Fifty years ago today, Jan and Dean, a doo-wop-ish duo who'd had some success in a genre that was fading fast, hit #1 with "Surf City," the result of their friendship with the Beach Boys. The high-harmonies/California car 'n' surf culture odes (they also recorded “The Little Old Lady From Pasadena) temporarily rejuvenated their career – but they were unable to surf the ultimate wave: The British Invasion, which hit American shores only a few months later.
Still it was an era when you could make a reasonable living writing and performing songs about car parts, something that wouldn't happen again until Springsteen released "Born to Run" some fifteen years or so later.
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