Little Old Lady (From Pasadena), The - Jan & Dean (cover-live by Bill Sharkey)

The Little Old Lady (From Pasadena) (Jan & Dean, 1964). Live cover performance by Bill Sharkey, Home Studio, Hawaii Kai, HI. 2022-07-04. "Keeping the Oldies Alive"

"The Little Old Lady (From Pasadena)," written by Don Altfeld and Roger Christian, was Jan & Dean's last top 10 single rising to the no. 3 position on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1964 (Whitburn, 2013). "Jan & Dean are justifiably thought of as the best vocal surf/hot rod act besides the Beach Boys" (R. Unterberger, allmusic, 2022).In fact, they sounded so much alike people often confused the two groups recordings. It's not surprising that both groups influenced each other's early recordings; they were friends and they actually performed on some of each other's tracks (e.g., Dean Torrence and Brian Wilson both sang lead on the Beach Boys' cover of the Regents' "Barbara Ann," they covered each other's songs, Brian Wilson wrote Jan & Dean's only no. 1 song "Surf City" (T. Lohr, spinditty, 19 Oct., 2021). According to Frank Mastropolo (medium, 20 Jul., 2021), "Don Altfeld was cruising in his Corvette down LA’s Colorado Boulevard towards Pasadena. . . . and had a vision that night of an elderly grandmother tooling down the strip in a yellow 1932 Ford coupe. . . . The next day he’s sitting in Bacteriology class. He scribbles down ‘The Little Old Lady from Pasadena’ as a song idea and starts writing lyrics in the margins of his notes. Don calls [his] friend and lyricist Roger Christian [who gets together with Don] and they collaborate on the ‘Little Old Lady’ idea. In about three days they have a complete version of the song.”

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Lyrics:

It's the little old lady from Pasadena

The little old lady from Pasadena
(Go granny, go granny, go granny, go)
Has a pretty little flowerbed of white gardenias
(Go granny, go granny, go granny, go)
But parked in a rickety old garage
There's a brand new shiny super-stocked Dodge

And everybody's sayin' that there's nobody meaner than
The little old lady from Pasadena
She drives real fast and she drives real hard
She's the terror of Colorado boulevard
It's the little old lady from Pasadena

If you see her on the strip, don't try to choose her
(Go granny, go granny, go granny, go)
You might drive a go-er, but you'll never lose her
(Go granny, go granny, go granny, go)
Well, she's gonna get a ticket now, sooner or later
'Cause she can't keep her foot off the accelerator

And everybody's sayin' that there's nobody meaner than
The Little Old Lady From Pasadena
She drives real fast and she drives real hard
She's the terror of Colorado Boulevard
It's the little old lady from Pasadena

You can catch her all the time, just gettin' her kicks now
(Go granny, go granny, go granny, go)
With her four speed stick and a four-two-six now
(Go granny, go granny, go granny, go)
The guys come to race her from miles around
But she'll give 'em a length, then she'll shut 'em down

And everybody's sayin' that there's nobody meaner than
The little old lady from Pasadena
She drives real fast and she drives real hard
She's the terror of Colorado boulevard
It's the little old lady from Pasadena

Go granny, go granny, go granny, go (come on granny, go)
Go granny, go granny, go granny, go (come on granny, go)
Go granny, go granny, go granny, go (come on granny, go)
Go granny, go granny, go granny, go (come on granny, go)
Go granny, go granny, go granny, go (come on granny, go)
Go granny, go granny, go granny, go (come on granny, go)
Go granny, go granny, go granny, go (come on granny, go)