Sandy Yaguda, better known as
Sandy Deanne, had no way of knowing that assembling a group of high school
friends in the basement of his Brooklyn home over fifty years ago would become
a lifetime career move. He admits,
“I had no big plans back then. I
got a bunch of kids from Brooklyn together who wanted to hear themselves on the
radio, to brag about how good we were.
We got lucky then and we’re even luckier now.”
Since that fateful day, the
group has had more turns and twists, more downs and ups, than a Coney Island
roller coaster. They started out
as the Harbor Lites, were almost named Blinky Jones and the Americans, before
being labeled Jay and the Americans for eternity.
Today this rock and roll
band, who were inducted into the Vocal Hall of Fame in 2002, has undergone
several metamorpheses. They are on Jay #3 now and, with a resurgence in
popularity, they couldn’t be happier. According to Sandy, “we don’t look old. We’re healthy and full of vitality so
it’s like Woodstock every night.
It’s a love fest, except traveling was a lot easier when we were 20.”
The original members include
Sandy with his buddies Howard (Kirschbaum) Kane and Kenny (Rosenberg) Vance,
and later Marty (Kupersmith) Sanders, began life with John “Jay” Traynor as Jay
#1 and then replaced him with David Blatt, Jay #2, aka Jay Black,when John Traynor opted for
a solo career. Jay #2 had gambling
issues and when the courts demanded he sell the group’s name to raise funds,
Sandy and his son, paid $100,000 for a wild bid for a piece of immortality.
While Sandy admits it was
hard “to buy something that we originally invented for free, we did it to
protect the name. We had no plans
to use it, we just didn’t want four 21 year olds to steal our heritage.” He says “it would have given me
hives.” The original group had had
other lives for the thirty-five years they weren’t performing, from 1974 to
2005. While his son cautioned him
to be careful what you wish for, the urge to start performing again came with
the possession of the name.
Ironically the only other
bidder for the name was a guy from Chicago who had been performing their music
for three decades. He lost his bid because Illinois laws prohibited someone who
was not an original member from buying it. When Sandy called him out of the
blue, a date was set to hear him sing and the fact that his name was Jay, Jay
Reincke, seemed like an omen. This
Jay, Jay #3, had first heard their music when he was in sixth grade and now
can’t believe he is on stage, with the original guys, crooning away. To Sandy, he is the best Jay ever.
To hear Jay Reincke and the
Americans, with Sandy Deanne, Marty Saunders and Howie Kane, head over to the
Downtown Cabaret Theatre, 263 Golden Hill Street, Bridgeport, (exit 27A off
I-95, to exit 2) on Saturday, June 2 at 5 p.m. or 8 p.m. For tickets ($39 and 59), call the
cabaret at 203-576-1636 or go online at www.downtowncabaret.org. Remember to bring snacks to share at
your table.
Come listen to their hits
like “She Cried,” “Tonight” from West Side Story, “Come a Little Bit Closer,” “Cara Mia,” “This Magic
Moment,” “Only in America” and “Little Senorita.” Sandy Deanne is quick to credit the song writing team and
record producers of Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller for getting them started on
the right path. “They were the
masters and we studied at their feet.
They were before Motown and we were the first white act they
managed. It was a magic storm and
they liked us because we were a little bit of soul.” To Sandy, they were “the Harvard College of Rock and Roll
who knew the formula to make a song work.”
As for the people who flock
to hear them today, Sandy says they are great people, their original fans,
their kids and their grandkids, who bop and sing in the aisles. The veterans who confess that the music
got them through hard times in war, the folks who say they named their children
after their songs and the 93 year old woman with a walker who told them”you
made me feel young again,” will guarantee these guys will be singing “until we
need red, white and blue oxygen tanks.” They don’t do it for the money. They do it for the “love, gratitude and
thank yous from our fans and because singing is a joy.”
Come to the Downtown Cabaret
Theatre of Bridgeport on Saturday, June 2 when Jay Reincke and the Americans,
better known as the Rip Van Winkles of Rock and Roll, perform a multitude of
magic moments.
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