American Singer. Traynor started his first group, The Ab-tones, while in his mid-teens. At the age of 17, he was chosen to become the new lead singer of The Mystics who had previously had a major hit with 'Hushabye'. He recorded three tracks with the group, 'White Cliffs of Dover', 'Blue Star' and 'Over the Rainbow' which wasn't released to the public until the 1980's. Traynor, along with Howard Kane, Kenny Vance and Sandy Deanne, the last two of which had been in the semi-successful group The Harborlites, formed Jay and the Americans and were brought to Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller who molded the group's sound, using the group's doo-wop harmonies to record their first single, 'Tonight' from West Side Story. Their second single was 'She Cried'. Initially, the record didn't do well until six months after its release when a West Coast DJ started playing the song over and over and the song went to number 5 on the national charts. Jay and the Americans went out on a long national tour in support of the single and the album of the same name, which took a toll on Traynor. After missing a few rehearsals, the other members of the group asked if he wanted to go solo, which he did. Traynor released a couple of albums during the 60's, 'I Rise, I Fall' and 'Up & Over' that were not sucessful. In the 70's, he worked behind the scenes with groups like Mountain, Yes, Ten Years After and the Who before settling down in Albany, NY and becoming a camera operator for a local television station. In the late 70s, he performed with cover bands, jazz trios and the Joey Thomas Big Band, which released several CDs with Traynor on vocals. Traynor was touring with Jay Siegel's Tokens at the time of his death from a two year battle with liver cancer.