Bel-Aire Orchestra - Jan & Dean's Pop Symphony

I thought some of you might like to listen to this oddity. Its not just a Hollyridge Strings style orchestral version of a group's hits (good as Hollyridge are) its unique in that Jan Berry actually got involved in the production of this album and most of the ideas are his.

He's helped by the usual stellar Hollywood session men and George Tipton. Its very different to the usual strings play groups sounds and has some very good ideas and makes for interesting listening.

AMG thought it was pretty good too:

The general perception, of course, is that Jan & Dean were almost exclusively a singles act in terms of their most important output, and that is largely true. But a few of their albums were "conceptual" in nature...and then there's Pop Symphony, No. 1, the strangest album in their entire output -- an instrumental album of Jan & Dean hits played by the Bel-Aire Pops Orchestra (augmented by some top L.A. sessionmen, most of whom played on Jan & Dean's usual output), arranged by Jan Berry and George Tipton, who also conducted. What's funny is that Pop Symphony, No. 1 isn't a bad little record, and was also damned rare for a very long time. The material seems at first like standard pop instrumental music, except it does have those melodies, which work whether they're sung by Jan & Dean or, as is the case here, carried by a brass or string section. And it turns out that Pop Symphony, No. 1 is full of entertaining and unexpected delights, with the result that this record isn't quite as bizarre as it seems.

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