“There are eight million stories in the naked city….and this is one of them.” That was the tag line of a popular noir-ish TV show from a bygone era. But that could also easily apply to the lives of New York City natives and musicians Dean Bailin and Jeanne Waller. Each have plied their trade since the ‘70s, with Waller touring nationally and singing at high society gigs and Bailin working as a guitarist/multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, producer and engineer for marquee acts and independent artists.
Perhaps Bailin’s biggest claim to fame was when he was working as a member of Rupert Holmes’ touring and recording band. Remember “Escape (The Pina Colada Song)?” Well, in it, Bailin composed and played one of pop music’s most memorable signature guitar licks, with a sweeping ascending and descending melody line. “What was amazing was coming home from a gig one night and I’m hearing myself on WABC radio in New York,” recalls Bailin. “I said, ‘oh my goodness, we’re on Top 40 radio!’ And sure enough the song shot up the charts. It was amazing to be a part of it, and a life changing event. It was a great thing for Rupert and led to touring and additional albums.” “Escape (The Pina Colada Song)” is also very significant in pop music history for being a Number #1 hit single in two decades—from the end of 1979 to the beginning of 1980.
Persuasive
Bailin spent a good chunk of the early ‘80s working with Holmes and, through recording work and a number of national television appearances gained a lot of knowledge he applied when he branched out as a session guitarist and Manhattan recording studio owner. From 1985 to 2015 Bailin backed Gilda Radner, Rodney Dangerfield, Kurtis Blow and others. He also wrote and produced songs for Petula Clark, Felix Cavaliere and a number of independent songwriters and bands. “I worked with so many diverse people,” recalls Bailin. “I had my own studio, could play all the instruments and charged by the hour. I saved artists a lot of money doing things that way. Working with so many different people makes you a chameleon, of sorts. It forced me to expand my horizons.”
Bailin and Waller were always friendly to each other as their paths crossed many times while both were running and performing in the same NYC musical circles. And then, nearly ten years ago, their creative and personal partnership took a significant upward turn. “We set up a meeting to get together,” says Bailin. “I kind of looked at it as a date (laughs). But Jeanne came over and I played her some of the music I had been working on.”
“I knew he played on ‘Pina Colada’ and some of the bands I worked in. But I had no idea what a good songwriter he was,” says Waller. I knew people knew Dean as a great guitarist but I didn’t know about the songs. And the first song I heard was ‘Enter This Night.’”
Enter the Night
The mid-‘60s Motown-influenced “Enter This Night” was just one of a huge body of original tunes that Bailin had stockpiled in his studio since the early ‘80s. Many of his songs drew from classic pop, rock, jazz and, to a great degree, R&B influences. This really connected with Waller who, not only was versatile enough to sing all these various styles, but had a strong visual sense of presenting them as well. “My background was in musical theater and singing in country clubs and places like The Waldorf in New York,” explains Waller. “But I always wanted to sing pop music. When I heard Dean’s music I said this is the music I waited so long to hear.”
So, in 2015, it was kismet that they formed a partnership and pivoted from a steady diet of casuals, cover gigs and session work to putting a focus on more original pursuits. As Waller became more versed in Bailin’s material they put together a live act around Manhattan. They developed a steady following performing as a duo to backing tracks of their many original songs.
When the pandemic hit in March 2020 the duo, just like the rest of the world, went into suspension mode. Of course, many lives were affected and, in particular, New York City and its populace were living in the epicenter of the chaos. But, as they say, music is a healer and Bailin and Waller pivoted once again to, not only reinvent their musical approach, but bring some peace and calm in such a tumultuous time to whoever was listening.
“We were devastated,” recalls Bailin. “We just tried to make use of all the time we were together.”
They were stuck in Waller’s apartment and, after the initial shock of what was going on in their immediate community and the world, were compelled to offer some kind of solace. “The first song that we ever did was called ‘Faith, Hope and Love’ and we did it in my living room on March 23rd, 2020, with a cell phone,” says Waller. “We dedicated it to all the front line and hospital workers. It was just guitar and vocals. We put it up on Facebook and the response was really nice. We did it just to say thank you to all these people. We didn’t know what was gonna happen. And when we recorded it I was scared. You can hear it in my voice. We just wanted to help.”
What’s that old adage about preparation meeting opportunity? Who knew that a singular and selflessly kind gesture like posting an innocuous cell phone video on Facebook would lead to an entirely new career paradigm? But that’s exactly what happened and it sent them on a trajectory as social media video stars.
Realizing they were locked down and limited to what they could do as musicians and performers the duo became immersed in producing and posting videos of some of the songs they had been performing years earlier in the clubs. And in addition to his considerable skills as a music producer and engineer, Bailin had also studied and taught himself how to use video production and editing software. Waller on the other hand became so well versed with Bailin’s material that she started to really grasp the personalities and the storylines in the lyrics. With her extensive theatrical background she was prepared to act out the songs and make those characters and images come alive.
Fantasy House
“Dean had this song he had written called ‘Fantasy House,’ recalls Waller on one of their first video collaborations. “We were pretty good at putting songs together in our head. His songs are very personality-oriented. In the lyrics I saw a movie star, a hippie, Olive Oyl—all the characters mentioned in the song. My theatrical background always had me working out a show in my head. Meanwhile Dean had mastered this video software so we could do beautiful color and sound. I ordered all these costumes—dresses, wigs and things from Amazon. And because he was learning how to do everything it wasn’t very expensive.”
Concurrently, Bailin had a high school buddy named Jonny Tessler who owned a high-end video camera and would, periodically, tape some of their nightclub gigs. His camera work was excellent and the duo approached him about taping some of their video concepts while in lockdown.
As they partnered with Tessler the duo were busy purchasing additional production gear like green screens and such. They set up a makeshift studio in Waller’s living room and, with the help of a good friend and keyboard player named Joel Diamond, proceeded to tape the “Fantasy House” video. That was quickly followed by another video for a song called “3 Coins in a Wishing Well.” These early songs each dealt with whimsical takes on alternate reality and surreal imagery. And they gave Waller plenty to do regarding costume changes and utilizing her considerable thespian chops.
2 Coins in a Wishing Well
“What I saw from Jeanne was her natural ability to take on different characters,” says Bailin. “She really rose to the occasion and became those characters. And that’s how we came up with our name of ‘Dean and the Singing Blue Jeanne’s.’ I would regularly put three or four images of Jeanne in our videos and she could act out and sing all these different parts. It’s a takeoff on that ‘60s group ‘The Swinging Blue Jeans’—you know, that song ‘Hippy Hippy Shake?’
Arguably, the multiple “Jeanne’s” concept comes together most effectively on the afore-mentioned “Enter This Night.” It’s a brilliant song inspired by the Detroit Motown experience. As a Supremes-type vocal trio, Waller magically appears on Bailin’s television screen as all three vocalists. They are appearing on the “Ed Sullivan Show” in some sort of time travelling continuum that falls somewhere between fantasy and reality.
Over the past few years Bailin and Waller shot, produced and posted videos on Facebook, You Tube and other social media for some of their other original tunes. As the world was gradually rising from the ashes of the pandemic and trying to return to some sort of normalcy the public was clamoring more and more for the duo to take their video concepts and return to the concert stage.
“People had watched our videos over the past few years and were asking when and where can we see you live,” says Waller. “People were inquiring from all around the world. I said to Dean we’ve gotta do something live.”
In early 2022 they compiled a number of their original songs and live instrumental interludes and released them on a CD album entitled “Crossing the Boundaries” (4 Cats Recordings/Distrokid). And then in early 2023 they put together a live interactive show, with a backing screen and projections to perform along with their videos. Bailin and Waller called on Rupert Holmes’ former rhythm section of bassist Frank Gravis and drummer Ben Gramm and performed a few shows at Klub 45 in Connelly’s Pub and Restaurant in the heart of downtown Manhattan.
Rebind
“Lots of acts are doing this now where they have patterns and images going on in the background of their live show,” explains Bailin. “But we were actually trying to embed ourselves into the videos live. For instance, there was one guitar instrumental called ‘I Can’t Afford to Pay the Price’ I did where Jeanne actually jumps out of the video screen. We did these club dates in New York and they were very well received.”
In the last couple years Bailin and Waller have taken a leaner more balanced approach to video. Their sense of diversity and eclecticism remains intact, but they seem to be somewhat returning to their roots, with a nod to classic ‘60s pop, jazz and, even material with a dark noir-ish edge. Their takes on Gene Pitney’s “Town Without Pity,” the slick femme fatale cool of their own “Jealousy” and their latest video, a faithful remake of Les Paul and Mary Ford’s “How High The Moon” are nothing short of technically and musically amazing.
“For the more current things we’ve done everything was shot on an I-Phone in front of a green screen,” says Bailin. “Our last few videos took more of a jazzier direction. People that have seen two or three of our videos wonder what we were doing. We’re doing so many different styles. What is the connecting fiber? But there is a connection to it all, and that’s our writing and video style.”
January 4th, 1951 was the date that guitar legend Les Paul and his vocalist wife Mary Ford shook up the recording and the pop music world, with their magnificent cover of the standard “How High the Moon.” The equally accomplished Bailin and Waller attempted to recreate a letter perfect version of this memorable classic and nailed it cold. It is their piece de resistance in a career that just keeps moving forward.
How High the Moon
“I was always fascinated with the ingenious method Les Paul had come up with in his invention of sound on sound tape recording,” explains Bailin about the song that inspired them. “He and Mary Ford recorded ‘How High the Moon’ in their Queens apartment in 1951. Twelve takes—each one performed straight through onto a one track tape recorder (that he modified) and merged with each proceeding take. The record spent nine weeks at #1 on the Billboard chart. This is our homage to this historic recording by the duo, and to Les Paul who is commonly referred to as ‘the inventor of sound-on-sound recording.’ His influences continue to define how popular music is performed and recorded to this day. We did the audio recording and shot the video in our apartment and went all out to mirror the guitar and vocal takes of their original record. It’s our own idea of what Les and Mary might have come up with if they’d had the kind of technology we do now. We like to think of them both getting a kick out of seeing it, should they be looking down from above.”
