Jan and Dean: "The Little Old Lady (from Pasadena)"

August 11, 1964 (1 week)

It might not have ended up being Jan and Dean. Childhood friends William Jan Berry and Dean Torrence had been singing together with another buddy of theirs and just as it looked like they were about to have their big break, Dean got drafted into the US military reserves. Rather than wait for his service to conclude, the other two carried on. And this was how Jan and Arnie was born.

Jan and Arnie? Jan and ARNIE??? Barry and Torrence's college pal with thick, pop bottle glasses who didn't drink and couldn't talk to girls actually tried to pass himself off as a serious pop star? (I've actually never met anyone called Arnie in my life but I imagine that's what they all must be like; similarly I have no idea if Barry and Torrence ever attended university, let alone if they ever had a college chum called Arnie) Amazingly, it actually worked out for old Jan and his accountant moonlighting as a singer. The pair scored an out-of-nowhere Top 10 hit on both the Hot 100 and the CHUM hit parade with the rock 'n' roll boogie "Jennie Lee" — and it's not terrible. They make some musical choices that I wouldn't have gone for but it's brisk and spirited. Well done, Jan and Dweeb!

Torrence's stint as a reserve came to an end just as Jan and Arnie began struggling to have a second hit and he was welcomed back. Then, Arnie Ginsburg began getting tired of the pop life and he decided to go back to school to study architecture. But whether it was Jan and Arnie or Jan and Dean, one thing remained: success seemed to come and go. The new duo had a second Top 10 hit with "Baby Talk" in 1959 and then they spent the next several years seemingly unable to repeat it. Were they one-hit wonders twice over?

Luckily for them, surf rock began to take off. While Brian Wilson was too withdrawn and Mike Love didn't go for risky pursuits and Carl Wilson may have been much too young and timid and Al Jardine looked way too much like an Arnie, Dennis Wilson was the only surfer in The Beach Boys. But Jan and Dean looked the part and they seemed to take to the new music sensation. For a little while they managed to outpace and clearly out-surf The Beach Boys.

But enough background. By the time 1964 rolled around they had become a more reliable chart act but they could no longer depend on Brian Wilson who was focused on writing material for his own group while also going through some serious shit. "The Little Old Lady (from Pasadena)" was their first single since the terrible "Honolulu Lulu" not to have at least some creative input from the wayward Beach Boy. Not a good portents then.

But wait! "The Little Old Lady" is really good! Silly and stupid but what else is new? This is surf rock we're dealing with here. The Beach Boys may have been leaving this type of thing behind (at least for now) but there was still life left in it for those unable or unwilling to progress. When Mike Love would argue that all fans wanted from America's Band was songs about surfing, he might as well have been pointing at Jan and Dean: "You see that group that's trying to be just like us? We ought to be more like them!"

Jan Berry got the idea for the song from a TV commercial starring Kathryn Minner, a seventy-two year old whose film and TV credits had her type cast as 'Old Lady' or 'Little Old Lady'. She was the embodiment of the frail old gal with a sweet face and a mouth — I assume — that would make a sailor blush. Seeing her speed around in a Dodge roadster was inspiration enough. While we tend to think of old people perpetually driving slowly, the mental image of an elderly dame shutting down guys called Lance in their hot rods rings oddly true. She's lived this long, why wouldn't she be all in on a game of chicken down on the strip?

With such crazy subject matter, Jan and Dean managed to pull off the surf rock-novelty song crossover. On paper, this sounds like a terrible combination but the result is loads of fun and it's impossible to dislike. There's even an instrumental break that could've easily been the brainchild of Brian Wilson. But with the chief Beach Boy getting more and more dour, it fell to their imitators to deliver what they no longer could. In addition to being an addictive rocker, "The Little Old Lady" is funny but the joke doesn't wear off, perhaps because they don't treat it like it's a comedy.

The Beach Boys, however, were soon to take a supposed step back with their magical but admittedly pretty dumb album Summer Days (and Summer Nights!!), which I recently mentioned in my review of "I Get Around". With songs about girls from both California and New York as well as odes to Salt Lake City, Utah and the many amusement parks spread throughout the United States, the subject matter is more or less fluff but I like that they anticipate the travelogue of their seventies album Holland. Unfortunately, the concept wasn't seen through so only about half of it is about travel. Much like "I Get Around" itself, "The Little Old Lady (from Pasadena)" would've worked well on the Summer Days album. The best song Brian Wilson and Mike Love never wrote? Quite possibly. But who needs the bloody Beach Boys when you've got Jan and Dean?

Score: 8