Number 9? Number 9? Number 9?
I saw him in 2012 St Pete..great show..and his voice was still magnificent..he looked healthy.
What is it about 2014 seems that famous people have been dropping like flies these past few days
Come A Little Bit Closer & Pretty Woman were out at the same time. I imagined PW is be a hot Latin female “walking down the street,” no doubt influenced by the two timing senorita of CALBC
His real name wasn’t Jay, actually, but K.
(Is he the second of today’s deathly trio?!)
I will be 60 this month, so 69, and Phil Everly’s 74, seem too young to me.........
Phil - US Marine
Jay - Us Marine
Guard those streets of gold, marines! Then again, He’ll probably ask you to sing with the Heavenly Choir.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Traynor
John “Jay” Traynor (March 30, 1943 – January 2, 2014) was an American singer. He was the third lead vocalist of the Mystics, singing falsetto on “The White Cliffs of Dover” and lead on “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” and “Blue Star”. Later, he started Jay and the Americans with Kenny Vance and Sandy Yaguda, and was the original lead singer. He sang lead on the Americans’ first hit, “She Cried,” which was followed up by the LP, She Cried. All recordings were produced by Jerry Leiber & Mike Stoller, who produced numerous artists and wrote many hits for Elvis Presley, the Drifters, the Coasters, and many more.
Traynor left the Americans, releasing solo records, including “I Rise, I Fall” on the Coral label in 1964. His name on the label was denoted as “JAY ... formerly of Jay & the Americans”.[1] Later in the ‘60s, he released “Up & Over”, produced by Dennis Lambert for Don Costa Productions. The song became a big hit with the UK “Northern Soul” underground dance clubs. Traynor was replaced in the Americans by David Blatt, who agreed to perform under the stage name Jay Black. After working for Woodstock Ventures, the company that put on the “Woodstock” festival, Traynor then began a career working behind the scenes with many ‘70s acts (Mountain, West, Bruce & Laing, The Who, Ten Years After, Yes, and gospel singer Mylon LeFevre).
In 1977 Traynor moved to Albany, New York, near his roots in Greenville and worked at WNYT as a studio camera operator. He then performed with cover bands (George and “Friends”), jazz trios, and finally as the male singer with the Joey Thomas Big Band, where his love for Frank Sinatra’s music began. The Big Band put out a few CDs with Traynor, including Live On WAMC & The Sinatra Show. In 2006, Traynor received a call from Jay Siegel, and he toured with Jay Siegel’s Tokens for the remainder of his life.
Just yesterday, we lost one of The Righteous Brothers to Rock & Roll Heaven. We just recently lost Lou Reed who took a walk on the wild side and never returned. Dan Fogelberg will never warble "That Old Lang Syne" again in which the snow turned to rain after drinking a six-pack in his car after meeting an old flame.
Ray Manzarek of The Doors has joined the Lizard King and will never make that creepy organ music again. The one dude who played in for that rock band whose name I can't remember right now is also gone, gone, gone.
John Stewart, who had that big hit song "Gold" is now gone with the "Midnight Wind." Bob Welch who gave us "Ebony Eyes" is also no longer with us. Even Donna Summer, queen of disco, has now gone to the great disco in the sky. Speaking of disco, the one guy who killed disco back in 1979 with his "My Sharona" is also gone - Doug Fieder of The Knack. And the list goes on and on and on.
Half the Beatles and 2/3 of the BeeGees dead dead dead. Andy Gibb too. Davy Jones of the Monkees is now in, well, Davy Jones' locker. So is Gerry Rafferty and Malcolm McLaren, manager of the Sex Pistols. One of the Beastie Boys is now dead and so is Joe Strummer and Joey Ramone.
And the list of the rock music dead goes on and on. Al Wilson, Wilson Pickett, Andrew Gold, Warren Zevon, Juice Newton, Laura Branigan, Clarence Clemons all gone, gone, gone.
I can keep going but I think I made my point. We are very quickly running out of musicians and soon there will be no more music being made unless we find a way to make all these deaths STOP!
RIP and thanks for the music.
RIP.
Only in America--Jay & the Americans (1963)
That magic moment
I sure skated around the rink to that one....they always played that when it was ladies choice.....
And the same redhead always asked me....and I went to be polite...God love her
When Gary Puckett goes...alas...or Grass Roots....or BJ Thomas...
To come of age in the late 60s....it was wonderful
R.I.P. What a glorious voice he had!!!