page_title: Dead Man's Curve (song)
section_title: Versions
hierarchical_section_title: Dead Man's Curve (song) / Versions
caption_attribution_description: English: Beverly Hills, California, computer image generated using OpenStreetMap Deutsch: Beverly Hills, Kalifornien OpenStreetMap-Computergrafik)
context_page_description: "Dead Man's Curve" is a 1964 hit song by Jan and Dean whose lyrics detail a teen street race gone awry. It reached number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. The song was written and composed by Brian Wilson, Artie Kornfeld, Roger Christian, and Jan Berry at Wilson's mother's house in Santa Monica. It was part of the teenage tragedy song phenomenon of that period, and one of the most popular such selections of all time.
context_section_description: Three versions of "Dead Man's Curve" were released:
  Version #1: Original version from the 1963 Drag City album
  Version #2: Single "hit" version with added horns, strings, additional backing vocals, and sounds of a car skidding and crashing; from the 1964 Dead Man's Curve/The New Girl In School LP
  Version #3: An earlier rejected studio mix from the 1966 Filet of Soul album.
  Live versions appear on the 1965 Command Performance and 1971 Anthology albums
  There are a few minor lyrical differences between versions #1 and 3 and version #2 listed above:
  Versions #1 & 3 – "my frenched tail lights", "the strip was deserted", and "pulled her out and there I was"
  Version #2 – "my six tail lights", "the street was deserted", and "pulled her out and there we were"
  There are two basic versions:
  Version one: Lead and backing vocals: Jan Berry
  Background vocals: Jan Berry, Brian Wilson, Gary Usher. Released: on Drag City LP, Liberty LST 7339, Jan and Dean
  Jan. 6, 1964 Side one, cut five – 3:01
  Also on Filet of Soul LP, Liberty LST 7441, Jan and Dean, April 25, 1966, Side two, cut three – 3:01
  Version two: Jan Berry, Roger  Christian, Artie Kornfeld, Brian Wilson
  Jan Berry: Lead and backing vocals. Dean Torrence: Backing vocals
  Released February 17, 1964 Liberty 55672 45 RPM (B-side: "New Girl in School") – 2:28 (2:21 listing on actual disk—Wiki says 2:27)
  Released May 4, 1964 "Dead Man's Curve"/"The New Girl in School" LP Liberty LST 7361, Jan and Dean Side one, cut one – 2:28
  Also re-released on several compilations (the 1984 Rhino LP Teenage Tragedies lists the song as a "re-recorded version"), anthologies, and 45 RPM records (some timed 2:39)
caption: Overhead map view of Dead Man's Curve, an almost ninety-degree right turn traveling west on Sunset Boulevard just past North Whittier Drive near 9901 Sunset Blvd, Beverly Hills, CA 90210
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