Track Listing

1. I'll Keep You Satisfied
2. Do You Want to Know a Secret
3. I Call Your Name
4. Sneakin' Around
5. Second to None
6. Bad to Me
7. Cruel Sea
8. Magic Carpet
9. Oyeh
10. I'll Be on My Way
11. Sugar Babe
12. It's Up to You
13. Little Children
14. From a Window
15. It's a Mad Mad World
16. Neon City
17. Trains, Boats and Planes
18. It's Gonna Last Forever
19. That's the Way I Feel
20. I'll Be Doggone
21. We're Doing Fine
22. Forgive Me
23. Millionaire
24. Humdinger
25. My Girl Josephine
26. Take My Hand
27. San Diego
28. Ships That Pass in the Night
29. You Can't Live on Memories

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #87099 in Music
• Released on: 2005-06-21
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Dimensions: .20 pounds

Album Description
29-track collection issued on EMI Gold. Highlights include, 'Do You Want to Know a Secret?', 'Bad to Me', 'Trains and Boats and Planes' and 'I'll Keep You Satisfied'. 2005.

Customer Reviews

Sixties Merseybeat group
Billy J Kramer and the Dakotas were one of several Liverpool groups to achieve a measure of pop success in the early sixties. Like the Beatles, they were managed by Brian Epstein. The Dakotas really wanted to be an instrumental group, following the example of the Shadows in Britain and the Ventures in America. It was agreed that they would get to record their own music (included on this compilation) in return for backing Billy J Kramer. The lead guitarist of the Dakotas is the brother of Elkie Brooks, a singer who failed to make it in the sixties but eventually achieved success in the late seventies with Pearl's a singer and some other great songs. To be honest, the Dakotas' musicianship was better than Billy's singing, which was good but not great. However, it doesn't really matter - the songs and the music compensate for any limitation in the vocal department.

The first single by Billy J Kramer and the Dakotas was Do you want to know a secret, a song that the Beatles had already included on their debut album, Please please me. It made number two in the British charts. Next came two more Lennon-McCartney songs, Bad to me, which topped the UK chart, and I'll keep you satisfied, which made number four. Perhaps the best song they ever did was Little children, an American song that gave them their second and last British number one. This was recorded in preference to another Lennon-McCartney song (title unknown to me) that Brian Epstein and George Martin wanted to go with. However, they returned to the Lennon-McCartney songbook for From a window, which just made the UK top ten. After that there was only one more significant hit, a cover of the Bacharach-David classic, Trains and boats and planes, which didn't quite make the UK top ten - it peaked at twelve. It's gonna last forever and Neon city both failed to chart.

Without Billy J Kramer, the Dakotas had a minor UK hit with The cruel sea (titled The cruel surf in America). Two other singles, Magic carpet and Oyeh, missed the charts. One of the B-sides, My girl Josephine, features vocals from one of the Dakotas and is included here.

This collection includes all the hits and misses, several B-sides and album tracks and a few recordings from Billy's comeback attempts (without the Dakotas) in the seventies and eighties.

While not by any means the most essential Merseybeat group, they are worth a listen if you are into this kind of music. But go for Gerry and the pacemakers first if you haven't already got some of their music.

WARNING COPY PROTECTED DISC
Nice collection of tracks SHAME ABOUT THE ROOTKIT COPY PROTECTION

Amazon needs to start labelling these Discs, so that the customer can choose, EMI shame on you, if you want people not to pirate your backcatalog, try making some of these old recordings better priced than they are, and give the music buyers a choice on how they store their music or digital medium...

Superb Musicianship
Here is my perspective of a girl growing up in California in the sixties:

The Dakotas were absolutely great musicians and of my two favorite BJK songs, "Little Children" and "Bad to Me", the arrangements and sound of the Dakotas is flat-out fantastic. I feel that as a singer, Billy J. Kramer was underrated, and any the critics really underestimated his talent. He brought suave and sexy to his songs just with his voice. And quite frankly, in the looks department, BJK made Simon Lebon (Duran Duran's quite sexy lead singer) look quite ordinary!
I recommend this CD as a "must have" for any fans of the "British Invasion" After all, many of the songs recorded by Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas were written by Lennon/McCartney.