Jay and the Americans
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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.

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