Howie Kane (born Howard Kirchembaum) of Jay & The Americans has died at age 78.
Howie was one of the two singers for Jay & The Americans (with Jay Traynor) from 1960 to 1973 and rejoined the reformed band in 2006.
Jay & The American were given their name by legendary songwriters Leiber and Stoller, who wrote the Elvis Presley hits ‘Hound Dog’ and ‘Jailhouse Rock’, ‘Yakety Yak’ for The Coasters and Ben E. King’s ‘Stand By Me’.
Jay & The Americans first American hit was ‘She Cried’ (no 5, 1962). ‘Come A Little Bit Closer’ reached no 3 in 1964, Cara Mia’ was a no 4 hit in 1964 and ‘This Magic Moment’ reached no 6 in 1968.
Jay & The Americans had 10 Top 40 hits in the USA between 1962 and 1969. ‘Come A Little Bit Closer’ was used in ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2’ in 2017 and sold a further 2.6 million copies.
Founding member and co-lead singer John ‘Jay’ Traynor died in 2014. Sandy Deanne was still touring with Howie as Jay & The Americans up to the time of Howie’s death. Kenny Vance is often credited as the man who discovered Steely Dan Walter Becker and Donald Fagan were in the Jay & The Americans touring band before forming Steely Dan. Vance worked on movies including The Warriors, Animal House, Eddie & The Cruisers and American Hot Wax. He has released more than a dozen solo album.
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