#990: Heart And Soul by Jan And Dean

Peak Month: June 1961
7 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #4
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Heart And Soul”

Jan and Dean were a pop duo who formed in 1958. They met in 1957 while they were students at Emerson Junior High School in Los Angeles. A year later they were on the football team of University High School. They had adjoining lockers and began singing and harmonizing in the showers with a number of other football players. Dean Torrence was drafted into the US Army Reserve in 1958. Jan Berry went on to record his first single with Arnold P. “Arnie” Ginsburg under the name Jan & Arnie. (Ginsburg happened to have a namesake, Arnie “woo woo” Ginsburg, who was a career DJ in Boston including on WMEX). The hit, “Jennie Lee”, was penned by Ginsburg and inspired by a poster of a local Hollywood burlesque performer. Jan and Arnie performed on American Bandstand in May and the tune went to #8 on the Billboard charts. When Dean Torrence returned Jan & Dean recorded their first Top Ten hit, “Baby Talk”, peaking at #10 in 1959 (#20 on CKWX in Vancouver).

Jan & Dean cut a striking figure on television. Tall, blonde, and physically handsome, the duo typically sported loafers, casual slacks, and ultra-hip matching sweaters or jackets. By all accounts, the finger-snapping, shuffle-stepping Jan & Dean stood out in sharp contrast compared to the dark-haired, suit-and-tie crooners who were cranking out hits on the East Coast. In Jan & Dean, Lou Adler had found a definite “West Coast” marketability — and the ride was just beginning.

His growing musical talents had taken Jan beyond the realm of Jan & Dean. In May 1961, with a deal secured by manager and producer Lou Adler, Liberty Records released a single by The Gents called “Jump in the Line”. The song was written primarily by Tony Minichiello and Manuel Sanchez — both of whom, like Berry, were alumni of University High School. It was produced by Jan Berry, with assistance from Don Altfeld — and both tunes were quite a departure from the established Jan & Dean sound. “Jump The Line” was a Chubby Checker-like rocker (with perhaps a hint of Harry Belafonte) with tight, three-part backing harmonies. Lou Adler was given official credit for producing The Gents’ single. While it didn’t burn up the charts, it showcased Jan’s burgeoning talents in the studio. He was twenty years old.

After their hit single “Baby Talk”, Jan and Dean recorded a number of songs in 1959 and 1960 that mostly met with limited or modest success. These included a recording of the folk standard “Clementine,” and a cover of the 1953 R&B classic by The Crows called “Gee”. Jan and Dean had their first Top Ten hit in Vancouver, in August 1961, with “Heart and Soul”. This was a pop standard from 1938 with music by Hoagy Carmichael and lyrics by Frank Loesser. The song did less well in the USA peaking on the Billboard Hot 100 at #25 on July 29, 1961. Earlier that summer the doo-wop group, The Cleftones, took “Heart And Soul” to #18 on June 24, 1961 on the Billboard Hot 100, though their version didn’t chart in Vancouver.

Bom ba bom, bom ba dip, da dip, dip da
da, da, da, dun, dun, da dingity ding, da ding.
Bom ba bom, bom ba dip, da dip, dip da
da, da, da, dun, dun, da dingity dong, da dong.

Heart and soul, I fell in love with you,
heart and soul, the way a fool would do,
madly…
because you held me tight,
and stole a kiss in the night…

Heart and soul, I begged to be adored,
lost control, and tumbled overboard,
gladly…
that magic night we kissed,
there in the moon mist.

Oh! but your lips were thrilling, much too thrilling.
Never before were mine so strangely willing.

But now I see, what one embrace can do.
look at me, it’s got me loving you, madly…
that little kiss you stole,
held all my heart and soul.

Bom-bom-bo-bom-bom-dip-d-dip

Oh! but your lips were thrilling, much too thrilling.
Never before were mine so strangely willing.

Yeah, but now I see, what one embrace can do.
look at me, it’s got me loving you, madly…
that little kiss you stole,
held all my heart and soul.

“Heart And Soul” was recorded by Larry Clinton’s Orchestra, with Bea Wain on vocals, and became a #1 hit in 1939, as it was featured in a short film that year titled A Song Is Born. The Four Aces achieved the second highest chart success with the tune in 1952 when their version climbed to #11 on the Billboard pop charts. Jan and Dean’s version of the song infused it with doo-wop style nonsense syllables, reflecting the success of tunes like “Blue Moon”, by The Marcels and “Who Put The Bomb?” by Barry mann from earlier that year.

“Heart And Soul” has been recorded by Ella Fitzgerald, Johnny Maddox, The Ames Brothers, Floyd Cramerand others. The simple chord progression has been a favorite in piano lessons to teach students how to play a duet. The song concerns falling in love as a result of the magic of one embrace and a kiss. Clearly, not all kisses can send a person to the moon and back. But when the chemistry is in the zone, as described in the songs’ lyrics, we can tumble overboard and our lives are changed.

Hoagy Carmichael was born in Bloomington, Indiana, in 1899. He wrote the pop standard, “Stardust”, in 1927, and was a close friend of Louis Armstrong. He composed the music for “Georgia On My Mind”, in 1930. Other standards he co-wrote include “Skylark”, a Top Ten hit for Dinah Shore in 1942, “Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief”, “I Get Along Without You Very Well”, “Two Sleepy People”, “(Up) A Lazy River” and “Lazybones”. In 1951 his composition of “In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening” won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. In addition to his work as a composer, Hoagy Carmichael starred in 14 films between  1937 and 1965.  In 1971 Carmichael was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame as one of its initial ten inductees. He was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960. He lived to see his 82nd birthday and died after Christmas, 1981.

Frank Loesser, in addition to co-writing “Heart And Soul,” was a writer of musicals on Broadway which included Guys and Dolls, Hans Christian Andersen and How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying. He won an Academy Award for composing “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” a song that appeared in the 1949 film, Neptune’s Daughter. Born into a secular Jewish family in New York in 1910, Franks’ parents highly valued intellect and the arts. From the age of four, Frank Loesser could play by ear anything on the piano. His father died suddenly when Frank was 16 years old. He took a series of jobs to help pay the rent and feed the family. He eventually got a contract to write songs with a publisher on Tin Pan Alley in 1931. In 1939 he wrote “See What the Boys in the Back Room Will Have,” for Marlene Dietrich in the western film, Destry Rides Again. The Harry James Orchestra, with Helen Forrest as vocalist, took Loesser’s “I Don’t Want To Walk Without You” to #1 in 1942. His patriotic “Praise The Lord And Pass the Ammunition”, was a #1 hit for Kay Kyser and His Orchestra that same year. Kyser also charted Frank Loesser’s “Jingle Jangle Jingle” to #1, also in 1942. Loesser’s 1956 musical, The Most Happy Fella, netted The Four Lads with a #3 hit in the spring of the year with “Standing On The Corner”. Frank Loesser died of lung cancer in 1969 at the age of 59.

Just before Jan and Dean turned to the surfing sound with their summer #1 hit in 1963 called “Surf City”, the duo dusted off an oldie from the late 40s called “Linda”. The original was by Buddy Clark which was the #4 song of 1947. Jan and Dean’s “Linda” peaked at #21 on CFUN and #28 on the Billboard Hot 100. As for “Surf City”, it was actually the first surfing song to reach #1, even before the Beach Boys had a #1 hit.

Jan and Dean would go on to have a series of hits identifying them with the Surfing Sound. Of their Top 30 hits, they had three prior to “Surf City” in the USA. But in Vancouver they had nine Top 30 singles. Prior to their surfing craze, Jan and Dean already were a hit in Vancouver. From “Surf City” onward they charted ten singles into the Top 30 on the Billboard Hot 100 and twelve singles into the Top 30 in Vancouver. These included “Little Old Lady From Pasadena” and “Dead Man’s Curve”.

In April 1966 Jan Barry had a near-fatal auto accident. This left Dean Torrence to record on his own. However, Screen Gems blocked his recording anything until Jan recovered. Though Dean Torrence co-wrote the song, “Yellow Balloon” and released a single under the billing, Jan and Dean, the song was dead in the water once Screen Gems warned Columbia Records not to promote the single. Consequently, one of the other co-writers, Gary Zekey, assembled a group named Yellow Balloon to make a recording of the single. It went on to be a Top 30 hit in the USA and a Top Ten hit in Vancouver.

Jan and Dean eventually reunited in the 1970’s. In 1978, Deadman’s Curve, a film biography shown on TV helped generate interest in the duo and they ended up touring again through the 80’s, 90’s and up until 2004. In March 2004 Jan Barry died of a seizure due to complications from his car accident in 1966. Since 2004 Dean Torrence has played with the Surf City All-Stars, a band dedicated to keeping the music of Jan and Dean and the Beach Boys alive. With this group he has ten upcoming concert dates, including one week-long cruise along the Mexican coast in March 2018. Torrence serves as a spokesman for the City of Huntington Beach, California, which is nationally recognized as Surf City USA due to Dean’s efforts.

November 17, 2017
Ray McGinnis

References:
Moore, Mark A. The Jan & Dean Record: A Chronology of Studio Sessions, Live Performances and Chart Positions. McFarland & Company, Jefferson, North Carolina, 2016.
Dave Laing, “Jan Berry: Teen Dream and Surf Pop Star,” Guardian, London, UK, April 2, 2004.
Tour Dates, Surf City All Stars.com
“Deadman’s Curve: The Jan And Dean Story,” CBS, February 3, 1978.
The Yellow Balloon Story, The Yellow Balloon Tripod.com
Hoagy Carmichael – Biography, Hoagy.com
Frank Loesser – Biography, Frank Loesser.com.
“C-FUN-Tastic 50,” CFUN 1410 AM, Vancouver, BC, June 24, 1961.

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