5/7/2025 - Folk 'n Roll by Jan & Dean
Being a life-long Beach Boys fan, Jan & Dean have always had a tiny presence in my life. Mostly for the fact that their song "Surf City" sounds almost exactly like an early Beach Boys song (hell, Brian Wilson even co-wrote it apparently!) I never really looked into them aside from that song in part because they never really evolved from their surf-pop roots like The Beach Boys did (unless there's a secret Jan & Dean prog rock album that I missed, in which case I urge you to point me to it.) That was until my friend told me about a folk album they did in 1965, which I thought was hilarious. Then, around a month ago I found a copy of it by complete chance! And? It's one of the, though unintentionally, weirdest records I have ever listened to. As the title suggests, Folk 'n Roll is a collection of mostly covers of contemporary folk rock songs by Jan & Dean, with the odd original sprinkled into the tracklist. For the most part, the covers they do are serv...