Dance With Me/Pride/I Know/Yes/The Twelfth Of Never/Sugar Babe/Da Doo Ron Ron/Its Up To You/Great Balls Of Fire/Tell Me Girl/Anything’s That’s Part Of You/Beautiful Dreamer/Still Waters Run Deep/I Call Your Name
Merseybeat group Billy J. Kramer & The Dakotas scored their only UK album success with Listen. Surprisingly, none of their hits were included. Billy J was an important figure in 1960s UK pop history and his compilation CDs are well worth a 'listen', and not just because they contain some classic Lennon-McCartney songs unavailable elsewhere. (UK:11)
"Shows off the mixture of driving beat, heavy guitars, and emotionally expressive, American-style vocals that characterized the sound of the city." "The tendency for much of this album is to focus on Kramer’s romantic ballad style, to which he was marginally suited with his limited vocal abilities."
"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."
"While not by any means the most essential Merseybeat group, they are worth a listen."
"Billy J had a pleasing voice, if limited, as for example on his attempt to reach the higher notes at the end of Bad To Me suggests."
"In retrospect, it is clear his popularity was due to the fact that his manager was Brian Epstein who gave the singer several Lennon-McCartney songs to record."
"Kramer is not that great a singer and once The Beatles kept everything they were writing for themselves, his career pretty much came to a halt."
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