Jay and the Americans knew they had a strong chance at success

Stanley Deanne of Jay and The Americans has an easy time talking about motivation.

“When we started there was no thought behind it,” he said. “We wanted to make a record, wanted a hit record, wanted it on radio, wanted all the girls and wanted our parents to be proud.”

Ten Top 40 hits later, including such hits as “She Cried,” “Come a Little Bit Closer,” “Sara Mia,” and “This Magic Moment,” it appears that all that happened.

Those songs and others will be part of the group’s performance at the Legends of R&B, Soul and Rock n’ Roll Live in Concert at the California Theater of the Performing Arts in San Bernardino on Saturday at 7 p.m. Joining them on the bill will be Little Anthony and The Imperials and Lou Christie

“It’s amazing to be our age and to be doing it for 56 years,” he said. “Three of us have been together that whole time, and we can look at each other and finish each other’s sentences.”

The band started in 1959 in Belle Harbor, New York, eventually auditioning for the famed duo Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. That led to a recording contract and they were off.

“My parents wanted me to be a veterinarian, so when I went to focus on the band they told me ‘What do you mean you are leaving college,’” he laughed. “In retrospect, we had three careers with three different lead singers and have been able to just keep it going.”

Perhaps the first big move was related to movies.

“Actually, our first record was ‘Tonight’ from ‘West Side Story,’” he said. “Then they got a demo of a song called ‘She Cried.’ It was a country and western demo they liked, but they thought let’s mess with the beat and make it a sexy beat. And that’s what they did and this is how we did it. It was the first song I can recall where the lyric has the guy telling the girl to take a hike. That was a role reversal, intriguing and it was just a haunting drone and the kids ate it up and that’s what really got us going because it was different.”

One key to the group is that their songs were not repeats of each other.

“’Come a Little Bit Closer’ was kind of like the song ‘El Paso’ with a real story song with Latin-Mexican flavor,” he pointed out. “Then, ‘Some Enchanted Evening’ was from Rodgers and Hammerstein. We grew up in Brooklyn and being in New York we had all these stations playing everything from soul and country and pop and Latin. That had a big influence on our technique.”

Of course, being a group in the ‘60s meant battling The Beatles and The British Invasion.

“We not only survived it but we kicked ass,” he said. “”There were really only three or four groups that got bigger and stronger in the United States, and that was us, the Beach Boys, the Four Seasons and Motown.”

And they did have some adventures with the British bands.

“We were ticked off to be honest,” he said. “In the beginning, the first group was The Beatles with all this press and news reels of girls fainting, so when they arrived it was roll out the red carpet. We were trying to make fine pure recordings, the cleanest because at the time the techniques were taking big strides. The Beatles came over, and it sounded like they recorded in a garage and any English groups got any air time. Anyone with long hair and a record got airplay. It choked a lot of groups.”

They did wind up on the bill with The Beatles.

“We played the first Beatles concert in the states, and it was at the Washington Coliseum and we started were put on the show because many who were supposed to play couldn’t get into town because of a huge blizzard,” he said. “Our manager said we had to get there and play with them. We’d had two hits already and as we drive up the Marquee said the Beatles and others. We then had a big argument about whether or not to turn this car around. We called our manager and he said you have to play because you signed a contract. I guess we were stuck. We were so annoyed.”

Not that they were angry at the band.

“They were innocent kids, and their promoter called all the shots and we were started to hate the British,” he said. “We saw them get on stage, saw this huge eruption. They were screaming like DiMaggio had just hit a homerun at Yankee Stadium.”

He’s pretty happy they at least had a chance.

“We already had an airplay reputation so we got our records played,” he said.

And they are still played.

“We are really blessed because we started, signed a contract in 1960, had our first hit in 1961, had other hits and the golden oldies stations have played our stuff through the ‘70s, ‘80s, ‘90s and now on satellite radio,” he said. Our songs are now considered classics!”

It shows in the audience.

“We get at least three generations coming out to our shows,” he said. “It really is a blessing.”

He is still a little amazed and how the music has influenced people.

“We were kids in early teens and 20s and didn’t know it would affect people,” he said. Now the experience is different. When you did Madison in the ‘60s and ‘70s, you did sound check, did the show, went backstage and left. Now, we go out, shake hands with the fans, and they tell us stories. We are face to face with people who have been fans for years. We find out just about every show from a Vietnam vet that hearing our music overseas really cheered us up and helped us get through. Just the name and music made it feel like they were home. Who would have dreamed that it would affect the Vietnam vets? It brings tears to my eyes.”