JAY AND THE AMERICANS – Come a Little Bit Closer- (United Artists) – 1964

I am going to use a lot of shorthand here and copy what I said back in "What Frank is Listening to #77" in relation to the magnificent Jay & The Americans album "Try Some of This":

A great underrated US pop band from the 60s. It baffles me that pop groups like Jay and the Americans, Gary Lewis and the Playboys, Dino, Desi and Billy, The Four Seasons,  are often referred to disparagingly whereas all the Merseybeat bands are lauded. When it comes to sublime pop the Brill building  type bands had it all over Merseybeat (with one notable exception) . The trouble is perhaps that in1967, the summer of love, and the evolving psychedelic scene a Spectorsish wall of sound vocal group was "perhaps" dated. I use "perhaps" intentionally because it may have been dated but the music stands up surprising well today especially compared to a lot of the psychedelica or hippy tunes of the day.

New York's Jay and the Americans (John "Jay" Traynor, Howard Kane (né Kirschenbaum), Kenny Vance (né Rosenberg) and Sandy Deanne (né Yaguda)) were discovered by Leiber & Stoller ( of Elvis song writing fame – if you don't know them shame on you) in the late 1950s. They were recording by 1961 and notching up 4 top10 hits, and many top 40s ( they even had a #6 late in the piece in 1969 with the magnificent "This Magic Moment"). Like many other bands of their ilk they were a singles band and never really had much chart action with their albums, which is a pity as the albums are professionally put together and contain many hidden gems.

The group started off as a white doo wop band, heavy on semi operatic teen dramas and laments of unrequited love …. and they never really moved far from that. And there is nothing wrong with that – as the recording techniques improved the sound necessary to create these mini pop operas improved accentuating the drama of the song. Forget the rock operas of the 70s there is much more rock "opera" in any 2 minutes of Jay and The Americans or The Four Seasons .

Generally with a band like this the vocals are always infinitely superior and the music is nothing short of lavishly produced…. Whilst the singles  are usually tailor made for the band, the albums succeed or die according to the strength of the covers chosen.

This is their third album and is sometimes listed as a compilation. It's not really. The album is a collection of all their (then) recent singles wrapped around the title tune that was riding high in the charts. This was not really that unusual for pre-Beach Boys/Beatles artists. In any event all of the songs bar one ("This is It") have the second Jay on vocals (see trivia at end regarding the "Jays") and all the tracks are produced by Leiber & Stoller or for Leiber & Stoller by a staff producer. So there is a consistent sound in there.

Having said that there are individual moments of genius but the album doesn't hold together like some of their later pop rock opera masterpieces. Still, those individual moments are sheer joy … and there is not a track over three minutes.

The Tracks (the best in italics)

• Come A Little Bit Closer – Boyce, Hart, Farrell – one of the best pre-Beatles 60s pop songs … from the faux Latin rhythms down to the narrators pleading of the title this song is a winner. Co–written by the great Boyce & Hart who wrote for The Monkees – classics like "(I'm Not Your) Stepping Stone".

• She Doesn't Know It – Kronfeld, Keller.

• Strangers Tomorrow –  McCoy.

• What's the Use – Meade, Robinson.

• Only in America – Leiber, Stoller, Weil, Mann –  A great song. On face value the song can be taken as an unmitigated statement of faith in America. But Leiber & Stoller, who were always quite cynical, lay it on so thick that it becomes ironic. Initially it was intended to be sung by the Afro–American The Drifters but their version was shelved to avoid controversy. I assume the intent for Leiber, Stoller, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weill was apparently a "straight" protest song. Jay and the Americans version, may be cleaner,"white-er", and more ambiguous but the irony still comes through (though it wasn't always taken that way). For more discussion on the track … http://geocities.com/spectropop/hleiberstoller.html#only

• Look in My Eyes Maria – Bacharach, David – a beautiful mid tempo ballad in the special Burt Bacharach – Hal David way.

• To Wait For Love – Bacharach, David – Very Gene Pitney … but that's not a bad thing.

• Friday – Powers, Greenwich.

• This Is It – Powers, Greenwich.

• Come Dance With Me – Powers, Maurer – reminds me of "Save the Last Dance for Me" but not as distinctive.

• Tomorrow -Daryll, Richards.

• Goodbye Boys Goodbye (Ciao Ragazzi Ciao) – Tepper, Bennett, Mogol, Del Prete, Celentano – A big uptempo ballad obviously aimed at the Italian–American market written by Italians and with English lyrics by Elvis soundtrack songwriters, and experts in this, Tepper and Bennett.

And …

Chart Action

The album peaked at #131 on the US Charts … don't forget they were a singles group.

Sounds

Come A Little Bit Closer 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tM-QsTqPpNE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bu9ZepcV0CM

attached

Only in America
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lc7wVFWGaW8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWrCRPldVZk

Goodbye Boys Goodbye (Ciao Ragazzi Ciao)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPIdCVP_pN4

Others:

Cara Mia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sFy5_kmEi4

Review

 http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:hzfyxqqsldde

Bio

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_and_the_americans

http://www.history-of-rock.com/jay_and_the_americans.htm

Website

http://www.jayandtheamericans.net/

Further Re-search:

Brill Building

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brill_Building

Leiber and Stoller

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leiber_and_Stoller

• The original lead singer of this quintet was John "Jay" Traynor. After he left the group in late 1962, David Blatt assumed the name Jay Black and became the new lead singer. The original band split in 1970. Later on, Jay Black as well as Jay Traynor have travelled with a band of "Americans" due to a court settlement that allows them both to make a living off the name.

(originally posted: 12/12/2009)