Jan & Dean: Official Message Board for Jan Berry

Thank you both for the encouragement, I'll see what I can find from my archives.  I shared some video with the Biography Channel when they did a J&D episode (and they used it), but other than that no one else has seen the footage of Jan working on Second Wave.  If I remember correctly most of the footage is of Jan practicing with me, singing at Al's white grand piano, as well as footage of him actually recording in the vocal booth.

Actually we did shop Second Wave to Sundazed and Rhino back in 1996 and they both passed on it.  One Way (now Wounded Bird) had just reissued the entire J&D catalog on CD and were happy to add Second Wave to their offerings.  Vinyl didn't have its renaissance yet in the late '90s, we didn't really consider a release other than on CD.

Wounded Bird still only offers physical product (actually just CDs), so Gertie and I are working on getting Second Wave distributed digitally on Amazon, iTunes, etc. hopefully very soon.  If we release the uncompressed versions of the masters there will be a couple of mixes no one's heard before, as I did't have access to the uncompressed versions of those songs after I left LA and Jan added a few tweaks to them.

The dynamic range of the recordings went (on average) from around 13 down to 10 when the tapes were compressed for the first release of the album, and then further from around 10 down to around 6 or 7 for the newest reissue.  Not my idea and not without my protesting; the Loudness Wars won 2-0.  Rest assured the upcoming digital releases will be a sonic revelation of these recordings.

I'd like to have a high def version to offer as well, as you'd find on HDTracks or other audiophile sites, but the highest resolution of the digital tapes that currently exists is 16/44.1.  If the masters (they were all mixed to analog tape) were captured at a higher resolution that would be possible, but I don't have access to those tapes, unfortunately.  Maybe Gertie will be able to locate them.

I'll second that choice.

Hi Jay.  I don't know for sure if that P.O. box is still active, I believe it is.  I can ask Gertie and will post an answer here when I hear back from her.

While I don't think this album will ever be reissued on vinyl, I think it's time for Jan's album to enter the digital age... a digital release of superior-sounding, uncompressed master tapes along with additional bonus tracks and photos.  Anyone here interested in this being available?

Rob

Thanks for sharing that, glad you've enjoyed it.  I wonder what you'll think of the bonus track "Spring Break" on the May 4th 2018 re-issue.

Quote from: rob on April 17, 2018, 09:58:25 PM

Indeed!  I've shared the original version of Spring Break with Wounded Bird and it'll be included as a bonus track on the 20th Anniversary Edition released May 4, 2018 along with a spoken-intro version of Get That Girl.

That's great news, Rob!  Is the alternate mix for "So Here I Go Again" you mentioned previously being included, too?

Unfortunately not, but maybe someday in the future in another format...

I know nothing about the inner workings of Jan & Dean. But when I listen to Second Wave, I imagine in my mind that Jan wrote at least some of the songs for Gertie.
Get That Girl;   Love Her Tonight;   She's Dancing, Dancing;   Oh, The Love Inside Me; and So Here I Go Again.

Can anyone confirm or deny this?


Gertie came into Jan's life after we started the Second Wave project, but she helped write lyrics for Oh, The Love Inside Me and certainly inspired Jan's work on the album.
Get That Girl was mostly completed by me before I met Jan.  I played and sang it for him, he loved it and wanted to write an intro for it, which he did.
I wrote Spring Break for this project after we started working together, with Jan contributing some lyrics and melody.
Love Her Tonight was mostly written before I met Jan, I added to and edited some of the lyrics on that one.
She's Dancing was written by Jan with Dick and Sandy St. John before we started the project.
Oh, The Love Inside Me was somewhat written before we started Second Wave, Gertie and I helped Jan finish that one up.
So Here I Go Again, not to be confused with the Whitesnake hit (!), was mostly finished before we started the project.
31 Flavors, 31 Years was written by me, with Jan offering some tweaks in the melody.  We recorded that one (with Dean) in a session that started at 11 p.m. and went until 8 a.m.   Rod Stewart was next door recording and was checking out our session through the door, looking just like Rod Stewart always does...

Thank you very much, Mark!  It took a while but I believe it was worth the effort, especially with the original version of Spring Break finally seeing an official release.  I'll be happy to share my photos from the sessions, thanks for offering to host them.