Tag: The Little Old Lady (from Pasadena)

This music is about Summer, fun, fun…and did I mention fun? Musically I loved the surf drummers and musicians. They were good and very fast.

I first found out about Jan and Dean when I was a kid. There was a TV movie in 1978 about them.

Jan and Dean were William Jan Berry, and Dean Ormsby Torrence, who formed in Los Angeles and 1958. They helped to shape the California Sound and vocal surf music. Jan and Dean had over 20 charting songs and going strong until Jan Berry was in a horrendous car crash that left him brain damaged and severely handicapped for the rest of his life in 1966.

After numerous brain operations, Jan spent six weeks in coma and awoke severely brain damaged, unable to speak, and completely paralyzed on his right side. He fought back and was able…although tremendously handicapped to return to the recording studio the next year to work on material for an unreleased Jan & Dean project that was not to be released until 2010 called Carnival of Sound.  He still could not sing well enough to perform.

Dean would go on to be a graphic artist and make album covers for  Harry Nilsson, Steve Martin, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Dennis Wilson, Bruce Johnston, the Beach Boys, Diana Ross and the Supremes, Linda Ronstadt, Canned Heat and more.

Jan and Dean performed again in 1976…10 years after the accident. Jan and Dean continued to tour through the 80’s to the 2000’s. Jan died in 2004.

This song was released in 1964 and it peaked at #4  in the Billboard 100.

For those who have time…below is the 1978 movie in its entirety. 

It’s the little old lady from Pasadena

It’s the little old lady from Pasadena…

The little old lady from Pasadena
(Go granny, go granny, go granny, go)
Has a pretty little flowerbed of white gardenias
(Go granny, go granny, go granny, go)
But parked in a rickety old garage
Is a brand-new, shiny red, super-stock Dodge

And everybody’s sayin’ that there’s nobody meaner
Than the little old lady from Pasadena
She drives real fast and she drives real hard
She’s the terror of Colorado Boulevard

It’s the little old lady from Pasadena…

If you see her on the street, don’t try to choose her
(Go granny, go granny, go granny, go)
You might drive a goer, but you’ll never lose her
(Go granny, go granny, go granny, go!)
Well, she’s gonna get a ticket now, sooner or later
‘Cause she can’t keep her foot off the accelerator

And everybody’s sayin’ that there’s nobody meaner
Than the little old lady from Pasadena
She drives real fast and she drives real hard
She’s the terror of Colorado Boulevard

It’s the little old lady from Pasadena…

Go granny, go granny, go granny, go
Go granny, go granny, go granny, go

The guys come to race her from miles around
But she’ll give ’em a length, then she’ll shut ’em down

And everybody’s sayin’ that there’s nobody meaner
Than the little old lady from Pasadena
She drives real fast and she drives real hard
She’s the terror of Colorado Boulevard

It’s the little old lady from Pasadena…
Go granny, go granny, go granny, go (repeat until end and fade)