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| THE DAKOTAS-The Cruel Surf/The Millionaire U.S. Liberty F 55618 1963 |
Liverpudlian Billy J. Kramer's Mancunian backing band The Dakotas were afforded the opportunity to shine in the own right in the spirit of Cliff Richard and The Shadows and like The Shadows plied their wares without their respectively separately billed vocalist as (initially) an instrumental combo. Their U.K. debut "The Cruel Sea" was launched in July 1963 as Parlophone R 5044 and issued here in September and re titled "The Cruel Surf" in an effort to convince buyers that they were a surf instrumental band. The ploy did not work and sadly there would not be another Dakotas 45 without Billy J. issued in the States. Both sides were penned by the group's guitarist Mike Maxfield and produced by George Martin.
"The Cruel Surf" is an uptempo instrumental. It reminds me of "Guitar Boogie Shuffle" meets a Ventures LP track. It's catchy yet intricate enough in it's playing to not verge mundane, something that sadly a lot of 60's instrumental quartets sadly fall in to, in my view anyway.
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| The Dakotas, courtesy of 45cat.com |
"The Millionaire" is REALLY boring. It literally offers nothing to my ears and sounds like The Shadows at their absolute weakest....
Both tracks have been featured on a host of Billy J. Kramer compilations and are also both available on streaming.
Hear "The Cruel Surf":
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