Jay Black, aka David Blatt, was born into a religious Jewish family in New York. His first public appearance was in a temple choir in Borough Park, but he was destined for a different stage. He was singing with a doo-wop group, the Empires, when he got word that Jay Traynor, the original leader singer of Jay and the Americans, was leaving the group. When he joined, he became “Jay” (for obvious reason) and when Mike Douglas misunderstood his last name, he became Jay Black. The group had only had one Top Ten song, “She Cried”, but with Black, they scored with a string of hits like “Come A Little Bit Closer”, “Only in America” (which was originally meant for The Drifters) and Jay’s signature song, “Cara Mia”, along with a radio spot for H.I.S. jeans, that every 60’s kid heard on the radio hundreds of times. They also opened for the Beatles first US concert in Washington, DC and almost opened for the Rolling Stones (we’ll let him explain that).