JAY AND THE AMERICANS – Wax Museum – (United Artists) – 1970

I am going to use a lot of shorthand here and copy what I said back in "What Frank is Listening to #77" and elsewhere 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 Yorks 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 next to last album and the exquisite pop symphonies they had created in the early to mid 1960s were definitely out of place in 1970. Their audience would have been middle-America not happy with psychedelica, hard rock, singer-songwriter, country rock or the various other music cross breeds that were being churned out at the end of the 60s and early 70s.

This album reflects that move to MOR, though there was always a danger their albums could be MOR as they had certainly flirted with the safe and predictable in the past. Certainly, this album is as "safe and predictable" as they come – it is an album of covers of big pop hits. I suppose it sounds funny to refer to an album of "covers" from a band who never wrote any material, but their earlier albums had tracks specifically written for them with the odd cover thrown in. So, here,  I assume they were trying to give their audience something familiar … I also suspect they were finding it harder to get good quality material written for them now that they were not as big as they once were.

Having said that I have no problems with a "covers" album as long as it hits the mark. The trouble is that in 1969 Jay & the Americans released a good album of covers, "Sands of Time", which hit the aforesaid "mark". Unfortunately, they perhaps used up all the good songs they knew on that one. That album had done pretty well (#51, which is actually their highest album placing) and the single from it, "This Magic Moment", went to #6.

It would have made perfect sense to follow it up with more of the same but the results didn't follow..

Whereas "Sands of Time" bridged nicely their beautiful pop of the early 60s with late 60s pop excesses this album veers more to cabaret and MOR.

That's not to say it isn't well sung, it is, but apart from a few tracks it is not particularly distinctive or inspired. Apparently the band complained that United Artists released the album before they could lay down the finished tracks and these are only "reference vocals".

The Tracks (the best in italics)

• Walkin' in the Rain – Mann, Spector, Weil –  co- written by maverick genius Phil Spector and an excellent cover of the Ronnettes 1964 hit. It went to a respectable #19 on the US singles charts for Jay et al.

• Lover's Question  – Benton, Williams –  the Brook Benton track … nothing added to the original.

• Message to Martha (Kentucky Bluebird)  – Bacharach, David –  as recorded by Jerry Butler in 1963.

• Room Full of Tears  –P omus, Shuman – The old Drifters classic and very much in the Pomus and Shuman style – Elvis recorded a truck load of their songs in the 60s and this could have been one of them …

• Let It Be Me – Becaud, Curtis, Delanoe – the oft covered big ballad – Elvis, Everly Brothers etc … maudlin, emotional and hopelessly romanti, but it works.

• Lonely Teardrops – Carlo, Fuqua, Gordy – the Jackie Wilson classic which would be very hard to top even if the whole point of the song wasn't missed. The song is turned into pure cabaret and is probably the least satisfying cover on the album.

• Do I Love You? – Andreoli, Poncia, Spector – another Ronettes track and above average.

• I Don't Want to Cry – Dixon, Jackson – Chuck Jackson's 1961 hit.

• Some Kind of Wonderful – Goffin, King – another Drifters classic and another track that misses the mark.

• You Were on My Mind  – Fricker – the Ian & Sylvia folk song from 1964 … though "We Five" had a hit with it in 1965 (#1 US). Jay et al harmonies work for this type of song.

• Johnny B. Goode – Berry– at first I thought how does this rock 'n' roll classic fit in … Jay et al have slowed it down and made it fit in . Having said that it doesn't do anything for the song.

• This Is My Love  – Smith – a 50s song by Brooklyn doo-wop band The Passions. Pretty, though very cabaret and very MOR.

And …

Walkin' in the Rain

attached

Lover's Question 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBQmBi326Jk

Let It Be Me 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wU_zPTPidg

oldies cabaret style (I'd go see them at the RSL)

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

Lonely Teardrops 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7caIFsDtt0

Some Kind of Wonderful 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMG7peZzKNQ

You Were on My Mind 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-ceCwjRTVw

Bio

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

Website

http://www.jayandtheamericans.net/

Further Research:

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.

Other Comments

what Frank is listening to #123

what Frank is listening to #77    

(originally posted: 26/12/2009)