Songs that made a difference: Cara Mia by Jay and The Americans. My Father, Paul, was a simple man who worked hard for his family. He was born and lived all his life in Westmount and worked for over 40 years at the Steel Plant in Sydney. Paul had only one obsession that we were all aware of and that was John Wayne cowboy movies. As soon as the latest John Wayne movie hit one of the theatres in Sydney, he made sure that he would be in the audience. The rest of the family including my Mother didn’t share his enthusiasm for the “Duke’s” talents. In July 1965, just after my high school graduation, my Father approached me to take in the latest Wayne cowboy movie, “The Sons of Katie Elder” at the Paramount in Sydney. There were other things I would rather do with my Sunday night, but I felt sorry that he had to enjoy his idol by himself. I agreed to accompany him much to the amusement of my siblings. On the way home, since Dad talked very little, I switched on the car radio, catching part of a song that I never heard before. The melody stuck in my mind and it would be several days before I finally heard the song in its entirety. That mysterious song was, “Jay and the Americans’ “Cara Mia”. At first I thought it was Roy Orbison singing the lead line. Only Orbison had a 1st tenor voice that spanned 2, sometimes 3 octaves. But this wasn’t Roy Orbison. The following day I went to McKnight’s and bought the single so I could listen to the record over and over and pick out the chords and vocal harmony. I brought the song to Jimmy but although he loved the song he found it too much of a challenge for the band at the time and we moved on to other material. Fast forward 34 years into the murky future and the rebirth of the Rockin’ Saints II. I never did lose interest in Cara Mia as a land mark song in a decade of land mark songs; being curious I actively researched the song because I felt it had a rich history….and it did. The song was written by famous Italian composer, orchestra leader and arranger, Mantovani under the “Cara Mia” title which translated to English means “My Beloved”. In 1954, he produced a version with English lyrics for British singer, David Whitfield. The song was a rather sizeable hit on both sides of the Atlantic. The story of its genesis with Jay and The Americans is much more involved. Jay and the Americans were a vocal group from Queens, New York who were lucky enough to be spotted by legendary producers, Leiber and Stoller. The two producers didn’t like the name, Chapter Four; the name the group went by at the time because it sounded too much like a term used in bankrupt proceedings, to them sounded like failure. They gave the group the more patriotic moniker, Jay and the Americans. There were actually two Jays in the group over the 60’s: John “Jay” Traynor and the second David “Jay” Blatt (Last name changed to Black). The first Jay, last name Traynor, sang two hits with the group. “She Cried” and “Dawning” which were top 10 and top 40 respectively. Traynor soon tired of the traveling and internal tension that seemed to be instilled in the group so when he had a chance to work for producer, Phil Spector he jumped ship. The Americans were now Jay-less. This is where destiny took up a seat at the card table. David Blatt, was a shoe salesman who moonlighted in different groups around New York in the late 50’s and early 60’s. David called Kenny Vance, one of the original members, and asked if he could try out for the open spot in the band. When he sat down in Vance’s tiny apartment in Queens that fateful day, the rest of the Americans didn’t know what to expect. As soon as he started singing, the other young men in the room were astounded. Blatt’s voice was operatic in nature, a high melodic 1st tenor that was very similar to super star, Roy Orbison’s tone and range. Blatt brought a song with him that day that he said was his favorite. He put the scratched record on the little turntable and played David Whitfield’s version of “Cara Mia”. He turned to his new friends, “This is a song I have been playing around with for years. If we put a faster beat and do something spectacular with the chorus I believe we would have a big hit.” Marty Sanders, the band’s guitarist and 3rd tenor was openly skeptical. He voiced his opinion immediately, “Man that sounds old fashioned, like something from an opera. Don’t really see it working for us.” The group’s producers, Leiber and Stoller were of a different mind. They felt that the song with a few minor updates would work perfectly. Mike Stoller called Blatt a few days later and asked him to come down to Manhattan to hear the music track they developed. Blatt was astounded; the famous producers opened the track with a bell chime and violins, no drums or other combo instruments. David wasn’t sure how his doo wop buddies would view this classic approach. When the rest of the group heard the music track, they surprisingly fell in line with the producing duo. Over the next 3 days they worked out the complex combination of vocals and music. The finished track was a marvel of combo music base, romantic strings and nicely structured vocal harmonies coupled with Jay Black’s magnificent lead vocal. “Cara Mia” went all the way to #4 on the American charts and that summer the air play on rock radio was overwhelming in spite of Jay holding a high(A) for 5 beats in the end of the chorus. It was and is one of those special songs that transcends the era it came out of; building a history unto itself. As an added footnote, I brought the song into the Rockin’ Saints II with a different arrangement in 1999. We took the song’s key of (D) and changed it down to (A) to accommodate Jimmy Hiscott’s version of a 1st tenor voicing and with 4 strong harmony voices arranged for the “Triad” notes created a suitable rendition of “Cara Mia”. We did the song for 12 years and enjoyed it every time. It was also a crowd pleaser, for “Cara Mia” was and is a song that never gets old. Its age old tale of love’s trials and tribulations will never get passé because young and old still experience those things in everyday life. “Cara Mia”….a song for all time and ages.
Posted on: Mon, 21 Jul 2014 16:26:29 +0000