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Messages - Actorman

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1
DON'T YOU JUST KNOW IT / Re: Jan & Dean in HBO's "Vinyl"
« on: July 19, 2016, 11:14:29 AM »
LOL! It probably did. It wasn't that good overall. I still have to finish the last two episodes. I just thought it was really cool that "Jan & Dean" were featured. "Karen Carpenter" also made an appearance in one of the early episodes except they used a cover version and not the original master recording like they did with "Surf City."

Those were probably the two highlights of the series for me.

2
DON'T YOU JUST KNOW IT / Jan & Dean in HBO's "Vinyl"
« on: July 15, 2016, 07:38:11 AM »
I've been watching the HBO series "Vinyl" which is set in the '70s but frequently flashes back to the '60s during the episodes. A flashback in the episode I watched last night featured a minute or so of "Surf City" with two actors portraying Jan and Dean performing the song. It was the original track with the actors lip-synching. It was pretty cool and totally unexpected.

3
DON'T YOU JUST KNOW IT / Re: Liberty Records
« on: June 02, 2016, 02:01:52 PM »
Yeah, this is really interesting. I saw it on YouTube awhile back. It was neat to see what the Liberty Records office building looked like. The sign on the building was really cool. I would love to see the entire thing as well.

4
DON'T YOU JUST KNOW IT / Re: gold records
« on: May 26, 2016, 01:38:00 PM »
Actually, "Surf City" was never certified gold by RIAA. For whatever reason, Liberty Records did not submit many of its albums or singles for sales certification during its classic period even though many of them would surely have been eligible. "The Witch Doctor" and "The Chipmunk Song" were both reported to have sold several million copies each, yet neither were officially certified. This was not uncommon at the time as Motown didn't certify anything until the mid-1980s when Lionel Richie's Can't Slow Down sold a gazillion copies and Motown wanted to hype that fact. Many of the independent labels like Liberty and Motown did not want to open their books to RIAA for review in order to get certifications. (And judging from all the royalties and accounting issues Mark describes in his book, this is not surprising.)

According to the RIAA database, the only certifications for Liberty Records prior to 1972 were:

Gary Lewis & The Playboys - "This Diamond Ring" single - Gold 4/28/67
Bobby Vee & The Strangers - "Come Back When You Grow Up" single - Gold 10/16/67
Gary Lewis & The Playboys - Golden Greats album - Gold 9/29/69
The Ventures - Golden Greats album - Gold 5/19/70
Ike & Tina Turner - "Proud Mary" single - Gold 5/6/71
The Ventures - Hawaii Five-O album - Gold 7/21/71

So, it appears that Liberty didn't certify anything prior to 1967, after Jan & Dean had already left the label. Considering that Liberty was sold to Transamerica Corporation in 1968, I can speculate that the first two on the list were possibly done for business reasons (to make the label look more attractive to potential buyers). I don't remember if "Doc Rock" Kelly discusses this in his book or not. It's been years since I read it.

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DON'T YOU JUST KNOW IT / Re: "The Jan & Dean Record" — Book Release
« on: March 24, 2016, 07:35:10 AM »
Mine is supposed to arrive tomorrow!  ;D

Also, you can preview several pages of the book on Amazon now. I spent some time on that yesterday. It looks awesome!!!  I love the way the way the information is laid out. I can't wait to have for it to get here. Fantastic job, Mark!!

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DON'T YOU JUST KNOW IT / Re: "The Jan & Dean Record" — Book Release in February 2016
« on: January 27, 2016, 11:56:12 AM »
Are you allowed to post just a page or two as a sneak preview?

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DON'T YOU JUST KNOW IT / Re: "The Jan & Dean Record" — Book Release in February 2016
« on: December 23, 2015, 10:42:41 AM »
Awesome! Looking forward to reading it. I forget. is it hardback or softcover?

8
DON'T YOU JUST KNOW IT / Re: P.F. Sloan. Another great is gone.
« on: November 19, 2015, 10:28:17 AM »
Quote from: admin on November 17, 2015, 02:56:05 PM
I was appalled when he told me how he lost the rights to his songs.

Is this a story you can share, Mark?

9
DON'T YOU JUST KNOW IT / Re: Johnny Rivers At The Whisky a Go Go
« on: August 07, 2015, 07:32:55 AM »
Quote from: jdman on August 06, 2015, 10:51:29 AM
The Jan and Dean version on Surf City was different from the one on Little Old Lady. The later version was definitely influenced by Johnny Rivers. The first version on Surf City was probably influenced by Chuck Berry's hit.

Well, that's just embarrassing.  :-[ Shows how long it's been since I've listened to those album cuts!  I should have double checked that before I responded.  The Surf City album version was the one I remembered off the top of my head. I only checked the track listing on Little Old Lady to confirm the title. It didn't occur to me that it might be a rerecording since there were several other tracks that popped up on multiple albums. This is the kind of minutiae I usually remember.

Sorry guys! Epic fail! Thanks for correcting me, jdman.

10
DON'T YOU JUST KNOW IT / Re: Johnny Rivers At The Whisky a Go Go
« on: August 06, 2015, 08:28:18 AM »
Jan & Dean's version of "Memphis" first appeared on the Surf City and Other Swingin' Cities album which came out in 1963. (The track was later reused for The Little Old Lady from Pasadena album in 1964.)

Johnny Rivers at the Whisky a Go Go was released in February 1964, so that was after J&D's version was released on SCAOSC. However, it is very possible that J&D's version could have been influenced by Johnny's since Johnny had most likely been performing it live for quite awhile prior to it's appearance on the album. Legend has it that Johnny's arrangement of the song was "stolen" from an unreleased version of the song by Elvis Presley that a member of Elvis' team had played for Johnny. As a result, Elvis allegedly hated Johnny for the rest of his life.

Lou Adler produced the album which is probably where J&D's endorsement on the cover came from.  In addition, Johnny's label, Imperial Records, had just been purchased by Liberty Records in 1963, so it could have been cross-promotional as well.

11
DON'T YOU JUST KNOW IT / Re: The Jan & Dean Catalog
« on: July 31, 2015, 02:05:29 PM »
Universal Music Group is the current owner of the Liberty recordings. (And I believe, but am not 100% sure, the Arwin and Challenge recordings as well.) Universal Music Group purchased EMI in 2013.

The Dore recordings are currently owned by the UK label Ace Records.  Ace Records bought Era Records which was the parent company of Dore.

Warner Bros. owns "Carnival of Sound."

I believe Varese Sarabande purchased the rights to "Save For A Rainy Day" from Dean, so it owns that.  It is a privately owned label, but is distributed by Universal.

I'm not sure about Jan's 1970s recordings. He recorded for both A&M and Ode. A&M is now owned by Universal and Ode is now owned by Sony. But those masters may have been owned by Jan himself. Or Lou Adler possibly.

12
DON'T YOU JUST KNOW IT / Re: song selection-anthology
« on: July 17, 2015, 08:53:05 AM »
I always thought the song selection on The Anthology Album was pretty poor overall considering that it was supposed to be a retrospective of their career, yet didn't even include all of their hits.  I remember being let down as a kid in that even though it was a double album, it really only had three sides.  As interesting as side 4 is, in this context it is a total waste of space that should have been used for more hits.  Dean's dislike notwithstanding, leaving off top 40 hits "You Really Know How To Hurt A Guy" and "I Found A Girl" made absolutely no sense.  And how did "Surfin' Safari," "Barbara Ann" and "One Piece Topless Bathing Suit" make the cut, but "Batman" didn't? It charted a few notches higher than "Tennessee."

Dean really had a great opportunity to create what could have been the truly definitive, pre-CD era Jan & Dean compliation and he dropped the ball (IMO).

However, where The Anthology Album does hit it out of the park is the packaging.  The booklet is fantastic!! 

13
DON'T YOU JUST KNOW IT / Re: Universal Coward
« on: July 08, 2015, 08:54:10 AM »
This really is a great sleeve and has always been a favorite. I absolutely love the font they used on both "Jan & Dean" and "Jan Berry." I wish I knew what it was and if it was available. The ampersand is absolutely beautiful and I really love the curly-q on the "J"s and the tail on the "y."  The art-deco lettering of "The Universal Coward" is pretty sharp too.

(Sorry, I'm a design geek! This kind of stuff excites me. LOL!)


14
DON'T YOU JUST KNOW IT / Re: New Book
« on: May 15, 2015, 08:34:07 AM »
That's great to hear!  Is this the biography or the sessionography we're talking about?  Either way, I'm excited.

15
DON'T YOU JUST KNOW IT / Re: Liberty Re-Press
« on: April 24, 2015, 02:07:24 PM »
Yes, when Capitol-EMI re-launched the Liberty imprint in the early 80s it reissued a lot of Jan and Dean product.  The Little Old Lady from Pasadena album was the only studio album reissued in the original format, although reduced from 12 tracks to 10 as Black Sea mentioned.
"The Best of Jan & Dean" was Golden Hits (minus 2 songs) and "Deadman's Curve" was Golden Hits, Volume 2 (minus 2 songs).
The nicest one it released was an original compliation called A Surfer's Dream which included various surf-themed tracks pulled from across the entire Jan & Dean catalog.  It even had really nice liner notes with information about each song including on which album it originated.  I owned it on both vinyl and cassette.

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