Songwriters Don & Dewey Get Their Turn on ‘Jungle Hop’

There were so many R&B; duos in the early days of rock that it’s easy for even oldies fans to get them confused. They ranged from Marvin & Johnny, whose hits included “Cherry Pie” and “Tick Tock,” to Santo & Johnny, whose biggest hit was “Sleep Walk.

Yet one of the most interesting of the Los Angeles duos during the ‘50s and early ‘60s never had a hit--at least not with their original recordings. Don & Dewey, however, did earn a place in rock and R&B; history by writing a series of songs that later became hits for other artists.

Among them:

* “Leavin’ It All Up to You,” an especially catchy, country-flavored tune about troubled love that was a No. 1 single in 1963 for the team of Dale & Grace and a No. 4 hit a decade later for Donny & Marie Osmond.

* “Farmer John,” an oddball tale of romantic frustration that the Premiers turned into a novelty rock hit in 1964 and which Neil Young reprised last year on his “Ragged Glory” album.

* “Big Boy Pete,” another novelty, this one a 1960 hit for the Olympics, a vocal group best known for the rollicking 1958 single “Western Movies.”

While most of the hit versions of these songs are already available in CD compilations, the original Don Harris and Dewey Terry renditions are available for the first time in “Don & Dewey: Jungle Hop.”

The album--whose 25 selections include a slow, alternative version of “Farmer John” that was never released in any form until now--is one of the latest gems in the “Legends of Specialty” series.

The other artists saluted in the latest volumes in the series, which is now owned and distributed by Fantasy Records, range from Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Little Richard (whose recordings for Speciality Records are already widely available) and Lloyd Price (whose hits included the classic “Lawdy Miss Clawdy”) to Guitar Slim (a greatly underrated R&B; figure whose vocal style will seem awfully familiar to Mick Jagger fans) and Floyd Dixon (another key figure in the Los Angeles R&B; scene).

Each album in the series, which is supervised by singer-historian Billy Vera, comes with an illustrated booklet that describes the artists’ background. In his liner notes about Don & Dewey, Vera suggests that the Pasadena songwriting-vocal team’s style was a major influence on another Southern California duo--the Righteous Brothers. The latter recorded two songs that appear on the “Jungle Hop” album: “Justine,” which the Righteous Brothers turned into a minor pop hit in 1965, and “Koko Joe,” which was written by then Specialty staff producer Sonny Bono.