Today's Video Link

I always liked the 1965 pop song, "Cara Mia" as recorded by Jay and the Americans. If you don't remember it, I'll refresh your memory. Here's that group performing it that year on the ABC teen music show, Shindig

Okay now. The gentleman singing lead on this number is Jay Black, who'd changed his name from David Blatt when he joined the group. He was the second Jay in Jay and the Americans, having replaced the first guy (John "Jay" Traynor) in 1962. Bookings for the group declined in the early seventies and they went on to solo careers, reuniting occasionally for oldie shows. Around the turn of this century, they made a couple of memorable appearances on "oldies" specials and the clip below is them doing "Cara Mia" on one such program.

I think this is a great musical moment. Black's voice was obviously not what it once was but this is a very difficult song and it's amazing that, 35 or so years later, he sounded as good as he did. The crowd obviously recognized the feat they were hearing and responded accordingly…

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In case you're interested, a group still tours by that name but it features a third Jay — John "Jay" Reincke. Black somehow wound up with ownership of the group's name but lost it in a 2006 bankruptcy filing. Some of the other members of the original group bought it and brought in Reincke and now they tour as Jay and the Americans while Jay Black tours with his own band and (I assume) sings a lot of the same tunes. Jay and the Americans had a stunning 21 records on the charts, including several Number Ones, so there's a lot of good material there to perform…enough for at least two Jays and maybe more.