Jan & Dean - Carnival Of Sound (1969)

In 1966 Jan and Dean were riding a wave of success (surf joke) with a string of hit singles and albums in the US charts, and being second only in the surf/pop genre to The Beach Boys. Sessions for a new Jan and Dean album began in March 1966, with a few tracks completed before Jan Berry's debilitating car accident the following month. Recording continued sporadically until December 1968 as Berry slowly recovered, and by 1969 the album was deemed complete, but was never released, although collectors have circulated unofficial bootleg versions over the years. If the album had been released in 1969 it could have kick-started a possible psychedelic comeback for the group, but with no new product to keep their name alive their working relationship as a duo soon ended. Although 'Carnival of Sound' is credited as a Jan and Dean record, it is actually more of a Jan Berry solo effort, and consisted mostly of original material, with a few covers of songs by artists such as The Five Satins and The Coasters. However, although Berry wrote and produced most of the material, he only played and sang on a few songs due to complications from his car accident. Dean Torrence, who by that time had become disillusioned with the duo's prospects, only appears on one song, while Glen Campbell made some contributions to the sessions, and singer Tom Bahler performed lead vocals on several songs. The resulting album is particularly notable for having a more psychedelic sound than other Jan and Dean records, and could have been the start in a change of direction for them if it had been released in 1969. Rhino Handmade Records eventually issued the album as a limited-edition mono vinyl record in November 2009, followed by a wider release on compact disc in February 2010, but they both seem to have long gone, and so it's worth posting here as you probably won't be able to hear it anywhere else. 

Track listing

01 Girl, You're Blowing My Mind
02 Mulholland
03 Fan Tan
04 Carnival Of Sound
05 Laurel And Hardy
06 I Know My Mind
07 Love And Hate
08 Tijuana
09 Hawaii
10 Louisiana Man
11 Stay
12 Only A Boy
13 In The Still Of The Night
14 Yakety Yak