental track is recorded first. Once the musicians are done, they pack up and leave. Then its the vocalists turn. The vocalist will sing along with the recorded instrumental track and will spend as much time as it takes to complete the song. Sometimes this process takes days, maybe even weeks. A few years latter, Jan and I would record this way.
"Baby Talk" was released on the Dore record label in early summer 1959.

Jan & Dean performed "Baby Talk" on American Bandstand twice in July of 1959. It usually just took one appearance on American Bandstand to make a record a big hit and "Baby Talk" was no exception, it exploded on the national charts reaching number 10 almost overnight.
We released seven more singles and recorded our very first album, cleverly titled " Jan & Dean ", on Dore Records over the next three years.

After leaving Dore Records, Jan & Dean signed a two record deal with Gene Autry's record company, Challenge Records. It was aptly named. Our first record on our new label was a remake of the old standard "Heart and Soul". This record hit number one on KFWB "Color Radio" in Los Angeles July 8, 1961 and peaked at number 25 on the Billboard charts later that summer. We quickly recorded one more song to fulfill our contract, we knew we needed to move on.
Jan & Dean next signed with a relatively new independent record company called Liberty Records. Many of the record executives that worked at Liberty Records were a new breed of young men who were raised on Rock & Roll, we were a perfect fit on the Liberty Records roster. It took four records for the new team, company and artist and management, to finally hit our stride, but once we did, it was a awesome ride.

The fifth record on Liberty Records was another remake of a standard titled " Linda ". This song had been popular in the fifties and contrary to the rumor, it was not written about Linda Mc Cartney although there was a connection. The adult Linda that the song was written about had no interest in posing for a picture to be used for the cover of the sheet music, so a lawyer that was involved with the song suggested that his young daughter who's name was also Linda, Linda Eastman, should pose for the picture to be used on the sheet music. Her picture was the one that ended up being used on the final product. Linda Eastman went on to become Linda Mc Cartney, Paul's beautiful wife.

The single," Linda " was released in January 1963 and peaked on the Billboard charts Jan & Dean and the Beach Boys met for the first time in a school room that was temporarily their dressing room. The Beach Boys had learned Jan & Dean's biggest hits but that wasn't enough music to fill out a whole show. So we picked out some rock standards to do together to fill up the one hour we were scheduled to play. The Beach Boys then went on stage to do their own opening set. The crowd went crazy, they loved their hometown boys! Then it was time for Jan & Dean. The Beach Boys played very well but better yet they sang great. Jan and I now found ourselves in a situation that we had tried to create back in 1957 with our original group The Barons. We were on stage singing with a totally bitchen vocal group, it was a awesome feeling to sing with these very talented vocalists. The set came off great, except for one thing, it wasn't long enough. The promoter wanted his hours worth and the boys were about 10 minutes short. The promoter told everybody to get back on stage and fill out the hour, we hadn't earned our 500 bucks yet.
A couple of days later Jan Berry called Brian Wilson. He reaffirmed to Brian about how magical the musical event on stage had been and that he had talked it over with Lou and me and we had decided to try our hand at making surf music if that was OK with him. Our idea was to incorporate "Surfin" and "Surfin' Safari" into our up coming "Linda" album, and we were thinking of re-titling the album, "Jan & Dean take Linda Surfing". Brian loved the idea, after all, he was the song writer and publisher of the two surf songs. He would just end up making that much more money, because his versions of those surf songs had already run their coarse, what a great deal for a young songwriter, not just the money issue but more importantly, more exposure! He not only gave Jan & Dean his blessing, but he offered to help us in the studio to record the two surf songs too as well.

About a week later, Jan, Brian, Mike, Carl, Dennis, David and I all got together at Western Recording Studios in Hollywood, California and we recorded the two surf songs and it felt like magic once again! After the recording session was over, Brian wanted to give Jan and me a preview of his next record. He belted out "Surfin' USA". We were floored, what a totally bitchen song! Jan immediately tried to talk Brian into giving the song to Jan & Dean but Brian wasn't about to give it away but he did say that he had a similar song that was only partially completed and that he would be more than happy to give that song to Jan & Dean. The title of that song was "Surf City". We loved that song too as well, so we gladly took it.
Three months later "Surf City" became the first "surf song" to hit number one on the Billboard national charts and Jan and I were finally at the top level of our record making careers. We were now being featured in many mainstream publications like Life Magazine, Look Magazine, Time Magazine and even The Wall Street Journal. Jan and I were now also appearing on many mainstream TV shows too as well, we were big, really, really big!

Jan and I were approached by Columbia Pictures to write and record the title song for a movie they were producing called " Ride the Wild Surf". The producers wanted Jan and me to also be in the film. We wanted to write and record the title song but being in a corny, lame surf movie just didn't appeal to us. Our surfing buddies were already pissed off at us for exploiting surfing, and doing this bogus excuse of a surf film would get us beat up or drowned. It was rumored that Mickey "Da Cat" Dora had a contract hit out on Jan and me. This wasn't the kind of hit Jan and I were hoping to get. We did get out of being in the film (that's a whole another story) but our record of "Ride the Wild Surf" reached number 16 on the Billboard Charts.
Jan & Dean were the number six selling singles artists of 1964, just behind Elvis #5, The Beach Boys #4, The Four Seasons #3, The Dave Clark Five #2, and The Beatles #1. Pretty cool company wouldn't you say.

Over the next year and three months, Jan and I had eight more chart records.
This gave us a grand total of 28 chart records, 7 of them top ten.

In 1977, eleven years after Jans accident, CBS Television made a television "Movie of the Week" based on the story of Jan & Dean, titled " Deadman's Curve". Many Jan & Dean friends were cast in the movie. These friends of ours included Dick Clark, Wolfman Jack, Mike Love and Bruce Johnston of The Beach Boys. The movie, which did very well in the ratings, generated so much publicity for Jan and me that we started to at least consider trying to perform music again. Our old friends The Beach Boys were instrumental in talking us into finally taking the plunge. It was hard to resist the offer to travel on the plush Beach Boy charter jet, play sold out stadiums and sports arenas, be featured in People Magazine, eat free food, drink free beer, be driven to and from the jet by limos and get paid for doing it.

Jan and I had a totally bitchen time on tour with our old South Bay friends. The Surfin' Deja Vu 1978 Summer Tour brought back some very, very special fond old memories and at the same time we created a bunch of new ones. We thank our old buddies The Beach Boys for being truly great and loyal friends.

Because of The Beach Boys kind offer of letting us share their stage with them, we were able to see first hand that we still had a lot of old fans out there that still cared about us and better yet we had somehow (most probably the TV movie) picked up a bunch of new younger fans along the way. Because of these very special summer of 1978 experiences, Jan and I decided to go for it one more time, the "Gotta Take That One Last Ride Summer Tour" became a reality.
And go for it we did, we have put in another twenty years. Jan & Dean got to play The Rose Bowl (four times), Three River Stadium (three times), Mile High Stadium, Murphy Stadium, many sports arenas, hundreds of state and county fairs, lots of theme parks, Las Vegas, Lake Tahoe, Summerfest, Hot August Nights, The Band Shell (Daytona & Honolulu), The Crazy Horse, The Golden Bear, The Palomino Club, birthday parties, corporate parties, wedding parties, political parties, frat parties,street dances, mall openings. We even played in the Peoples Republic of China, where I got to be the first to skateboard on the "Great Wall of China".