WEBVTT - Dean Torrence 0:00:08.560 --> 0:00:12.680 Welcome, Welcome, welcome back to the Bob Left Sets podcast. 0:00:14.000 --> 0:00:16.680 It's a thrill to have my guest on the podcast 0:00:16.760 --> 0:00:20.560 today because he had such a huge impact on my life. 0:00:21.360 --> 0:00:24.520 I remember being at the beach, which was something you 0:00:24.560 --> 0:00:27.840 really did in Connecticut, going up to the pavilion and 0:00:27.880 --> 0:00:33.240 hearing the Little Old Lady from Pasadena. I remember buying 0:00:33.280 --> 0:00:35.320 the single, or my mother bought the single for me, 0:00:36.000 --> 0:00:38.720 and then buying one of my favorite albums of all time, 0:00:39.159 --> 0:00:45.320 Command Performance, Jan and Dean live in concert, and Dean 0:00:45.600 --> 0:00:49.320 wore these blue sneakers. I made my mother run all 0:00:49.320 --> 0:00:52.560 over town just so I could have those blue sneakers. 0:00:53.200 --> 0:00:56.760 My guest today on the podcast is Dean Torrance, and 0:00:56.840 --> 0:01:02.600 I still have those sneakers, by the way, really probably Okay, 0:01:02.800 --> 0:01:07.320 now you email me that today is uh Jan's birthday. 0:01:09.160 --> 0:01:12.399 Yes he would have been he passed as you know, 0:01:12.720 --> 0:01:20.000 two thousand four, but he would have been seventy. Okay, 0:01:20.040 --> 0:01:24.400 And how did you meet Jan? We met in high 0:01:24.400 --> 0:01:27.240 school just up the street, well down a couple of 0:01:27.280 --> 0:01:33.120 miles in West Los Angeles. High school, uh called University 0:01:33.240 --> 0:01:35.360 high school? You do, And you know I've been with this, 0:01:35.520 --> 0:01:39.040 wondering this for decades you know why it's called University 0:01:39.120 --> 0:01:42.280 High School? Yes, I do. Oh really you're gonna yeah, 0:01:42.800 --> 0:01:45.520 I can finally, you know, you know more about this 0:01:45.560 --> 0:01:50.800 than I do. Actually UM University High School was called 0:01:50.920 --> 0:01:54.920 University because it was the closest high school to U C. 0:01:55.400 --> 0:01:59.080 L A. Oh, okay, other than the name was or 0:01:59.120 --> 0:02:03.000 any connection you know now, you know as simple as that. 0:02:03.120 --> 0:02:05.640 You know, it's a simple I just always wondered you. 0:02:05.720 --> 0:02:08.639 I thingured there must be some connection, but I didn't know. 0:02:09.120 --> 0:02:11.440 So you grew up in what part of l A 0:02:12.240 --> 0:02:17.239 um East West l a Which meant I was right 0:02:17.280 --> 0:02:23.200 around Beverly Glen and Olympic A couple more miles east 0:02:23.280 --> 0:02:25.799 or a mile further east, and I would have had 0:02:25.880 --> 0:02:30.040 to gone to Beverly Hills High School. But there was 0:02:30.120 --> 0:02:32.760 a certain line there that you weren't supposed to go 0:02:32.800 --> 0:02:36.720 over if you weren't living in Beverly Hills, you see. 0:02:36.800 --> 0:02:40.440 So I wasn't cut out to be a Beverly Hills 0:02:41.680 --> 0:02:44.720 High school student, I don't think. And what did your 0:02:44.720 --> 0:02:49.119 father do for a living? Uh? He was in the 0:02:49.200 --> 0:02:54.720 oil business. He right out of college. He got hired 0:02:55.240 --> 0:03:00.120 by a little l A based Actually they were from Texas, 0:03:00.120 --> 0:03:04.040 but they moved all their offices to l A. A 0:03:04.080 --> 0:03:10.560 little company called Wilshire Oil, which you may remember, what 0:03:11.000 --> 0:03:13.680 when did you get here? I got in the mid seventies. No, 0:03:13.800 --> 0:03:18.680 you wouldn't remember. Those of us that like antiques. There 0:03:18.720 --> 0:03:22.639 there was a brand called poly Gas that was part 0:03:22.680 --> 0:03:26.720 of Wilshire Oil, really, and then they sold all of 0:03:26.720 --> 0:03:30.800 that stuff off, probably in the fifties, forties or fifties, 0:03:31.400 --> 0:03:33.320 and then he went to work for the guy who 0:03:33.360 --> 0:03:37.600 owned the company. Okay, so one has to ask, even 0:03:37.640 --> 0:03:40.080 in the time that I've been here, l A has 0:03:40.160 --> 0:03:43.280 changed so much. Traffic is so bad. I remember living 0:03:43.280 --> 0:03:45.880 on the West Side, you go to the valley for 0:03:45.960 --> 0:03:48.520 a movie on a whib. You would never do that today. 0:03:49.040 --> 0:03:51.560 So what was it like growing up in the forties 0:03:51.560 --> 0:03:55.480 and fifties in l A? Beautiful? It was so simple. 0:03:56.480 --> 0:03:59.960 The beach was always ten minutes away, ten or fifteen 0:04:00.200 --> 0:04:05.080 the most um And we just thought, honestly, we thought 0:04:05.120 --> 0:04:08.760 that most young people did the same thing as we did. 0:04:09.720 --> 0:04:13.720 We didn't quite grasp anything, you know, outside of what 0:04:13.760 --> 0:04:17.000 we could see, so we figured everybody mostly lived like this, 0:04:17.400 --> 0:04:19.039 I mean, so we didn't really even know it was 0:04:19.040 --> 0:04:23.839 all that special, particularly okay, and you have brothers or sisters? 0:04:24.360 --> 0:04:27.360 Had a younger sister, yes, And what did her life 0:04:27.360 --> 0:04:31.320 turn out to be? Um? Pretty interesting for a while, 0:04:31.400 --> 0:04:36.719 but unfortunately she got Parkinson's past. She passed away like 0:04:36.839 --> 0:04:41.919 about six years ago. But I ended up with a 0:04:42.000 --> 0:04:44.560 house that we owned together. It's just up the street 0:04:44.560 --> 0:04:47.600 here and I just went by there. We were renting 0:04:47.640 --> 0:04:51.359 it to some guys from France or Okay, do you 0:04:51.400 --> 0:04:53.880 still hold the house? Yes? And so how did you 0:04:53.960 --> 0:04:58.239 end up with that house? Um? We bought my sister 0:04:58.240 --> 0:05:01.360 and I bought the house in the seventies just because 0:05:01.400 --> 0:05:07.440 she liked restoring older, older homes mostly, and it was 0:05:07.480 --> 0:05:11.680 a nineteen o six craftsman house just off of Franklin 0:05:12.839 --> 0:05:17.240 and uh I love the neighborhood, always like craftsman. Uh. 0:05:17.400 --> 0:05:20.680 So we bought it together as she was going to 0:05:20.800 --> 0:05:23.080 live in it for a while, restore it and then 0:05:23.480 --> 0:05:28.400 move out and rent it, then move on to another house. Okay, 0:05:28.400 --> 0:05:31.280 so it's the only one you ended up boating together. Yes, 0:05:31.440 --> 0:05:34.720 I owned a house up the street, up underneath the 0:05:34.800 --> 0:05:38.960 Hollywood sign and probably see that right from your beautiful 0:05:39.000 --> 0:05:44.000 office here. I bought an old Bogart house that was 0:05:44.080 --> 0:05:48.440 built nineteen twenty four, So I I had been restoring 0:05:48.520 --> 0:05:52.279 that one for years. I still own that too. Okay, 0:05:52.279 --> 0:05:56.080 so you're going to university high school. First, you know 0:05:56.120 --> 0:05:58.800 there was a surf culture. You mentioned the beach. There 0:05:58.839 --> 0:06:01.960 was also a car coal. Was that something that was 0:06:02.040 --> 0:06:04.480 amped up on the records or was really a big 0:06:04.520 --> 0:06:13.480 car culture? Um? Quite Frankly, we didn't really grafts that 0:06:13.480 --> 0:06:18.760 that that kind of subculture was really that important. And 0:06:18.880 --> 0:06:24.640 for lack of having any other ideas of subject matter 0:06:24.880 --> 0:06:30.160 about songs, because you know, twenty we don't know much 0:06:30.200 --> 0:06:34.200 about relationship songs. All those teenisles were singing all those 0:06:34.240 --> 0:06:37.080 relationship songs, you know, I'm falling in love and breaking 0:06:37.240 --> 0:06:41.080 up and all that. None of that going out in 0:06:41.120 --> 0:06:45.240 our lives. But we did drive hot rods, so we 0:06:45.440 --> 0:06:49.760 thought we we know pretty much all there is to 0:06:49.800 --> 0:06:54.760 know about hot rods. Like, maybe maybe that'll interest the 0:06:55.880 --> 0:06:58.040 you know, the record lovers out there. We didn't know. 0:06:59.360 --> 0:07:02.080 We found out, yes, that was important that in the 0:07:02.160 --> 0:07:05.599 serf culture, of course, the beach culture. Okay. Now, the 0:07:05.839 --> 0:07:10.400 first I remember going to the record story. You'd always 0:07:10.400 --> 0:07:13.559 looked through the catalog and there was an album Jane 0:07:13.680 --> 0:07:17.840 Deine's greatest hits with a gold cover. Okay, with baby Talk, 0:07:18.000 --> 0:07:23.160 et cetera. When were those tracks? Hits? Late fifties? Late 0:07:24.520 --> 0:07:28.240 included Barbaraane by the way, Okay, but who did the 0:07:28.280 --> 0:07:35.760 original Barbarianne their regions? Okay, did your Barbarianne hit the chart? No, 0:07:35.880 --> 0:07:39.960 it was just just for an album, just an album fillers. Okay. 0:07:40.000 --> 0:07:44.320 So you're going to university high how do you meet Jen? 0:07:45.680 --> 0:07:50.240 We're on the We're on the football team together. Just 0:07:50.280 --> 0:07:53.960 so happened we had lockers right next to one another, 0:07:54.840 --> 0:07:57.119 so I was forced to talk to him. I didn't. 0:07:57.160 --> 0:08:01.640 I didn't think I liked him. Well, he was he 0:08:01.760 --> 0:08:04.920 was Chan, you know, everybody, everybody knew who he was, 0:08:05.640 --> 0:08:07.560 and he kind of did whatever he wanted to do 0:08:07.640 --> 0:08:11.360 whenever he wanted to do it. And I came from 0:08:11.400 --> 0:08:13.880 a family that you don't break rules, and all that 0:08:15.120 --> 0:08:18.440 rules were nothing to him. So I just kind of 0:08:18.440 --> 0:08:22.040 figured he was stuck up, and I didn't even think 0:08:22.080 --> 0:08:25.000 he would last very long on a football team. So 0:08:25.840 --> 0:08:29.360 I tried to avoid him, but he kept offering me 0:08:29.480 --> 0:08:33.280 candy and I turned it down at first because I 0:08:33.280 --> 0:08:35.600 was going out. I can't eat candy before you go, 0:08:36.040 --> 0:08:40.920 you know, work out and practice. That's really stupid. But 0:08:41.000 --> 0:08:43.560 he won me over with the first with the chocolate 0:08:43.600 --> 0:08:48.080 and all that kind of stuff. And then we we 0:08:48.240 --> 0:08:53.240 collectively as as a football team realized we were very, 0:08:53.320 --> 0:08:56.760 very blessed to have these old locker rooms that were 0:08:56.800 --> 0:09:01.360 probably built with thirties with that real nice tile, and 0:09:01.400 --> 0:09:05.800 we had a natural echo chamber. You know, we're where 0:09:05.800 --> 0:09:09.679 our sports lockers were and the shower room was all 0:09:09.720 --> 0:09:13.839 at tile. So man, we all sound when we got 0:09:13.880 --> 0:09:17.320 around and saying do wop as we were, you know, 0:09:17.480 --> 0:09:22.599 showering off and heading home. We want Man, we sound good. 0:09:22.880 --> 0:09:25.480 This is really fun. And of course do wop was 0:09:26.400 --> 0:09:32.600 pretty much made for vocal groups, so more the better. 0:09:32.720 --> 0:09:36.520 So we were in a always band you know of 0:09:36.640 --> 0:09:39.880 vocalists doing doo wop. Now you're living in there. Well, first, 0:09:39.960 --> 0:09:42.679 let's go back to the football team. Did you guys 0:09:42.679 --> 0:09:46.120 were you starters? Did you play? Oh? Yeah? And what 0:09:46.200 --> 0:09:51.520 position did you have? Um? I played, uh, probably what 0:09:51.559 --> 0:09:55.840 would be called a wide receiver wing back they called 0:09:55.880 --> 0:09:58.400 them those days. So I was a wide receiver. My 0:09:58.520 --> 0:10:03.800 dad was, He played at Stanford and he was a 0:10:03.840 --> 0:10:09.240 probably tight end ish type player. Um. So you know, 0:10:09.400 --> 0:10:12.240 when when we would go play ball. He would just 0:10:12.360 --> 0:10:15.839 keep throwing me passes because he didn't learn anything else 0:10:15.880 --> 0:10:18.480 just by being thrown a ball. So it's pretty good 0:10:18.480 --> 0:10:23.760 at catching stuff. Jan it's also really really had good hands. 0:10:23.800 --> 0:10:26.680 He could catch two. So we kind of competed somewhat 0:10:26.720 --> 0:10:29.599 for the same position. Then I ended up playing a 0:10:29.640 --> 0:10:33.800 lot of defense, and so the defensive back or safety 0:10:33.920 --> 0:10:36.400 or something. Now, going back to the candy, do you 0:10:36.520 --> 0:10:39.120 think he saw something in you or you just happened 0:10:39.160 --> 0:10:42.600 to have the locker next to him, just happened to 0:10:42.600 --> 0:10:45.440 have the locker next to him. And then when you 0:10:45.480 --> 0:10:49.480 start doing doo wop in the locker room, who starts that? 0:10:51.760 --> 0:10:56.040 It was probably just totally spontaneous because that's what we 0:10:56.160 --> 0:10:59.480 listened to, you know, in our cars driving to school 0:10:59.520 --> 0:11:03.000 and drive home from school, listen to du wop. So 0:11:03.080 --> 0:11:05.720 of course somebody is going to start humming or singing 0:11:05.840 --> 0:11:09.040 a doop song. And I swear that it was just 0:11:09.080 --> 0:11:13.240 so spontaneous, and nobody sat down and said, hey, let's 0:11:13.480 --> 0:11:17.240 sing a song. Somebody just starts singing. Lord, I don't 0:11:17.280 --> 0:11:20.520 remember who, but everybody's always kind of humming or singing 0:11:20.600 --> 0:11:24.600 or whistling. And then because it's doo wop. That's one vocal, 0:11:24.720 --> 0:11:27.360 so somebody else would add in the second vocal. And 0:11:27.360 --> 0:11:30.000 then all of a sudden you have five or six 0:11:30.080 --> 0:11:34.200 or seven or eight people all singing stuff, picking different 0:11:34.240 --> 0:11:38.520 parts because there's plenty of parts. And I noticed nobody 0:11:38.600 --> 0:11:43.720 was doing a falsetto, so I put that falsetto party 0:11:43.720 --> 0:11:47.680 and he went, oh, now we have a full, full 0:11:47.760 --> 0:11:52.520 on vocal group here. And who has just started had 0:11:52.559 --> 0:11:56.320 innocently who decided okay, because you know, you're living in 0:11:56.400 --> 0:11:58.840 Los Angeles. The whole of the recording industry is supposed 0:11:58.840 --> 0:12:01.760 to be an omaha or something who decides, well, maybe 0:12:01.760 --> 0:12:05.880 we should go professional. Oh that was all Jane. See. 0:12:05.920 --> 0:12:10.280 Jane had an IQ about one seventy in arrange mensa 0:12:10.800 --> 0:12:13.840 type of stuff, and we were just all hoping to, 0:12:14.240 --> 0:12:17.480 you know, get passing grades. So he didn't have to 0:12:17.520 --> 0:12:21.079 study very much. And he was way ahead of us 0:12:21.360 --> 0:12:26.200 in visualizing and thinking and in his mind which where 0:12:26.240 --> 0:12:28.960 he was going to go. And we had no idea 0:12:29.200 --> 0:12:32.800 except we're going home after practice and doing our homework. 0:12:33.600 --> 0:12:39.319 So he was a visionary um. He also his dad 0:12:39.440 --> 0:12:43.520 had made him a music room out of her garage 0:12:45.120 --> 0:12:48.720 because my girlfriend went to high school with you know, 0:12:48.800 --> 0:12:50.800 one of his sisters. He came from a huge family 0:12:50.840 --> 0:12:54.120 of like kids, you're right. And then what did his 0:12:54.200 --> 0:12:56.160 father do for a living that he could afford to 0:12:56.160 --> 0:13:00.480 build a music room? He worked for Howard Queues. Wow. 0:13:00.920 --> 0:13:05.040 He was one of Howard Hughes's right hand men. Uh. 0:13:05.080 --> 0:13:08.920 There's quite a famous picture of Howard Hughes in the 0:13:08.960 --> 0:13:12.320 Spruce Goose airplane that he built all out of wood, 0:13:13.520 --> 0:13:18.080 and he's sitting Howard the picture well that there's like 0:13:18.160 --> 0:13:20.680 four or five six guys behind him. He's in the 0:13:20.720 --> 0:13:25.560 cockpit and one of those guys as Jan's dad. Wow. 0:13:26.920 --> 0:13:30.040 So who let me? Years years or later after he retired, 0:13:30.320 --> 0:13:34.439 they pulled him out of retirement to help them disassemble 0:13:34.559 --> 0:13:37.520 the airplane because somebody up in the Oregan wanted it 0:13:37.600 --> 0:13:41.839 or something right, right, they from story right, So he 0:13:41.840 --> 0:13:46.160 he was involved in making that all happen. Okay, So 0:13:46.520 --> 0:13:53.000 he built Janet music room. And what we inspired there, well, 0:13:53.080 --> 0:13:56.360 one of the most important parts was Howard Hughes. And 0:13:56.440 --> 0:13:59.719 of course you know he wanted to be in and 0:14:00.080 --> 0:14:05.720 show biz. As you know, he happened to be an 0:14:05.760 --> 0:14:09.800 audio file of at least you know, fifties version of it. 0:14:10.480 --> 0:14:14.160 He had a couple of home Ampex home tape recorders 0:14:14.840 --> 0:14:18.040 and he was getting rid of them because he was 0:14:18.160 --> 0:14:24.280 upgrading all of us his U electrical stuff. So he 0:14:24.480 --> 0:14:27.800 gave and he thought about it, and I guess because 0:14:27.840 --> 0:14:31.360 he came up to Jan's dad, Bill Perry, and said, hey, 0:14:31.480 --> 0:14:34.560 I got these two tape recorders. I don't know what 0:14:34.600 --> 0:14:36.160 to do with him. I was just gonna jump him 0:14:36.320 --> 0:14:40.120 or something, but I heard your son is you know, 0:14:40.240 --> 0:14:44.040 likes music, and maybe he could get some use out 0:14:44.040 --> 0:14:50.360 of these that I'll take those. Ub Bill took him, 0:14:50.440 --> 0:14:54.600 took him home, bought Jan a microphone, or I don't 0:14:54.600 --> 0:14:57.600 think a microphone came from Howard Hughes. So we cut 0:14:57.600 --> 0:15:02.440 our very first top tune record on those on those 0:15:02.480 --> 0:15:08.000 two home im pexas okay, and that record was baby Talk. Okay. 0:15:08.160 --> 0:15:11.360 So your guys are still in high school, they have 0:15:11.440 --> 0:15:15.640 the music room, So how does it ultimately come together 0:15:15.760 --> 0:15:21.040 and record and be professional. Well, the football season ended, 0:15:22.480 --> 0:15:26.560 so we needed we needed to go someplace else to 0:15:26.600 --> 0:15:30.360 sing our songs after school because now the baseball team's 0:15:30.560 --> 0:15:34.440 plan or the track team, so we're out of those 0:15:34.480 --> 0:15:37.560 locker rooms. And Jan said, well, I got some tape 0:15:37.560 --> 0:15:40.600 recorders up at the house, and he had figured out 0:15:40.600 --> 0:15:45.840 how to uh do some wiring tricks one machine to 0:15:45.920 --> 0:15:50.840 the other and be able to cause nice little delay echo. 0:15:51.840 --> 0:15:56.280 It wasn't as good as the shower room, but it worked, 0:15:56.520 --> 0:15:59.600 you know, as as an echo because once we heard 0:15:59.600 --> 0:16:04.600 ourselves with that an echo. So luckily he had two 0:16:04.640 --> 0:16:07.000 machines and he was able to create that echo and 0:16:07.040 --> 0:16:10.200 made you feel like it was more like like a 0:16:10.320 --> 0:16:15.080 real recording. And he knew enough chords on the pianos, 0:16:15.080 --> 0:16:18.320 so we had a piano and one of these microphones 0:16:18.360 --> 0:16:23.280 sitting right in between all of us and channel bang 0:16:23.320 --> 0:16:28.000 out the chords and we'd sing live. And how many 0:16:28.080 --> 0:16:31.920 guys were there at that point it fluctuated. It went 0:16:32.040 --> 0:16:36.160 from you know, six or eight guys down to four, 0:16:36.680 --> 0:16:40.840 back up to six, back down to three, backup to five. 0:16:41.360 --> 0:16:46.600 It fluctuated depending on who had a new girlfriend or 0:16:47.160 --> 0:16:50.080 who you know had a job after school all of 0:16:50.160 --> 0:16:52.520 a sudden, because they don't have to have an income 0:16:52.640 --> 0:16:55.520 to spend on a girlfriend and or on a car 0:16:55.600 --> 0:16:59.560 and getting something chromed. And after a while I assumed 0:16:59.560 --> 0:17:03.520 a certain guys went, you know, this has been fun, 0:17:03.760 --> 0:17:07.640 but it's time we move on, and graduation did come along, 0:17:07.680 --> 0:17:12.240 and everybody just kind of went off like blowing leaves, 0:17:13.040 --> 0:17:15.560 all in different tractions. All of a sudden, we looked 0:17:15.600 --> 0:17:20.200 around and it's just to us. So at that point 0:17:20.480 --> 0:17:24.320 we didn't want to be a duo, but we were 0:17:24.400 --> 0:17:27.159 forced to be a duo because nobody else seemed to 0:17:27.200 --> 0:17:31.720 be interested. What was the first track you tried to shop? Um? 0:17:32.119 --> 0:17:36.840 We were working on a song, a doop song at 0:17:38.680 --> 0:17:42.439 one of our buddies, his name is Arnie, Arnie Ginsburg. 0:17:43.040 --> 0:17:46.080 He had come up with this idea and we toyed 0:17:46.080 --> 0:17:49.000 around with it and finished it and then saying about 0:17:49.160 --> 0:17:55.800 fifty different versions of it. Um. And then one one weekend, 0:17:56.080 --> 0:18:01.159 Jan decides that he had heard about a recording studio 0:18:02.160 --> 0:18:05.680 and that you could go get a demo made so 0:18:05.960 --> 0:18:08.359 you could take it off of it because not that 0:18:08.440 --> 0:18:11.520 many people out of real to real machines sitting around. 0:18:12.720 --> 0:18:15.280 So he said, you know, you can go to recording studio. 0:18:15.440 --> 0:18:19.080 We can take our our tape in and then they'll 0:18:19.119 --> 0:18:21.760 transfer the tape onto a disk and it'll look like 0:18:21.840 --> 0:18:26.080 a real record. Well that was pretty exciting. Well how 0:18:26.160 --> 0:18:31.680 much does that say? Like twenty bucks? I go home? Well, 0:18:31.720 --> 0:18:38.880 I'm really busy that actually I was. I was sure. 0:18:38.920 --> 0:18:41.879 I told him I was a half a semester ahead 0:18:41.880 --> 0:18:46.479 of him. So I was going to go right out 0:18:46.520 --> 0:18:51.440 of high school going to the army because some recruiter 0:18:51.560 --> 0:18:53.720 came to our high school and told us about the 0:18:53.960 --> 0:18:56.920 reserve program that you only had to go in active 0:18:57.000 --> 0:19:02.719 duty for six months. That sounded like good deal. Draft 0:19:02.880 --> 0:19:05.560 was going on. Yeah, there was a draft, so we 0:19:05.680 --> 0:19:08.960 had to we had to think about that. Although we 0:19:09.040 --> 0:19:14.040 were eighteen years old. You'll catch up with you sooner 0:19:14.160 --> 0:19:19.000 or later. So luckily I had very smart Asian friends, 0:19:20.280 --> 0:19:22.920 and they all thought that was a good idea and 0:19:23.080 --> 0:19:26.080 kind of talked me into it, and so we kind 0:19:26.119 --> 0:19:29.720 of all went in a buddy system. Probably ten or 0:19:29.800 --> 0:19:34.480 fifteen of us we missed a summer, and that was 0:19:34.600 --> 0:19:37.920 probably a great summer too. In the fifties, we missed 0:19:37.960 --> 0:19:40.680 the summer, but we got out right in time to, 0:19:41.840 --> 0:19:44.720 you know, either go to Most of them were all 0:19:44.760 --> 0:19:48.840 going to college in September, so I missed that summer, 0:19:49.080 --> 0:19:52.760 got out in September, and we'd be home free at 0:19:52.840 --> 0:19:56.840 thest for a while. We're still in the army, but 0:19:57.080 --> 0:19:58.720 you didn't have to do active duty, and you had 0:19:58.760 --> 0:20:02.159 to go to meetings, so that's what I was going 0:20:02.240 --> 0:20:05.320 to do. So Janne calls me the night before he's 0:20:05.320 --> 0:20:09.240 going to the recording studio because it was on a weekend, 0:20:10.200 --> 0:20:12.000 and I said, well, no, you remember I told you 0:20:12.119 --> 0:20:15.000 I'm going in the army and I'm never heack Sunday, 0:20:15.080 --> 0:20:17.399 I got to get on that bus and go to 0:20:17.520 --> 0:20:22.560 Ford Org. So I'm not going to be able to, 0:20:23.080 --> 0:20:26.119 you know, go to the recording studio. I just didn't 0:20:26.119 --> 0:20:28.240 want to come up with the twenty bucks. I figured 0:20:28.280 --> 0:20:31.159 he probably had it, but but I did have a 0:20:31.359 --> 0:20:34.399 new girlfriend and my last day, so I'm going to 0:20:34.520 --> 0:20:37.879 do this. So he just couldn't understand what I was 0:20:37.920 --> 0:20:39.960 going to do it. And then he said, well wait 0:20:39.960 --> 0:20:42.200 a minute, he said army. I said, chan, I told 0:20:42.240 --> 0:20:45.399 you just for six months. I'll be back in September. 0:20:46.560 --> 0:20:50.000 Well okay, So he goes to the recording studio. I'm 0:20:50.280 --> 0:20:53.359 off in the snow someplace with a new girlfriend and 0:20:53.440 --> 0:20:58.080 a couple other guys. Come back and I'm getting my 0:20:58.160 --> 0:21:00.760 stuff ready, packing my stuff, and he calls up and 0:21:00.840 --> 0:21:03.960 he says, I want to recordian studio and I'm making, 0:21:04.200 --> 0:21:08.520 you know, making that demo thing, and some guy some 0:21:08.720 --> 0:21:12.000 stranger just comes into that little booth that they had 0:21:12.119 --> 0:21:18.320 for the thing, you know, and this guy comes in. 0:21:18.480 --> 0:21:21.760 He says, he's you know, he's an A R man 0:21:22.000 --> 0:21:27.719 with Darwin Records and what is that song? And Jan said, well, 0:21:27.720 --> 0:21:29.440 I told him that, you know, that was just a 0:21:29.520 --> 0:21:31.359 song that we were just kind of working on and 0:21:32.160 --> 0:21:34.040 that actually the only place where we were going to 0:21:34.160 --> 0:21:38.520 play it's at our next party. And this guy here's 0:21:38.600 --> 0:21:40.879 that and he wants to hear it again. And then 0:21:40.960 --> 0:21:43.840 he said, you know, I want it. I want that, 0:21:44.119 --> 0:21:47.119 I want that. I'll put that out. I'll make you 0:21:47.280 --> 0:21:53.439 bigger than the Everly Brothers. Nobody could be. So Jan's 0:21:53.480 --> 0:21:55.159 telling me that we're going to be bigger than the 0:21:55.160 --> 0:21:58.480 Everly Brothers and and and you're doing what you're leaving tomorrow. 0:21:58.560 --> 0:22:01.320 I said, yeah, you call him up and tell him 0:22:01.520 --> 0:22:03.320 that that you're going to be you know, we're going 0:22:03.400 --> 0:22:06.440 to be bigger than the Brothers. I said, am I 0:22:06.480 --> 0:22:08.720 going to call? Do you figure out who to call? 0:22:08.760 --> 0:22:11.760 I'm going how do you call up the army? And 0:22:11.880 --> 0:22:15.600 tom one? I said, maybe, you know, I don't know, 0:22:15.720 --> 0:22:18.520 Eisenhower might still be there or somebody. I really don't 0:22:18.520 --> 0:22:22.320 know him. One of its pins. But other than that snay, 0:22:22.320 --> 0:22:24.439 I just thought he was full of it. Nothing's going 0:22:24.480 --> 0:22:28.240 to happen in six months. Nothing ever happened when you're eighteen, 0:22:28.880 --> 0:22:34.000 seventeen or eighteen. So I go off into the army alone. 0:22:34.080 --> 0:22:38.919 Behold that record gets finished. They overdubbed some real instruments 0:22:39.000 --> 0:22:42.920 on it, and it's a top ten record. And that 0:22:43.119 --> 0:22:47.840 record was Jinny Lee By Jan when I heard it 0:22:47.920 --> 0:22:50.440 on her. A buddy of mine heard it up in 0:22:50.520 --> 0:22:52.639 the army and came arounding up to me with a 0:22:52.680 --> 0:22:56.159 little portable radio because he was familiar with the songs. Listen, 0:22:56.840 --> 0:22:59.359 I'm listening to it. Sure sounds like the little demo 0:22:59.480 --> 0:23:03.920 we did up with a saxophone a few other instruments 0:23:03.960 --> 0:23:07.720 that you could hear. I'm going, oh my god. When 0:23:07.760 --> 0:23:10.680 I left, we were called the Barons. So at the 0:23:10.840 --> 0:23:13.199 end of it, the guy says, that's a big hit, 0:23:13.400 --> 0:23:17.000 you know, out of l A. This is a smash 0:23:17.160 --> 0:23:20.920 and blah blah blah, and that's Jinny Lee By. I'm 0:23:20.920 --> 0:23:28.480 waiting to hear the Barons Jan and Arnie what. I 0:23:28.560 --> 0:23:34.520 really thought it blown? It just um, there's nothing I 0:23:34.560 --> 0:23:37.080 could do about it that particularly, So I found a 0:23:37.119 --> 0:23:41.960 pay phone. Of course I tried, and in those days 0:23:42.040 --> 0:23:45.520 you only had had a house phone. And um, I 0:23:45.600 --> 0:23:48.160 finally did reach him and I said, you know, I listen, 0:23:48.280 --> 0:23:50.600 was listening to the radio up here in four Ord 0:23:51.200 --> 0:23:54.800 I heard and I heard our hour song. He said, 0:23:54.840 --> 0:23:59.440 oh yeah, yeah, I said to yeah, yeah, Well you 0:23:59.560 --> 0:24:03.280 know they said Jane and Arnie. Well he said, you 0:24:03.320 --> 0:24:09.119 weren't here. Oh but didn't I sing? He said, now 0:24:09.200 --> 0:24:15.720 we took your part off. Okay um, And and basically 0:24:15.880 --> 0:24:19.160 that was They did another two that was a top 0:24:19.200 --> 0:24:22.800 ten record, and they had two other singles that didn't 0:24:22.880 --> 0:24:26.159 do it quite as well, but didn't done to Clark 0:24:26.400 --> 0:24:28.720 and they had a lot of exposure and stuff. Now 0:24:28.960 --> 0:24:32.000 tell my audience the derivation of the song, Jennie Lee, 0:24:34.400 --> 0:24:37.360 Can we say that on their radio? Yes, on a podcast. 0:24:37.400 --> 0:24:46.680 Any language is possible. She was a topless dancer, exotic dancer. 0:24:46.760 --> 0:24:50.639 I guess you would say, um, you know, first she 0:24:50.840 --> 0:24:53.320 was the first topless dancer we'd ever seen. You know, 0:24:53.440 --> 0:25:00.560 that was an adult type. Um, and so we should 0:25:00.600 --> 0:25:05.960 go downtown l A to to see her dance. I 0:25:06.080 --> 0:25:09.399 do have her little at someplace in my and that 0:25:09.520 --> 0:25:12.960 collection of stuff. Because parking was free as I remember, 0:25:13.840 --> 0:25:16.879 So it was down in l a And and somehow 0:25:16.920 --> 0:25:20.520 it came up with the bumps, the bump bump bump 0:25:20.800 --> 0:25:25.639 stuff and and just through in her name. Basically we 0:25:25.720 --> 0:25:28.760 didn't really talk about what she did, right, but the 0:25:28.840 --> 0:25:32.680 inspiration did come from from Ginnie Lee, who was what 0:25:32.840 --> 0:25:41.560 was pretty famous at the time. So you're out of 0:25:41.600 --> 0:25:45.879 the army in September, that's what happens. Well, you know, 0:25:45.960 --> 0:25:51.800 I'm thinking, um, I had come home for on leave once, 0:25:51.920 --> 0:25:54.400 and of course I went right up to Jan's house 0:25:54.520 --> 0:25:59.600 and and he and Arnie and others. Now there's an entourage, 0:26:00.560 --> 0:26:07.720 guys smoking cigars, the suits, guys and it I could 0:26:07.760 --> 0:26:11.359 tell it was strained by this time because they're looking 0:26:11.440 --> 0:26:17.360 for a follow up single. And I spent maybe ten 0:26:17.480 --> 0:26:19.880 or fifteen minutes there and I said, you know, let's 0:26:19.880 --> 0:26:24.600 see you guys later. I left, but I had it 0:26:24.760 --> 0:26:28.040 just didn't have the same vibe. It was so much fun, 0:26:28.200 --> 0:26:34.000 just the guys just singing around a piano. And now 0:26:34.320 --> 0:26:38.920 this was now this was business, so I didn't feel 0:26:39.000 --> 0:26:42.320 too badly about it, but still it would have been fun. 0:26:42.440 --> 0:26:45.520 That would have liked to have at the time thought 0:26:45.640 --> 0:26:49.639 that experience. What's probably pretty neat. But anyway, I just 0:26:49.800 --> 0:26:53.080 chalked it up to, you know, they already have a career, 0:26:53.359 --> 0:26:56.080 and I had no idea when or not he would 0:26:56.320 --> 0:26:58.760