The 1977 Re-recordings.

[scooby1970]

What do you fans think of Dean's 1977 recordings of 6 of Jan & Dean's hits, plus 4 Beach Boys songs (recorded I presume because Jan & Dean sang these songs in live performances?) - ok, "Little Deuce Coupe" is also a Jan & Dean track, but you get what I mean.

The thing is, if you think about it, most casual music buyers only ever hear these versions. During the 80's and 90's these were nearly the only versions available to casual fans, and were repackaged endlessley. Even today the number of compilations with these mixes is mind-blowing!

Taking that into concideration, are you happy that to a heck of a lot of people, these songs ARE Jan & Dean? I've been flicking through a few mates record collections, and talking to a few people again, and the nearly all only have these versions (I know, because they always mention "Fun Fun Fun", "I Get Around"or  "Help Me Rhonda" when I ask about what songs are on them).

Personally, I quite like a few of the tracks. "I Get Around" I think is well recorded, as is "LIttle Old Lady" and "Dead Man's Curve", but I do think that these tracks may have harmed Jan & Dean's presence as too many people only know these recordings.

Mark

[jdman]

I hate them. People think their music is fluffy because of those recordings. I wish Dean would have never done that. I'm not saying the sound is horrible.I just think the original recordings should be used always. Those recordings are not Jan & Dean. If the label says Dean Torrence or some other band name, then it's OK. But it hurts Jan & Dean's legacy for people to think those are original J&D songs.

[David Beard]

I have two thoughts on this:
1) I agree that the rerecordings hurt the original material. The reason this happened in the late 1970s was because — to some degree, shape or form — the people making the "Deadman's Curve" TV movie couldn't get the rights to use the original stuff (let alone the ability to use Arnie Ginsburg's name), so Dean went and rerecorded the material. Of those songs, Dean's versions of "Teenager In Love," "Rhythm Of The Rain" and "I Only Have Eyes For You" were great!

2) Had it not been for the TV movie, the second coming of J&D would probably have never happened.

[scooby1970]

Of those songs, Dean's versions of "Teenager In Love," "Rhythm Of The Rain" and "I Only Have Eyes For You" were great!

But those songs are never on the collections of the 1977 re-recordings, so casual buyers usually just hear Surf City, Drag City, Little Old Lady, Ride The Wild Surf, Dead Man's Curve and Sidewalk Surfin' (plus Little Deuce Coupe, I Get Around, Fun Fun Fun and Little Honda).

As said by jdman, they are "fluffy" in the main, and no-where near the original sound. It's great they were made for the movie, but not so great they are so accessible to casual music buyers.

Mark

[Mark A. Moore]

"I Only Have Eyes For You" is in the film. (It's playing on the radio when Jan & Dean are in the car with their girls) . . .

But in terms of actual Jan & Dean material, they ended up using the original recordings for the movie. And the subsequent K-Tel mass marketing of the re-recordings, especially promoting them as Jan & Dean, was a terrible mistake.

When I went out to buy Jan & Dean material after the movie aired in the late '70s, these re-recordings were readily available. Six of them were on a mail-order Columbia compilation called "Surf & Drag" in '78. Then K-Tel put them out beginning in '79.

And like the "Surf & Drag" comp, K-Tel's "Jan & Dean Story" (with the re-recordings) was advertised on national television. So there was a concerted effort to spread those re-recordings far and wide.

[surferbee]

My understanding was that although Dean did rerecord some songs for the movie there was also an album of Jan and Dean and Beach Boys songs recorded for KTel. There are hundreds of sixties / seventies compilations or hits packages that are rerecorded (by at least one of the original artists.) I understand that the original idea for a DMC soundtrack made sense but it remains a huge disappointment that the licence holders of the originals did not exploit the success of the movie with an 'original' hits package.
The saddest thing for me is that if you go on ITunes or Amazon the rerecorded versions are not distinguishable from the originals - the art work doesn't help. You also get people interested in sixties or surf / summer music buying compilations and hearing this stuff alongside BB originals - no wonder Jan and Dean's reputations are questioned by some.
When compared side by side  - what is confirmed is the brilliance, complexity and depth of Jan's arrangements and productions. The KTels were too obviously made too quickly and too cheaply.

[Mark A. Moore]

In 1979, Capitol-EMI released "A Liberty Re-Issue" called Deadman's Curve (spelled like the movie), which featured original recordings.

It's just that the re-recording blitz obscured and confused everything, at the time.

[Kentucky Surfer]

The word I use for the 1977 re-recordings is "chirpy".  It is missing a voice in a lower register to fill out the background vocals.  Hmmm...who would THAT be?

I can do without the re-recordings of the hits.

 However, I really liked the new recordings of the fifties songs on the original LP.  "I Only Have Eyes For You" is outstanding.  I may be mistaken, but it sounds to me like Jan is singing on this!

[jdman]

You're right Mark.I had the Deadman's Curve album with the original hits. I also had Anthology. Those two were available after the movie along with greatest hits volume 1 and 2. So it wasn't all re-recordings,but like you said, there were a lot of them. I remember buying an album and hearing the re-recorded songs and just being bummed out. I started collecting nothing but originals shortly after. I have everything from Dore on through Save for a Rainy Day, including Pop Symphony. Collecting the originals was my only guarantee against buying more re-recordings.

[Mark A. Moore]

The only problem I have with the re-recordings . . . 1977 and later . . . is them being marketed as Jan & Dean. There's simply no way to justify it.

Save For A Rainy Day and Carnival of Sound were special cases with regard to legacy and timing, in terms of using the name "Jan & Dean." And in those cases, Screen Gems (who controlled the name) killed the former, and forced the name issue on the latter. But Screen Gems was out of the picture after August 1968.

In the '70s, Jan's solo recordings did not use the name "Jan & Dean."

Somebody on Jan's end was asleep at the wheel — big time — to allow Dean's re-recordings to be issued under the name "Jan & Dean."

[owen]

So what is the score with Silver Summer then?

This is an album of re-recordings that claims to feature Jan, who must therefore have approved it. It isn't produced by him though, and if his voice is present then it is not featured at all prominently.

The album isn't a cheap knock off because it is housed in that iconic Norman Seef photograph that was (I believe) taken specifically for the album, although Dean subsequently reused it.

And (to complicate things further) Silver Summer contains a re-recording of Like A Summer Rain that is IMHO far superior to the original - and one of Dean's best ever vocals!

And to complicate things even further most of the tracks were themselves reissued later as Jan & Dean's Golden Summer by the Legendary Masked Surfers....

[scooby1970]

"Silver Summer" is a whole other ball-game, and sadly these recordings seem to be spreading as much as the ten 10 1977 re-recordings. Again, I think quite a few casual music fans only have these recordings. So with the '77 re-recordings and the Silver Summer versions, there's a huge chunk of the casual buying public who do not have any original recordings.

For me, "Silver Summer" has always been seen as an attempt to make Jan & Dean sound even more like The Beach Boys. Mike Love is prominant on there and the whole sound is similar to what The Beach Boys were doing live at the time. I remember coming home from one of my first Beach Boys concerts and then listening to Silver Summer and was shocked at how similar the sound was.

Even doing searches now on various music sites, most of the CDs are just compilations of these two remakes. And even worse, listening to Jan & Dean on sites that let you stream music don't distinguish between the very few original tracks and the re-recordings.

Mark

[1Jay1]

Everybody if you have the Jan and dean story on K-tel you'll all understand why its called a jan and dean Lp,as it says in 1977 dean returned to the recording studio to rerecord 10 Classic jan and dean songs which are on side 1,and on side 2 we have jan and dean from the dore period,and thats why its called a jan and dean Lp as there are original songs on Side 2,unless people have an album with the Ktel with deans songs on there own

[Mark A. Moore]

There are plenty of releases (K-Tel and others) billed as "Jan & Dean" that feature only the re-recordings.

[burton]

Somebody on Jan's end was asleep at the wheel — big time — to allow Dean's re-recordings to be issued under the name "Jan & Dean."

Hey Mark, Do you think it was just a case of take the money and run from jan's end. Perhaps he got money just for his name not really seeing the damage it could do in the future. I agree the re's are crap with a capital  "C". But also he may have not made nothing off of it either. Just wondering.....