FOG BLOG ENTERTAINMENT LOG; JAY BLACK , LEAD FOR JAY AND THE AMERICANS DIES AT 82!

Jay Black, Soaring Lead Singer of the Americans, Dies at 82...His majestic voice was the key to hits like “Only in America,” “Come a Little Bit Closer” and his signature song, “Cara, Mia.”......Jay Black, whose majestic voice on songs like “Cara, Mia” and “Only in America” made Jay and the Americans a potent force in pop music in the 1960s, died on Friday in Queens. He was 82. His son Jason Blatt said the cause was pneumonia that led to cardiac arrest. He also had dementia, his family said. Jay and the Americans began to thrive before the arrival of the Beatles in the United States in 1964. With Mr. Black as their lead singer, the group’s first major hit was “Only in America,” which peaked at No. 25 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1963. That was followed the next year by “Come a Little Bit Closer,” which rose to No. 3, and “Let’s Lock the Door (and Throw Away the Key),” which hit No. 11. In 1965, their version of “Some Enchanted Evening,” from the musical “South Pacific,” peaked at No. 13.

Mr. Black — whose original name was David Blatt — was the second “Jay” to front the Americans. He replaced Jay Traynor in 1963, a year after the group’s first hit, “She Cried,” climbed to No. 5 on the chart.