We love you, Barbara Jean Fassert, wherever you are.
Barbara Jean had a brother by the name of Fred, a member of The Regents, a doo-wop group from New York City. In 1961 he wrote a song using her name that went to #3 on the Top 100 chart.
Four years later, Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys was working on his soon-to-be-legendary "Pet Sounds" album, but with Christmas season coming up, his record company was all over him to come up with an album and a single for gift giving time. Geniuses such as Brian don't do well with time constraints, and he was not about to rush songs like "Good Vibrations" and "God Only Knows" until he had perfected them.
It's not a classic, it broke no new musical ground, but it was fun to listen to, and the single was a new version of "Barbara Ann." By The Beach Boys, not The Regents.
Well, sort of.
The Beach Boys and Jan And Dean were close friends, and Brian asked his record company if it would be OK to have them as guests at the "Party."
Nothing doing, came the answer, unless you can get a guarantee from THEIR record company that The Beach Boys can be guests on a Jan And Dean record. And that was never going to fly.
So it was that by pure coincidence (!) J & D were recording across the hall the same day the "Party" was going on, and during a 15 minute break, Dean Torrence, the falsetto voice on so many great records, slipped over to say hi, and the first thing you know, Brian invited him to sing incognito.
(But he would rather sing falsetto, ha ha.)
Dean offered to take the lead on "Barbara Ann," the song was completed in two takes, and he hustled back across the hall, swearing up and down that he did not lend his voice in song.
Listen at the very end here. You can hear Brian Wilson say, "Thank you, Dean!"
Oh well. Some secrets can't stay secret for long!
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