Nine months before "Cherry Cherry" would launch the career of
Neil Diamond as a singer, he had his first Top 20 chart record as a songwriter, "Sunday and Me," the leadoff track to
Jay & the Americans' album of the same name. Continuing with the Spanish-flavored sound found on 1964's "Come a Little Bit Closer" and 1965's "Cara Mia," the light pop comes in with flamenco guitar,
Jay Black's familiar voice, and bullfight trumpets. "Granada" also features old-world instrumentation and
Black emulating an operatic
Mario Lanza more than the teen idol sound of the day.
Jay & the Americans were a talented bunch,
Kenny Vance and Marty Kupersmith (listed as
Marty Sanders here) adding much to the mix, though the vocal harmonies are never as dense as their contemporaries,
the Four Seasons. Just listen to how
Vance, Kupersmith, Sandy Deane, and Howie Kane embellish
Jay's voice on their Top 25 version of
Roy Orbison's "Crying." The two tunes that hit from this 12-song collection did so between December of 1965 and June of 1966, part of ten Top 40 entries by the group from 1962-1970. Standards like
Carl Sigman's "'Til" and
Stephen Sondheim's "Maria" display a vocal prowess that
Gary Puckett would also bring to radio beginning a couple of years after this.
Classics IV producer
Buddy Buie contributes "I Miss You (When I Kiss You)," while a J. Phillips/J. Stewart title, "Chilly Winds" -- sounding like a country predecessor to
Fred Neil's "Everybody's Talking" -- is also included,
Black's voice dominating while the doo wop sound is kept to a minimum.
Jay runs through
the Rascals' "Good Lovin'" and it's fun, though
Gerry Granahan's production hardly gives the song the definition
Felix Cavaliere and company invented to give that group their first number one hit with the same title three months after "Sunday and Me" would hit the Top 20.
Artie Butler's arrangement is as thin as
Granahan's production, lacking the intensity of
the Rascals' pop explosion. The paradox of
Jay & the Americans can be found back-to-back in their excellent rendition of
Wes Farrell's "Why Can't You Bring Me Home" -- which sounds a bit like
the Crystals' 1963 hit "Then He Kissed Me" in both opening riff and melody of the verse -- and
Stephen Sondheim's aforementioned show tune classic "Maria." The group dips into different musical bags -- current pop, doo wop, Spanish folk, show tunes --
Artie Butler working on seven of the arrangements,
Arnold Goland the other five.
Butler's impressive reworking of
Roy Orbison's "Crying" hit the Top 25 in June of 1966, though it wasn't as successful as
Orbison's own huge rendition from five years earlier or
Don McLean's Top Five showing 15 years after.
Jay Black and Sandy Deane co-write a sequel of sorts, "Baby Stop Your Crying," while
Kenny Vance and
Marty Sanders close out the disc with their "She's the Girl (That's Messin' Up My Mind," boldly displaying the music that pair likes to listen to. ~ Joe Viglione