Jay and the Americans...

...were (was?) one of my favorite groups. It wasn't for nothing, as you can tell from the video above, that Jay Black was known as "The Voice."

(Is that lip-synched or just a crummy video? I can't tell.) Check out this one instead:

Still not convinced? Here he was in his prime:

But enough about Jay and the Americans. (Although one can never really "get enough" of Jay and the Americans.) This post isn't even about him (or them). No, it's actually about Ben E. King, who died on Thursday at age 76.

While he may be better known for “There Goes My Baby,” “Save the Last Dance for Me,” “Spanish Harlem” and “Stand by Me,” he also cowrote and originally sang “This Magic Moment,” the gold record that Jay and the Americans recorded in 1969. So let's give credit where credit is due.

But Jay and the Americans were great, weren't they?