 Jay & the Americans are a throwback to a previous
era. Built around the neck-bulging upper-register vocals of David Blatt aka Jay
Black, their biggest hits - "She Cried," "Cara Mia", "Come a Little Bit Closer,"
and "Let's Lock the Door (And Throw Away the Key)" - come off as sort of hit
parade versions of West Side Story. In a sense, Jay & the Americans are the
original "oldies" act - organized at the transition of the 1950s into the 1960s,
sounding like a throwback to that earlier decade, at a time when harmony vocal
groups - at least those without some guitar wattage accompanying them - were
already becoming old hat. Yet, somehow, they competed with the likes of the
Beach Boys, Jan & Dean, and the Four Seasons, among homegrown rivals, and
remained a major presence on radio even during the British Invasion, and lasted
long enough to meet up - like a glider catching a brisk, sustaining wind - with
the oldies boom at the tail end of the decade.
The group's first two singles disappeared without a trace in early 1963, but in
July of that year, they roared up the charts with a single called "Only in
America" to number 25 on the charts. In the summer of 1964 they were back in the
Top Ten with "Come a Little Bit Closer." They followed it up with "Let's Lock
the Door (And Throw Away the Key)" that peaked at number 11. And then came "Cara
Mia" - one of those odd pop/rock songs displaying an operatic intensity,
completely different from their recent hits. The follow-up single, "Some
Enchanted Evening," reached number 13 in the fall of 1965. The hits slackened
off somewhat in 1966 and 1967, as "Sunday and Me," released late in 1965, peaked
at number 18. Jay & the Americans returned to the charts late in 1968 and the
first half of 1969, when they adopted a new strategy. Instead of trying to
assimilate psychedelia and other contemporary sounds, they turned back to the
songs that they'd known in the 1950s and early 1960s. The resulting album, Sands
of Time, was accompanied by "This Magic Moment," a number six hit . Two more
singles, "Hushabye" and "When You Dance," lit up the airwaves.
Jay & the Americans found that audience, and never lost it. Sands of Time was a
confirmed hit as an LP, and was followed up with Wax Museum, which yielded a hit
in the form of the Phil Spector co-authored "Walkin' in the Rain."
Since then, Jay Black and the Americans has released more material and, more
importantly, is still a big draw on the road.
|
