Dead Man’s Curve: The Rock ‘n’ Roll Life of Jan Berry

By Mark A. Moore

Forthcoming, Summer 2021.
Pre-Order from Amazon.com
Pre-Order from McFarland & Co.

Jan Berry, leader of the music duo Jan & Dean from the late 1950s to mid-1960s, was an intense character who experienced more in his first 25 years than many do in a lifetime. As an architect of the West Coast sound, he was one of rock ‘n’ roll’s original rebels—brilliant, charismatic, reckless, and flawed. As a songwriter, music arranger, and record producer for Nevins-Kirshner Associates and Screen Gems-Columbia Music, Berry was one of the pioneering self-produced artists of his era in Hollywood. He lived a dual life, reaching the top of the charts with Jan & Dean while transitioning from college student to medical student, until an automobile accident ended his seemingly charmed existence in 1966. Suffering from brain damage and partial paralysis, Jan spent the rest of his life trying to come back from Dead Man’s Curve. His story is told here in-depth for the first time, based on extensive primary source documentation and supplemented by the stories and memories of Jan’s family members, friends, music industry colleagues, and contemporaries. From the birth of rock to the bitter end, Berry’s life story is thrilling, humorous, unsettling, and disturbing, yet ultimately uplifting.

7″ x 10″ paperback; 426 pp.; 195 photos, illustrations, and maps; 4 Appendices; Bibliography; Index.
$49.95 (print); $29.95 (e-book)
pISBN: 978-1-4766-7210-6
eISBN: 978-1-4766-4333-5

“Jennie Lee” . . . “Baby Talk” . . . “We Go Together” . . . “Heart and Soul” . . . “Linda” . . . “Surf City” . . . “Honolulu Lulu” . . . “Drag City” . . . “Dead Man’s Curve” . . . “The New Girl In School” . . . “The Little Old Lady (from Pasadena)” . . . “Ride the Wild Surf” . . . “Sidewalk Surfin’” . . . “You Really Know How To Hurt A Guy” . . . “I Found A Girl” . . . “Popsicle.”