SOUTH ORANGE — Not too many musical groups can say they still perform with most of their original members, 50 years after the height of their success. Then again, not too many groups can say they played with the Beatles and the Rolling Stones during their first American tours or sang the first popular song Neil Diamond ever wrote either.
But Jay and the Americans can stake those claims, demonstrating just how special the band’s career has been. Decades after rising to fame with hits such as “This Magic Moment,” “Cara Mia” and “She Cried” in the 1960s, the singing act is still going strong with three original members. And on Saturday, Dec. 27, Sandy Deanne, Howie Kane, Marty Sanders and Jay Reincke — who is actually the third lead vocalist to take up the “Jay” mantle — will perform their music at the South Orange Performing Arts Center.
According to Deanne, the reason Jay and the Americans members still work well together is due to the fact that they are more than a musical act — they are the best of friends. In fact, he said he has known Kane since they were babies, and Sanders since they were teenagers growing up in Brooklyn. With all of that history between them, he said it is easy to connect, which is highly beneficial when performing.
“When you are a kid, you are much more open,” Deanne told the News-Record in a phone interview on Friday, Dec. 12. “And when you play stickball and baseball and whatever other sport you play in the streets growing up, that is a bonding experience. We went to school together. We dated together. That all bonded us as people, and that makes for a cohesive unit. We can look at each other now and almost know what the other guy is thinking.”
Of course, that closeness might be unsettling for a new singer coming into the group, as Reincke did in 2006.
Indeed, Deanne said there was an adjustment period while the new version of Jay and the Americans learned to perform together. But Deanne said Reincke has become a “baby brother” to them in the past few years and certainly an accepted member of the group.
More than that, Deanne said Reincke has proven he has the talent to live up to his predecessors, Jay Traynor and Jay Black.
“Our group has always been known to have a big, powerful lead singer, and that is what we have got now,” Deanne said. “His job is actually harder because, when we go out there, a lot of our fans say ‘The first guy made hits and the second guy made hits and now this guy, we do not even know if he can hit those notes.’ So he’s got to prove himself, and he has been proving it for eight years, because we have been selling out places and getting standing ovations. So I do not think it is an issue anymore.”
“He has been accepted by not only us, but he is being accepted by our fans and the people in the buildings that we play with, which is the biggest compliment,” Deanne added.
How Reincke joined the group also explains why Jay and the Americans decided to reform in the first place. After the group disbanded in 1974, Black — the second and best-known Jay — continued to perform using the name, until bankruptcy forced him to sell it in 2006. On hearing the name was up for grabs, Deanne bid $100,000 and won the auction after another bidder backed out. Out of curiosity Deanne, Kane and Sanders decided to track down the other bidder, who turned out to be Reincke, a Chicago musician who had been performing Jay and the Americans hits locally for more than 30 years.
In the end, Deanne, Kane and Sanders decided to reunite with Reincke as their lead singer and have not looked back. Deanne said he also still keeps in touch with Kenny Vance, another original member from the group’s 1960s run and who now tours with his own group, Kenny Vance and the Planotones. Traynor, the first Jay, died of liver cancer in January.
And though Jay and the Americans are years removed from their time performing on “The Tonight Show” and playing at Madison Square Garden, Deanne said their music still holds up. Indeed, many of their songs are today considered standards, and he can understand why.
“The lyrics are meaningful and the melodies are pretty,” Deanne said. “You cannot have a hit record or a career if you do not have something that people can walk away remembering, whether it is the melody or the emotion of the lyrics, and that is what we do best. People always say to me, ‘Gee, it is wonderful that, with your songs, you can understand every word and you walk away singing the melody.’ And I think that is the magic of the music of our era.”
But the hits of Jay and the Americans would not still be successful without the support from the fans, Deanne said, which is why it is important to the group to give back to those who have listened to them through the years. As a result, they have been appearing at venues large and small in as many places as possible.
And Deanne is loving every minute of it.
“It is really not about money; it is more about enjoying what we do,” Deanne said. “There is no record company giving us pressure. We do not have to record songs we do not want to. We do not have to make a single that the record company likes. It is all about what we want to do and giving back to all of our fans by going to places we have not played before and making new (compact discs). It is a wonderful time of life for us. It is the back nine and we are doing what we love.”
To purchase tickets to Jay and the Americans on Saturday, Dec. 27, call 973-313-2787 or visit http://www.sopacnow.
org/516/JayandtheAmericans.