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Songfacts:  You can leave comments about the song at the bottom of the page.

This is about a real stretch of road in Los Angeles. It is on Sunset Boulevard near the UCLA campus. See a photo and learn more in Song Images.

On April 12, 1966, Jan (Jan Berry), crashed his Corvette into a parked truck just blocks away from Dead Man's Curve. He spent months in a coma and remained mostly paralyzed. Berry suffered permanent brain damage in the crash, but did recover well enough to performing with Dean Torrence starting in 1978. He died of a seizure on March 26, 2004.

Brian Wilson from The Beach Boys helped write this song.

The CBS-TV Movie Deadman's Curve aired in 1978 and 1979 and chronicled Berry's valiant fight to regain his ability to function normally. Jan & Dean started their comeback after the special aired.

Jan Berry wrote this with Roger Christian, a DJ and car enthusiast who wrote "Little Deuce Coupe" with Brian Wilson. They wrote the song after Mel Blanc was seriously injured in a car crash there. Blanc was the voice of Bugs Bunny. (thanks, Brad Wind - Miami, FL)

Christian wanted the song to end with the racers finishing in a tie. Jan Berry insisted it end in a fiery crash.

Comments:

Dead man's curve is a real place in West Los Angeles, located less than a mile east of I-405 (San Diego Fwy) on Sunset Blvd. What makes this a dangerous curve is, that it has a negative camber going both ways E&W bound. East bound traffic deals with a right turn with the road leaning to the left, and west bound traffic with a left turn having the road lean to the right. Add to the fact the roadway is made of concrete and has been polished after 40 years of traffic it's also very slippery, add rain grooves and it's real bad.
- Thomas B. Buckley, Lacey, WA

Jan was alone in his Corvette, and it struck a parked, unoccupied gardener's truck. Jan was the only injured party in the crash.
- Steven, Los Angeles, CA

I always thought it was cool how they mentioned the street names in this:"Sunset and Vine"...& the phrase- "i flew past LaBrea, Schwabs and Crescent Heights".."he passed me at Doheney". It just made you feel as if you were really there even more so. What a great, great song!
- Reed, New Ulm, MN

I am an expert on old sports cars, and because the XKE Jaguar had a very fragile body that rusted easily (I once saw a 1964 XKE coupe that someone had put a Chevy small-block V-8 in, and the owner proceeded to drive the car until the frame was destroyed by vibrations and too much power), and when the fuel tank (which is under the trunk floor) is hit from any angle, especially by a very powerful car like a Corvette Stingray (I assume that the Jag was rear-ended), the Jag will almost certainly crumple, and anyone inside will almost certainly die a fiery and painful death, just like the song.
- Darrell, Eugene

This song was mentioned in the movie High Fidelity. Jack Black's character names it for a 'Top 5 songs about death' list
- Ben, Fairfield, CA