ECMHoF Opening Night Welcome Reception

The official Opening Night Welcome Reception is sure to be a blast!  We'll greet old friends and make new ones as you mix and mingle with other attendees on the first night of East Coast Music Hall of Fame celebrations.  Your hosts will welcome you and share the exciting plans for the next 48 hours, then Jay and the Americans will perform a full-length concert filled with all of the hits that earned them recognition as one of this year's Lifetime Achievement Award recipients.  

Cash bars will be available.

With a staggering 18 charted hits and five Top 10 records, few bands ever reached the heights of Jay and the Americans. The group features three original Americans – Sandy Deanne, Marty Sanders and Howie Kane – joined by the powerhouse lead of Jay Reincke, who has fronted the group for the last 13 years.  

Their first two hits came in 1962 - the regional hit “Tonight” from West Side Story and their first national chart record, “She Cried.”  The years that followed saw the onslaught of the British Invasion but the group prevailed with “Only in America”, “Come a Little Bit Closer”, “Let’s Lock the Door” and “Cara Mia.” ”Some Enchanted Evening”, “Sunday & Me” and a cover of Roy Orbison’s “Crying” were their biggest hits of the late sixties until 1969 when Sandy and the group began producing their own records.
The first self-produced album, “Sands Of Time”, is a tribute to Alan Freed and all of the 50s songs the guys loved as kids. The resulting single “This Magic Moment” was their largest selling hit ever. Two other singles from that album charted, “When You Dance” originally by the Turbans and “Hushabye” originally by The Mystics. The next LP, “Wax Museum”, also contained carefully-crafted covers and spawned a smash hit originally by The Ronettes - “Walking In The Rain”. Shortly after, the group splintered.
In 2006, Jay and the Americans re-grouped with original members Sandy, Howie, Marty and a new Jay (“Jay #3”), Jay Reincke, who does justice to all of the group’s recordings and garners the respect of old fans and new night after night. Since then, “Come a Little Bit Closer” hit the charts all over again as part of “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” and the group has produced 4 new CDs which are available everywhere they perform.