JAY AND THE AMERICANS - Try Some of This - (United Artists) - 1967, Leiber & Stoller, Brill Building.

what Frank is listening to #77 – JAY AND THE AMERICANS – Try Some of This – (United Artists) – 1967

A great underrated US pop band from the 1960s. It baffles me why pop groups like Jay and the Americans, Gary Lewis and the Playboys, Dino, Desi and Billy and 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) .

In any event, in 1967 with 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.

Some bio: 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 notched up four 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. So, I urge you to forget the rock operas of the 70s as there is much more rock "opera" in any two minutes of Jay and The Americans or The Four Seasons.

Generally with a band like this the vocals have to be superior and the music has to be lavishly produced, and this LP reflects that exactly. Importantly, the singles are usually tailor made for the band but the albums succeed or die according to the strength of the covers chosen. The covers here are well chosen and tasteful, with Brill building material, folk, and of course a Beatles tune.

This album is solid, enjoyable and concistently exciting.

The album is produced by number of producers – those supplying songs produce their own tracks (Leiber and Stoller, Jeff Barry) whilst Arnold Goland, and Bob Feldman produce the rest. The multiple producers haven't affected the sound of the album adversely – it could all have been produced by one person – which would lead me to believe that there was a formula and producers just did whatever they wanted to do within the set parameters.

the songs are very "street" (well a New York 60s street from "West Side Story");
they have a concise narrative (any number of these tracks could have ended up on a Broadway show such are the narrative skills of the songwriters);
usually both sides of the narrative are explained, and;
the instrumentation accentuates the mood of the narrator

…. so you can enjoy the venacular, the story and the music.

It's easy to scoff but isn't this what Brian Wilson was doing at the same time though in in a more contemporary musical setting? Admittedly, he also found it hard to find an audience for his multi-layered and complex pop masterpieces ("Friends" – 1968, "20/20" – 1969, "Sunflower" – 1970, "Surfs Up" – 1971 are LP masterpieces that barely made a dent in the charts) … OK , I don't mean to compare Jay and the Americans to late 60s Beach Boys but they were barking up the same tree – albeit one was a palm in California and the other a elm in New York. (Scott Walker was also barking up the same tree though again with more critical acclaim).

Seriously, if you follow the line then The Flaming Lips "The Soft Bulletin" or "Yoshimi" is not too far removed from this.

Musically this album leans to "folk music" popular at the time but it is pop, "folk pop" perhaps … and there is a lot going on in there, well, more than meets the eye.

The Tracks: (the best ones are ***):

You Ain't as Hip as All That Baby*** – Jeff Barry – (3:05) – a great song – one of the best tracks on the album. More than a touch of Orbison drama and teen opera.
(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me*** – Burt Bacharach, Hal David – (2:38) – always a classic song.
Where's the Girl ***- Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller -(2:30) – great lyrics…."the canary stopped singing the moment she walked out the door" .. ha, great!
The Show Must Go On – Jeff Barry – (2:02) – another teen opera.
Truly Julie's Blues*** – Bob Lind – (2:58) – Bob Lind put out a couple of killer folk rock albums in the mid 60s and this is one of his tracks. Here Jay et al have emphasised the melody over the lyric and create a nice piece of aforementioned "folk pop" .
Where Is the Village – Traditional – (3:16) – a strange traditional … yiddish(?) folk pop?
Nature Boy – Eden Ahbez – (2:40) – a good up-tempo version of the oft recorded song – Nat King Cole, Roy Hamilton etc.
Here, There and Everywhere*** – John Lennon, Paul McCartney – (2:44) – Lennon/McCartney certainly could have had careers as songwriters if they couldn't sing (derr). A good slightly Broadway-esque performance. Again, a hint of Roy Orbison.
(He') Raining in My Sunshine ***- G. Allen, Ron Dante -(2:56) – Ron Dante (the voice of the Archies) co-wrote this semi operatic baroque-y tune about a love that is stolen. Excellent! For everyone who's had some cuntstick steal his chick.
What to Do With Laurie – Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller – (2:31) – a very strange Leiber -Stoller track. Like a soliloquy from a Broadway musical.
It's a Big Wide Wonderful World ***- John Rox – (2:06) – an old standard … and it must have been an intentional way to end the album – a slice of (intentional) optimism at the height of Vietnam…. or irony? Either way it works. Thematically and in mood it bears a passing resemblance to Elvis' "Wonderful World" from 1968 (which must have been lifted from this old standard and which was written by a couple of Englishmen for Cliff Richard as his entry for contention to represent the UK in the Eurovision. How Elvis heard it I don't know but he liked it enough to record it).

On first blush it seems Jay and the Americans are the 1960s equivalent of the "boy band" of today but that would be wrong, and anyway as I have said in the past … if you are going to pick MOR pop to listen to … pick it from the 60s.

I'm a keeping this.

Sounds:

someone has uploaded most of the tracks … good on 'em … though most of the associated video clips are bad.

You Ain't as Hip as All That Baby

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uf5E_88wlto
(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGDq-8YOBFw
Where's the Girl

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mJFO2nEeoc
The Show Must Go On

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbkMz9bKCiI
Truly Julie's Blues

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nrEIFLiRzU
Where Is the Village

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caqx42rWok8
Nature Boy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYYsA-CZlJI
Here, There and Everywhere

attached – probably got into copyright problems with this Beatles classic – for Phil