Pop music, especially the early stuff when the concept of the teenager had just been invented has always been awash with songs sung by hormonally imbalanced adolescent boys about seemingly unattainable girls. The helium high of The Hollies Hey! Carrie Anne (what’s your game and can anybody play?), Buddy Holly‘s uh pretty-pretty-pretty-pretty Peggy Sue, the Beach Boys‘ mock party jam version of ah-ba ba ba ba Barbara Ann (ah-ba ba ba ba Barbara Ann, ta-ake my ha-a-and). I bet you’re singing Al Jardine’s ridiculous falsetto right now. Every one of them a gazillion plays radio standard. Every one of them a teenage ode to an unattainable double barrelled object of desire.
I bet you couldn’t sing this though: Pamela Jean by The Survivors.
Pamela Jean is a terrific slice of early 60s Dionesque doo-wop pop, all hand claps, honkin’ sax and Spectorish tumbling drum rolls. It also happens to feature the unmistakable vocals of Brian Wilson. The vocal arrangement of Pamela Jean is totally Brian. From the bottom end bass to the harmonies and the high-high-highs, Pamela Jean is the sound of Sta-Press ‘n Pendletones ‘n Brylcreem flicks – the Beach Boys Sound of Endless Summer.
Pamela Jean isn’t actually a Beach Boys record but if you didn’t read the small print you’d never know. It could easily slot right there inbetween Little Deuce Coupe and Don’t Worry Baby; 50% pop and 50% pathos. Only thing is, other than Brian, no Beach Boys appeared on it. The Survivors were Brian and three friends, Bob Norberg, Dave Nowlen and Rich Alarian. Alarian had helped Brian write some of the early Beach Boys songs, but rather than Brian give his pal a writing credit, they agreed that Brian would produce a record for him. Pamela Jean was the result. Tremendous as it clearly is, the record failed to even scrape the outer edges of the chart. Perhaps poor old Rich would’ve been better off insisting on those writing credits after all.
*Trainspotter Fact #1
Any Beach Boys obsessive worth his salt (note his, not their – the tendency to focus on the minutae and detail is surely a male thing, aye?) would recognise that the melody for Pamela Jean was taken wholly from Car Crazy Cutie, from the Beach Boys Little Deuce Coupe LP. Pamela Jean just sounds better though, eh? And I bet you can sing it now too.
“Brian Wilson is not a good looking human being, yet his music is beautiful. Look at Nat King Cole–he looked like a real piece of shit but he had a beautiful voice. Look at Aretha Franklin–she would scare me in a dark room, yet her voice is fantastic. Roy Orbison too. The thing I listen too is the music.”
-Dennis Wilson, 1976
Plain Or Pan 
Scots expat in Sydney…lover of all things Wilson…thanks you…especially as I have been mostly singing ‘Please Let Me Wonder’ this weekend….still one of my favourite slices of early Wilson genius. Cheers. Stevie.
Tis Dean Torrence from Jan and Dean doing the falsetto on Barbara Ann…
Ah, cheers Nat! Didn’t know that! What was that I was saying about Beach Boys obsessives worth their salt ?
Thanks for getting your facts straight…a rarity nowdays..Dave Nowlen “A Survivor”
Brian not good looking?….there’s a lot worse about!
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