Customer Reviews

Little Children / I'll Keep You Satisfied

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

There is one other earlier review.
Let's say, generally, that it says Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas were rather worthless. Just reverse that opinion and
the details and you will have my opinion. I LOVED the songs
that members of THIS GROUP wrote. I love the album tracks of this group, like "I Know," "Yes," "Second to None," and many others that come up in my mind when I least expect it, and
ride through the day in my heart. They are pure delights. Life is so much better with the recordings of this group in this world. Also the Searchers. Thank you, Mr. Kramer. Thank you, Dakotas. God bless. I wouldn't mind you recording some MORE!

Though there are many Billy J. cds on Amazon, i think this is the best one. Though it does not include a favorite song of mine(It's Gotta Last Forever) or his last hit(Planes Boats And Tranes)it doesnt go into his later career songs like most of the other collections do....it also does not have any rerecordings...all are original sixties masters.

Billy J. Krammer with the Dakotas did not have distinguished recording career, but they did have a handful of very enjoyable hits. This CD was a good buy to just to get those songs, plus a severak others that I have enjoyed. This may represent the best value in the group's recordings. Beware -- do not buy any of these songs by Billy J. Krammer (without the Dakotas), because they are cheesy rerecordings that are not worthy at all of the group's originals.

This had to be one of if not the most underrated group in the British Invasion. The Dave Clark Five wasn't underrated, they were under-avaliable, since until a few years ago, Dave Clark wouldn't let them be sold here. Billy J Kramer and the Dakotas should have been bigger over here, but perhaps that's because so many record promoters act like..."Little Children".

Yes a song that has disturbed me for at least 22 years I had to free it from my soul. Pretty much thier biggest hit other than "Bad To Me", and they wrote "Do You Want To Know A Secret?", but "Little Children" is the one song you'll ever hear from these guys in America. The key of "F", the melody of the song, and the words pretty much did it in for me as far as liking this song. So with one song down 22 more to go. I found most of these rather good songs especially "The Creul Surf" at the end which shows that this group was not about wimp rock at all. This was an underrated group that because they only had 2 hits in America they were written off as wimps. Not true at all. This was actually an album of some well hidden rockers. They do a few covers here, but a couple were rather good sounding. So pretty much I can get rid of "Little Children" as being the be all end all of this group, and say that they're pretty good.

For all intent and purpose, lacking a steady enough supplier of even decent-enough original material, Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas' career dried up when their share of access to the Beatles' throwaway songs dried up. (I don't know for certain if Billy and the boys were the number one influence on Gary Lewis and the Playboys, but Jerry's kid and his buddies sure sounded like an American version of the Dakotas.) When you start your career with a number one British hit the Beatles write for you ("Do You Want To Know A Secret"), then can't break that one in the States because the Beatles' own version crunches the Top Five, that is not a very good sign.

Billy and the boys got their U.S. props for awhile, thanks to a pair of Beatle throwaways (the delightful "Bad To Me," the okay-we'll-take-it "I'll Keep You Satisfied) they took to the top 20 and perhaps the single dopiest song legendary writer Doc Pomus composed, "Little Children," which they actually took to number one. Their first two U.S. albums, represented on this CD, were probably two too many; the Dakotas weren't exactly the great lost British rock and roll band (it's debatable, considering their rather pedestrian rhythm section, whether they were a rock and roll band in name only), and Kramer, whose voice was decent enough and whose style was generally in earnest in its simplicity, wasn't exactly bound to make you think you'd heard the Word for the first time. Bottom line: For whatever they were worth, Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas were best taken, if at all, on the few quality singles they did cut.