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"…Dance With Me…"
This cool-looking British 2CD reissue has good
and bad points that need explaining - so let's get to the details right away.
UK released 19 May 2014 - Beat Goes On BGOCD 1146 (Barcode 5017261211460)
breaks down as follows...
Disc 1 (62:38 minutes):
Tracks 1 to 14 are their debut LP
"Listen..." - released November 1963 in the UK on Parlophone PMC 1209
(Mono) and PCS 1209 (Stereo)
Tracks 15 to 26 are the US album version of it
called "I'll Keep You Satisfied/From A Window" - released early 1964
on Imperial LP-9273 (Mono) and LP-12273 (Stereo)
Disc 2 (58:30 minutes):
Tracks 1 to 12 are the US album "Little
Children" - released May 1964 on Imperial LP-9267 (Mono) and LP-12267
(Stereo)
Tracks 13 to 24 are the US album "Trains
And Boats And Planes" - released early 1965 on Imperial LP-9291 (Mono) and
LP-12291 (Stereo)
Fans will know that the 14-track debut album
"Listen..." came out in both MONO and STEREO in the UK and was
produced by the fifth Beatle George Martin. But of the 12 cuts on the American
version (called "I'll Keep You Satisfied/From A Window") seven were
duplicated - with the other five being new. Beat Goes On have therefore chosen
to present the UK album in STEREO and the USA version in MONO to avoid needless
duplication (they don't try to hide this - its stated as such on the outer box
and in the liner notes). Disappointingly though - five of the Mono studio
tracks on albums 2, 3 and 4 are presented here by 'live' versions (presumably
because the tapes for the studio versions are lost?) They are "Sugar
Babe", "Pride", "I'll Keep You Satisfied",
"Tennessee Waltz" and "Irresistible You". Also on my copy
of the CD - Track 5 on Disc 2 (a cover of The Platters "Twilight
Time") is in the wrong place. It should be lined up as track 16 - the 3rd
song on the "Trains And Boats And Planes" album. That's the bad news
- let's get to the good.
The generic card wraps that Beat Goes On uses
now on their reissues are lovely - classy looking too. The 16-page booklet
inside features liner notes by BOB SOLLY and pictures gorgeous EPs in colour on
the last page with the original liner notes for the albums as well as a potted
history of the British Invasion group. For Beatles fiends there's some snaps of
Billy with Brian Epstein and of course those exclusive Lennon/McCartney songs
on the American debut. But the real shocker is the sound...
The Andrew Thompson remasters are amazing -
full of power and clarity that leaps out of your speakers - especially the
STEREO versions like the sappy ballad "The Twelfth Of Never" and
Kramer's Roy Orbison take on the Stephen Foster traditional "Beautiful
Dreamer" where he gives his best Liverpool accent on the word 'hair'
(becomes 'her').
Other goodies on the American Mono version of
"I'll Keep You Satisfied/From A Window" are three exclusive
Lennon/McCartney compositions (a major coup at the time) - "I'll Keep You
Satisfied", "I'll Be On My Own" and "From A Window" -
very cool indeed. This is 1963 and 1964 - and the entre world is enveloped in
the musical atomic bomb of The Beatles. There's a wonderful optimism in all of
it - like the opener cover of The Drifters "Dance With Me" and the
Fab Four feel to the lovely "I Know". The Beatles covers continue
with versions of "Do You Want To Know A Secret" and "Bad To
Me". There's a great vibe to "Take Her Place" and "Sneaking
Around" In fact the whole "Trains And Boats And Planes" album is
a bit of an unsung Sixties hero - and the sound on tracks like "I Live To
Love You" is fabulous.
Downsides - the five 'live' versions are poor
substitutes for the studio tracks (docked a star for that) and will disappoint
fans a great deal - and the misplacing of "Twilight Time" on Disc 2
is an easy mistake to make but a tad sloppy really. Having said that - overall
the rest of it is really great stuff.
In 2014 Liverpool's William Howard Ashton
(Billy J Kramer) is largely forgotten - but on the evidence of this - our
clean-cut hero and his boys in The Dakotas more than deserve your mop-top
attention again...
