How cool are Jay And the Americans? Leiber and Stoller named them.
The VP of the advertising agency I work for, Larry Schneiderman, is friendly with Sandy “Deanne” Yaguda, one of the original Americans. A week ago Larry saw Sandy, who bought the Jay And The Americans moniker after the most important Jay, Jay Black, had to sell it off due to bankruptcy, at a charity gig.
Sandy told two stories. The first found the J&A’s sitting around the great, also sometimes J&A, Kenny Vance’s office, in the Brill Building when a shy, diffident songwriter knocked on the door. He was a professional songwriter or at least wanted to be one. And he was painfully, painfully quiet and introverted. Sandy gave the kid his chance and as the kid played his songs, “Dollar signs flashed in front of Sandy’s eyes” as Schneiderman put it. The kids name? Neil Diamond.
A coupla years later, two kids came off the street. Same scenario. They were college grads from Bard. Again, Sandy sees dollar signs flashing and let’s them sleep on his coach! According to Wikipedia: ” Kenny Vance, took an interest in their material that led to work on the soundtrack of the low-budget Richard Pryor film “You’ve Got To Walk It Like You Talk It Or You’ll Lose That Beat” in 1971.”
The kids toured as part of the Americans back up band. They were Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, who would go on to form Steely Dan.