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3 unusual facts about Jay and the Americans


Getting Together

Sherman and Stern's characters were reportedly based on the real-life songwriting team of Boyce and Hart, who had written hits for The Monkees ("Last Train to Clarksville", "Valleri"), Jay and the Americans ("Come a Little Bit Closer"), and others.

The Americans

Jay and the Americans, American pop music group popular during the 1960s

The Mystics

When Paul Simon left the group to pursue other projects, The Mystics chose John "Jay" Traynor, who later went on to form Jay and the Americans.


Crow Jane Alley

His renditions of Bryan Ferry's "Slave to Love" and Jay and the Americans' "Come a Little Bit Closer" bring their own drama and gravity to the material, while such homemade numbers as the convincingly authentic mojo-wielding "Muddy Waters Rose Out of the Mississippi Mud," the surging "Right There, Right Then" and the rustic waltztime "(Don't Have a) Change of Heart" are small strokes of heartfelt majesty.


see also

Jay Black

Jay Black was the second, and more widely known Jay to lead the band Jay and the Americans, the first being Jay Traynor.