Thursday, September 25, 2008

Jan & Arine - Gas Money


From a mid week bj to gas money, go figure...

I’m sending this one out to everyone who has a car and can’t afford the gas… That would be me... commuters of the world take heed!

Don’t be fooled by the ever soaring gas prices, even in 1958 gas money was a problem:

Do people still "cruise"...? I mean who can afford that? Anywho this is an early Jan & Dean incarnation, read on...

As teenagers, Jan Berry and Dean Torrence were in a garage band, called "The Barons", with a third man, Arnie Ginsberg. Shortly before entering the army, Dean sang with Jan on a recording called, "Jenny Lee", but it was released under the name of Jan and Arnie. The song was a top ten hit and Jan and Arnie released two more singles,"Gas Money" and "The Beat That Can't Be Beat", that didn't fair as well.

On these humble, early sessions, Berry played piano while Ginsburg played a drum set consisting of nothing more than a piano bench and a baby's high chair being hit with drum sticks heavily echoed. The duo overdubbed their vocals, layering them in mono on the same two track machine, also heavily echoed. This 'master' was then brought to bandleader Don Ralke, who utilized a small combo of Los Angeles session musicians to overdub these songs into a releasable form for the "Arwin" label.

After a couple of years, Arnie had decided he had had enough and informed Jan that it was time to look for a new partner. Dean had just gotten out of the service, and once again, teamed up with his old friend to record with the Dore label. And thus Jan & Dean were born…

Jan & Arine - Gas Money

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

And the closest NRBQ ever had to a hit single was "Get That Gasoline Blues."

According to Wiki, it reached #70 in 1974.

I do recall hearing on AM radio at the time, in Providence, RI.