Ben Harney

While Ben Harney unfortunately was neglected by commercial recording studios during his lifetime, in 1925 a folklorist recorded Harney singing an example of an early ragtime song on a dictaphone phonograph cylinder, and this recording has survived. The group continued to tour until Berry's death in March, 2004, with 1960s nostalgia providing them with a ready audience. Ben Harney died of a heart attack in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As a result, the group did not perform again until 1973, and made an official comeback in 1978 on tour with the Beach Boys. Harney quit touring after suffering from a heart attack in 1928. Early in 1966 Jan was involved in a serious motor vehicle accident, resulting in severe head injuries. He sometimes performed in blackface. Subsequent hits included "Little Old Lady From Pasadena" (1964) and the eerily portentous "Dead Man's Curve" (1964).

Harney's act included him playing piano, singing (including scat singing), and dancing. Playing local venues, they met and performed with the Beach Boys, and discovered the appeal of the latter's "surf sound".With considerable help from Brian Wilson, they eventually scored a number one national hit with "Surf City" (1963). Once ragtime became popular he started billing himself as The Originator of Ragtime or The Father of Ragtime, which most (but not all) of his contemporaries thought was an overstatement for the sake of advertising. With the help of friend Herb Alpert and producer Lou Adler, they scored a modest hit with Baby Talk (1959), and then entered a long dry spell. Harney toured widely on the Vaudeville circuts in the USA, as well as tours of theaters in Europe and Asia. After Dean returned from an army stint and Arnie went off to other pursuits (by 1962, he was a hugely successful rock and roll deejay in Boston), the two began to make music again as Jan and Dean. In 1897 Harney published his book The Ragtime Instructor, the first comprehensive description of ragtime, with instructions of how to rag (add syncopated rhythms to) tunes, including giving written examples of ragged versions of light classics and opera songs. Their first commercial success was Jennie Lee (1958), an ode to a local burlesque performer which they recorded along with pal Arnie Ginsberg.

That same year Harney was referred to in print as "the rag time pianist". They first performed on stage as The Barons at a high school dance. In January of 1896 Ben Harney moved to New York City, where he appeared regularly at Tony Pastor's Music Hall. Primitive recording sessions followed soon after, in a makeshift studio in Jan's garage. Harney's tunes "You've Been a Good Old Wagon, But You've Done Broke Down", "Mister Johnson, Turn Me Loose", and "Cake Walk In The Sky" were big hits in the mid 1890s. They began singing together after football practice at University High School in Los Angeles. Some historians still debate Harney's ethnic background. Jan Berry (April 3, 1941, Los Angeles -- March 26, 2004) and Dean Torrence (born March 10, 1940, Los Angeles) were a rock and roll duo briefly popular in the early 1960s as part of the "surf music" craze inspired by The Beach Boys.

Handy referred to him as "white". Johnson referred to him as a "Negro", while W.C. James P. Harney was light skinned with red hair; early in his career he played with African American theater troops, but later in his career he represented himself as white.

Ben Harney is generally said to have been born in Louisville, Kentucky, although some sources put his birthplaces as Nashville, Tennessee. Benjamin Robertson "Ben" Harney (6 March 1871 - 2 March 1938) was a United States of America songwriter, entertainer, and pioneer of ragtime music. Download recording - "The Wagon" ragtime from the Library of Congress' Gordon Collection (http://www.loc.gov/folklife/Gordon/sideBbandB4.html); performed by Ben Harney in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on about September 9, 1925.