The J's with Jamie

Formation

Jamie's background was as a dancer, but took up singing as a career in her late teens, citing Sarah Vaughan as one of her influences. She went on tour as the lead vocalist for The Mellowlarks in the 1950s but left to form The J's with Jamie in 1958. From that point until the group disbanded in 1967, the core members were Jamie and her husband, Joe Silvia. They worked with session musicians and a number of other singers, most prominently Don Shelton, a tenor who was part of The Hi-Lo's, and Len Dressler, whose deep bass voice is best known for the Jolly Green Giant's "Ho! Ho! Ho!".

Jingles and recordings

Recounting the group's career years later, Jamie estimated the group recorded 25–30 commercials each week between 1958 and 1967. Their clients were as varied as the companies, organizations, and individuals who advertise on television and radio, such as food manufacturers, home goods companies, cigarette companies, department stores, politicians, appliance makers, and industry associations. Examples of well-known brands for which they recorded jingles include Campbell's, Marlboro, Schlitz, Sears, Pillsbury, Alka-Seltzer, Wrigley, Amana, and Kellogg's.

The couple declined invitations to go on tour, opting to stay in Chicago with their two daughters. Their primary activity was always commercial, but they did record three albums for Columbia Records, including both original songs and covers of standards and show tunes.

Despite not concentrating on recording albums, The J's with Jamie received two Grammy Awards nominations at the 1964 ceremony. Their album Hey, Look Us Over! earned a nomination for Best Performance by a Vocal Group, losing to Peter, Paul and Mary (for "Blowin' in the Wind"), and they were in the running for Best New Artist, which was won by The Swingle Singers.

In 1966 and 1967, the Silvias released two more albums on ABC Records as Jamie and the J. Silvia Singers, retaining their familiar style. The J's with Jamie formally disbanded in 1967, when the couple moved to New York City to found a commercial production house. Shelton and Dressler remained in Chicago and together formed another successful commercial music group, The Singers Unlimited.

Reception and legacy

In addition to being successful from a marketing perspective, the musical quality of their songs, both commercial and noncommercial, was positively received. Ethnomusicologist Timothy D. Taylor described "one author [who wrote that The J's with Jamie] possessed diction 'that makes poets out of admen,' one of whom said, 'Their words seem to be coming from a foot outside of their mouths in a kind of bas-relief.'" According to Taylor, they were able to earn about $250,000 yearly for their advertising work.

A WFMU blog noted that although the Columbia records are long out of print, bootlegs in Japan have had a "substantial" influence on J-pop.

Despite being Grammy-nominated and being among the most prominent vocal performers on the radio in the United States in the 1960s, little is known about the group. In 1964 Time Magazine wrote that "they have probably been heard by more people more times than any other group in the history of sound. Yet next to nobody knows who they are. They are the world's most successful singers of TV commercials."

Discography

All of the albums by The J's with Jamie are out of print and were never released on compact disc. For most of their recording career, the group worked with Columbia Records, which released three LPs, several singles, and promotional albums. In the late 1960s, as Jamie and the J. Silvia Singers, they issued two more LPs with ABC.

As The J's with Jamie:

As Jamie and the J. Silvia Singers: