Crying

Jay & The Americans and Their Cover of "Crying"

When Jay & The Americans released their version of "Crying" in the spring of 1966, they were stepping into the long shadow of one of the most celebrated recordings in American popular music. Roy Orbison had recorded the song in 1961, taking it to number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and cementing it as a landmark of his particular brand of emotionally grand, operatically inflected pop. For any group to attempt a cover was to invite comparison with a near-definitive performance. That Jay & The Americans managed to chart at all with their version, reaching number 25 during a six-week run that peaked on June 25, 1966, is a testament to both the song's fundamental strength and the group's genuine interpretive skill.

The group had been active since the early 1960s, building a catalog of melodramatic pop ballads and occasional uptempo numbers that positioned them squarely within the mainstream of mid-decade American pop. Jay Black, the group's lead vocalist after 1962, possessed one of the most powerful tenor voices in commercial pop of the period: a voice capable of enormous volume and emotional urgency, qualities that "Crying" demanded in full. His willingness to commit completely to the operatic register of the material, without irony or restraint, suited the song's requirements precisely.

Roy Orbison's original had been written by Orbison himself in collaboration with Joe Melson, and it represented a specific approach to songwriting: the construction of a miniature emotional drama with a clear narrative arc, told through a vocal performance of extreme technical and expressive range. The climactic high notes near the song's conclusion were among the most celebrated moments in early 1960s pop, and any cover version had to address them directly. Black's approach was not to imitate Orbison but to bring his own vocal persona to the same dramatic peaks, trusting his own instrument rather than mimicking his predecessor's.

The production of the Jay & The Americans version reflected the sonic conventions of mid-1960s pop rather than the spare, echoic Sun Records aesthetic that had characterized Orbison's original recordings. The arrangement was fuller, the sound more polished, the production choices oriented toward contemporary radio. This updating had both advantages and disadvantages: it made the record immediately competitive on the charts of 1966 while distancing it from the haunting quality that made Orbison's version so distinctive.

United Artists Records, the group's label, released the single in May 1966, and it debuted at number 66 on the Hot 100. The chart climb was rapid through the early weeks: number 50 the following week, then 38, then 28, reaching its peak of 25 by late June before beginning its descent. The six-week chart run was respectable without being exceptional, producing a moderate hit rather than a major crossover success.

By 1966, Jay & The Americans were navigating the increasingly complex landscape of mid-decade pop. The British Invasion had reshaped audience expectations and radio formats significantly, and the kind of big-voiced American pop balladry the group specialized in was facing increased competition from guitar-driven sounds. Their success with "Crying" demonstrated that there remained an audience for their approach, even as the dominant commercial currents moved in different directions.

The group's history with cover versions was extensive. They had previously achieved success with their interpretations of other artists' material, most notably their version of "Come a Little Bit Closer" and their reading of "Let's Lock the Door." This willingness to find songs in the existing repertoire and make them their own, rather than relying exclusively on original compositions, reflected a pragmatic approach to commercial pop that was common in the period before the singer-songwriter movement established original composition as the primary measure of artistic seriousness.

Jay Black's vocal performance on the recording remains the element most frequently cited by those who assess the Jay & The Americans catalog. His command of the upper register, his ability to sustain long phrases without loss of tonal quality, and his instinct for emotional timing were assets that served him particularly well in dramatic ballad material. "Crying" gave him an opportunity to display all of these qualities within the framework of a song the listening audience already knew and had strong feelings about.

In retrospect, the 1966 cover occupies an interesting position in both the Jay & The Americans catalog and in the broader history of the song. It demonstrated that great songs can sustain multiple interpretations, each finding something genuine within the same framework of melody and lyric, and it added another chapter to the continuing story of a composition that would go on to attract many more interpreters in the decades that followed.