I was listening to satellite radio last night, and they were playing the Top 40 hits from March 31st of 1964.
Only heard the first six or seven songs, but one of them was "The New Girl in School," by Jan & Dean.
Here was this surfer song bumping up against all the Beatles songs that had just come out. But what a great song "The New Girl in School" is. Jan and Dean at their height!
I loved "Linda" by Jan and Dean when I was a kid and later learned that the original "Linda," which came out in the late 1940's, was written about Linda Eastman, who later became Linda McCartney (Paul's wife). Apparently Linda Eastman's father was friends with the song writer, Jack Lawrence, and Mr. Eastman asked Lawrence to write a song about his five-year old daughter, Linda.
I had forgotten that Jan Berry died in 2004. All most of us heard about Jan was that he was in that horrendous auto accident with his Corvette in 1966. But after listening to "The New Girl in School" last night on satellite radio, I can say that Jan and Dean were great: Boppa do ron-de ron-de, do ron-de ron-de, do ron-de ron-de, oo
While The Beach Boys veered off into cosmic territory, Jan and Dean kept mining the rich veins of teen life, and I've always admired them for that. The Ramones are the offspring of Jan and Dean.
ReplyDeleteI'm not dissing The Beach Boys at all in saying they went cosmic. "Good Vibrations" is as important as "Hey Jude" in my book. But while The Beach Boys aged gracefully, more or less, Jan and Dean stayed youthful, until that horrible accident.
Gary
Can I just say, I LOVE this blog!!!!
ReplyDeleteAngenette