This is an album by a band calling themselves
The Legendary Masked Surfers - actually more or less a solo album by Dean Torrence of
Jan And Dean.
The 'band' consisted of Torrence, plus various members of Papa Doo Run Run, the Bel Air Bandits, backing members of The Beach Boys and guest spots from Brian Wilson, Mike Love and The Honeys. Bruce Johnston also apparently added backing vocals.
The album is mostly made up of remakes of hits by Jan And Dean and The Beach Boys recorded for the TV Movie Dead Man's Curve - a biopic of Jan And Dean. Jan Berry was not able to perform at the time, so Torrence used various other singers.
The Legendary Masked Surfers went on to make other records, often involving Gary Usher or Curt Boettcher, and eventually evolved into California Music.
The album is better than most of the albums of surf music remakes the various band members have been involved with over the years (it is far superior for example to Mike Love, Bruce Johnston and David Marks of The Beach Boys salute NASCAR), but is still fairly pointless. Also it raises two questions:
Why can't Dean Torrence learn lyrics? and
Why does Mike Love sing lead on Jan & Dean songs but not ones by The Beach Boys on this CD?
Full tracklist, with lead singers, is:
- Ride The Wild Surf - Dean Torrence
- Fun Fun Fun - Chris Farmer/Dean Torrence
- Dead Man's Curve - Dean Torrence
- Surf City - Don Zirilli/Dean Torrence
- The Little Old Lady From Pasadena - Mike Love/Dean Torrence
- Surfin' USA - Gary Griffin/Dean Torrence
- Honolulu Lulu - Dean Torrence
- Popsicle - Dean Torrence/Gary Griffin
- Surfin' Safari - Gary Griffin/Dean Torrence
- Sidewalk Surfin' - Mike Love/Dean Torrence
- Little Deuce Coupe - Dean Torrence
- Gonna Hustle You - Dean Torrence
- I Get Around - Gary Griffin/Dean Torrence
- Drag City - Dean Torrence
- Be True To Your School - Gary Griffin/Dean Torrence
- Vegetables - Dean Torrence/Brian Wilson/The Honeys
- Thanks For Buyin' Our Album - Group
The album is available on Varese Sarabande catalogue number VSD-5727