Dean Torrence

Dean Torrence was one half of the popular 1960s "surf music" singing duo "Jan & Dean", who enjoyed chart success with songs including "Surf City", "Little Old Lady from Pasadena", "Popsicle", "Dead Mans Curve", "Drag City" and "Ride the Wild Surf". Torrence met future singing partner Jan Berry at University High School in West Los Angeles and they became involved together in several musical groups, predominantly singing "doo wop" style tunes with limited success.

However, fortune came their way when in early 1963 they were booked to play several shows with "The Beach Boys", and Berry struck up a friendship with songwriter Brian Wilson. Wilson passed across to Berry an unfinished tune titled "Surf City", which Jan & Dean completed and recorded, and it was their first number one single! Jan & Dean immediately changed their future musical output solely to "surf music" and their album sales performed very strongly over the next three years.

In 1965, he was about to play the leading role in a movie called Easy Come, Easy Go (1967) with Jan Berry. Due to a car accident during shooting, in which Berry suffered severe brain injury, the film was canceled. For Mel Brooks, who also should have starred in the movie, this would have been his on-screen debut. On the casting list was also British comedy star Terry-Thomas.

However, on April 12th 1966, Jan Berry was critically injured in a motor vehicle accident in Los Angeles, when he crashed his Corvette into a parked truck. Berry was initially thought dead at the scene of the crash, and after being taken to hospital, it took him many, many years to recover and to learn how to walk and talk again.

The accident effectively ended the duo's soaring career, and it was not until the late 1980s that they did some minor touring dependent on Jan's health.

In the months before Jan Berry's accident, the duo formed their own label (J&D Records, to be distributed by Columbia Records). To meet their contractual obligations, Torrence recorded the concept album "Save For A Rainy Day" (featuring all rain-themed songs) while Berry recovered in the hospital, imitating Berry's voice the best he could, and posing with Berry's brother Ken for the (longshot) cover photos. Two singles were issued on the J&D label, but as months went by and Jan wasn't able to return to recording, Columbia quietly let the distribution deal go. The second single, "Like A Summer Rain", was re-recorded by both Jan and Dean later at Mike Love's request, while the album was released by Sundazed Records in the late 1990s, to critical acclaim.

After being plagued by ill health for over 38 years since the car accident, Jan Berry passed away from a stroke on March 26th, 2004 aged 62.