From: "Dik de Heer" Date: Mon Mar 10, 2003 1:18 am Subject: Born To Be With You : Dean Torrence DEAN TORRENCE Born 10 March 1940, Los Angeles, California Dean Torrence was the Dean of Jan and Dean. I don't have much to add to my BTBWY post on Jan Berry of last year: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Shakin_All_Over/message/11848 except that Arnie Ginsberg, of Jan and Arnie, WAS, after all, the same person as the well-known disc jockey Arnie "Woo Woo" Ginsberg. (With thanks to Tony Wilkinson.) Here's Dean's own story of the hit that passed him by : Jennie Lee. The Barons singing group was now down to a duo, Jan Berry and me. One night while Jan and I were struggling to write our own song to record, one of the old Barons group members, Arnie Ginsberg showed up. Arnie had an idea for a song titled "Jennie Lee". Arnie had been inspired by a local stripper named Jenny Lee, that's how he got the title. The boys worked on the song for weeks. There was going to be a big Barons party at Jan's house so Jan thought it would be really cool to debut the song "Jennie Lee" at that party and better yet he wanted to debut this song off of a demonstration record. This would mean he needed to take a finished tape to a recording studio to have a disc cut. The song would no longer be on tape, it would be on a disc that would look just like a real record, everyone would be so impressed, especially the chicks. Jan needed to get the song "Jennie Lee" finished. He called all the guys but only Arnie was available and nobody else was. I was packing to get ready to leave for six months of active duty in the Army reserve and the other guys all had things to do. Jan and Arnie finished the song that night. The next day Jan took the tape to a recording studio in Hollywood. At the recording studio Jan handed his tape to a recording engineer who then loaded it onto a professional tape machine. Then he got a blank disc and put it on a disc cutting lathe. Next he played the tape a couple of times to get the right disc cutting levels. Then it was time to cut the disc. He started the tape and the disc cutting lathe. In the middle of all of this an older guy, who has heard the song through the recording studio door, comes into the studio to find out what was this primitive but interesting song all about. Jan explains that it is a home recording done by him and a school buddy and that the only plans he has for this song is for it to be played at the Barons party next weekend. The man introduces himself as Joe Lubin, record producer for Arwin Records. He tells Jan that if he allows him to take the vocal tape and add instruments to it and put it out on the Arwin Record label, that he will make Jan and his school buddy bigger than The Everly Brothers. I get a call from Jan later that evening and he tells me the exciting news. Jan says he wants to introduce Mr. Lubin to me and the rest of the group. I explained to Jan that I was leaving the next day for Fort Ord where I will be stationed for the next six months. Jan is fit to be tied, he explains to me that The Barons will be bigger than The Everly Brothers, he tells me to call up the Army and tell them about the impending record deal, and to be sure to mention the bigger than The Everly Brothers thing, and they will no doubtly cut you loose. I told him, yeah sure, I'll get right on it. Two months later while cleaning my M-1 after a day at the firing range, Jim Yamaguchi, a high school buddy of mine, runs up to me all excited and holds up his portable radio and says listen, "Jennie Lee" is on the radio! I'm stunned!. . . At the end of the record the disc jockey announces that he just played the new number one record "Jennie Lee" by Jan and . . . Arnie. I couldn't believe it, Jan was right, "Jennie Lee" was a hit and they were indeed bigger than The Everly Brothers. Jan and Arnie are on American Bandstand, flirting with all the Bandstand Babes and I am crawling through the putrid smelling mud at the infiltration course. "Jennie Lee" peaks at number 8 on the national charts summer 1958. I try to accept the fact that I blew it, the opportunity had passed me by, so I went to the base Dairy Queen and drowned my sorrows in a vanilla malt. (From http://www.jananddean.com)