Early years Jay and the Americans had its roots in a vocal group called The Harborlites, which was formed in 1959 in
Belle Harbor, Queens by Kenneth Rosenberg (who adopted the stage name
Kenny Vance), Louis Sandy Yaguda (who adopted the stage name
Sandy Deanne), Sydelle Sherman, Gail Sherman, Ritchie Graff, and Linda Kahn. After a failed audition for Stan Feldman, co-owner of Ivy Records, Gail Sherman, Graff, and Kahn all left The Harborlites. The remaining three members worked on their sound, re-auditioned for Feldman, and this time won a recording contract. Specifically, Leiber and Stoller chose Binky Jones and the Americans, which the group tweaked to Jay and the Americans. A follow-up album,
Wax Museum, in January 1970, yielded the No. 19 hit single "
Walkin' In The Rain", first recorded by
The Ronettes. Becker and Fagen also contributed string and horn arrangements to the Jay and the Americans albums
Sands of Time,
Wax Museum, and
Capture the Moment (released in 1970). Becker and Fagen were signed with JATA Enterprises as songwriters by Vance, but Vance had difficulty finding labels interested in their songs, so he gave them the touring and arrangement jobs to secure them steady paychecks. using a variety of musicians. The original version of "Cara Mia" went to No. 1 in the Netherlands when it was re-released in 1980. In 1991, EMI released songs from their catalog on CD for the first time with the compilation album
Come A Little Bit Closer. In 2001, Jay Black was featured in the
PBS special
Rock, Rhythm, and Doo Wop as "Jay Black & The Americans".
Sale of the band name and reunion (2006-present) (August 2008) L-R Sandy Deanne, Jay Reincke, Marty Sanders, Howie Kane. In 2006, Jay Black filed for bankruptcy due to gambling debts, and his ownership of the name "Jay & The Americans" was sold by the bankruptcy trustee to Sandy Deanne for $100,000. With the name purchase, former members Deanne, Howard Kane, and Marty Sanders reunited, and recruited a sound-alike singer from Chicago, coincidentally nicknamed "Jay." Thus, John "Jay" Reincke became the third "Jay" and the band returned to playing both national and international music venues. Since reuniting, the band performs an "average [of] between forty-five and sixty shows per year" in the U.S., Canada, and the Caribbean, according to Rick van Horn, a former contributor to
Modern Drummer magazine, who has been the band's touring drummer since 2008 (and who has since become the group's manager and road manager). In 2009, the reunited group released a new single, the
Christmas song "Christmas in America". In 2010, they released two studio albums, '' 'Til The End of Time
and Sweeter Than Wine
, their first (studio albums) since 1970. Another studio album, Keepin' the Music Alive
, followed in 2011. They released their most recent studio album, titled 45 RPM'', in 2015. Until 2017, David Blatt continued to tour under his stage name, "Jay Black," he continued to perform until 2017. Kenny Vance is the lead singer of
Kenny Vance and the Planotones, a neo-
doo wop band that he formed in the 1970s (who are best known for their song "Looking for an Echo"). Vance did not rejoin the group when they reunited in 2006. After leaving the group, John Traynor recorded a handful of songs on the Coral label, including "I Rise, I Fall" in 1964. None were hits, but "I Rise, I Fall" became a minor hit for
Johnny Tillotson. The label billed Traynor as "JAY formerly of Jay and the Americans." Traynor toured with Jay Siegel's
Tokens until shortly before his death on January 2, 2014. Black died on October 22, 2021, from complications of pneumonia and dementia. In a statement, Jay and the Americans acknowledged that Black and the rest of the group had experienced "both wonderful and very contentious times" but that they respected the success that they achieved with Black as their lead singer. Marty Sanders has missed some performances in 2024 and 2025; ==Awards and recognition==