#6: We’re Doing Fine by Billy J. Krammer and the Dakotas

City: St. John’s, NL
Radio Station: VOCM
Peak Month: April 1966
Peak Position in St. John’s ~ #2
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “We’re Doing Fine”
Lyrics: N/A

William “Billy” Howard Ashton was born in Bootle, Lancashire, England, in 1943. He sang in a children’s choir and learned to play guitar. Out of high school he apprenticed as an engineer with British Railways, while playing rhythm guitar on the side. He formed a band and only ended up lead vocalist when his guitar was stolen after a gig. Billy was the highest-ranking non-professional artist in a popularity contest sponsored by the local music newspaper Merseybeat. His manager got him connected to Brian Epstein, the manager of The Beatles. Epstein took over Billy’s management, and got his a contract with George Martin, who was producing The Beatles’ recordings.

Initially, William Howard Ashton was getting billing under the stage name Billy Kramer. The surname, Kramer, had been randomly chosen from a phone directory. Just prior to his debut single, Kramer was requested to attend a meeting at Brian Epstein’s office. When he walked in he saw John Lennon with Epstein. Lennon encouraged Kramer that he put the initial J. in the middle of his stage name. Lennon contended that adding the “J” would have more impact on the record buying public. Perhaps the alphabetical sequence of “J” and “K” agreed, too, with Billy J. Kramer ~ as he was known thereafter.

Kramer was the first recording artist to release a Lennon-McCartney tune, even prior to The Beatles. “Do You Want To Know A Secret” became Billy J.Kramer & The Dakotas debut single and number two hit in England in the spring of 1963. The Dakotas were not the original backing group for Billy J. Kramer. At first he had a band called The Coasters. But when Kramer  turned professional, The Coasters were not enthusiastic to leave their day jobs. So Brian Epstein found The Dakotas in Manchester to pick up the slack.

The Dakotas who played on the hit records credited to Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas were guitar players Mike Maxfield (born in 1944 in Manchester) and Robin McDonald (born in July 1943 in Manchester), Ray Jones (born in Oldham in 1939) on bass guitar and Tony Mansfield (born Anthony Bookbinder in Salford in 1943) on drums.

With the single release of “Do You Want To Know A Secret”, The Beatles chose not to release it as well as a single in the UK, opting to release it as a single in North America the following year.

A follow up hit for Billy J. Kramer and The Dakotas in 1963, “Bad To Me”, became the band’s first number one hit, topping the UK charts in the summer of that year. It would go on the repeat that feat on the CFUN charts in June 1964, and briefly crack the Top Ten in the USA. While “Little Children” was in the Top Ten in Canada and the USA, Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show on June 7, 1964. On October 28, 1964, the group appeared on Shindig! along with Dick & Dee Dee, Chris Crosby and Bobby Sherman. They were back on Shindig! on November along with Bobby Sherman, Hank Williams Jr. and Willie Nelson.

There was another of a string of hits the band recorded written by Lennon-McCartney. Others included “I’ll Be Satisfied” and “From A Window”. Billy J. Kramer & The Dakotas were part of what was called the Merseybeat sound, having to do with all things Liverpool and bands performing in the city by the Mersey Estuary. Gerry & The Pacemakers and The Beatles were the other top charting groups from the era.

After a string of hits, including “Little Children”, a number one hit in Vancouver, the Merseybeat sound waned. A final Top 30 hit for the band was Kramer’s cover of “Trains and Boats and Planes” written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. Bacharach recorded a version of his song and it peaked at #4 on the UK charts. In the USA Billy J. Kramer’s version climbed the Billboard Hot 100 chart only in competition with Dionne Warwick’s cover version. Kramer’s effort still reached a respectable number 12 on the UK charts (#47 on the Billboard Hot 100). “Trains And Boats And Planes” peaked at #8 in Vancouver. It was the final hit of note for Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas. The band appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show on June 27, 1965 to promote “Trains And Boats And Planes”. At the end of the year on December 23, 1965, Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas were back on Shindig! They shared the stage with the Dave Clark Five, Ian Whitcomb, Lulu, The Moody Blues, Gerry and The Pacemakers and The Blossoms.

However, as they continued to release more singles, some of these were regional hits. One of these was “We’re Doing Fine”.

“We’re Doin’ Fine” was written by Horace Ott. He recorded with the Shirelles, Nina Simone, the Ritchie Family, the Village People, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Carla Thomas, Hank Ballard & the Midnighters, The Coasters, Junior Parker, Sam Cooke, and many others. “We’re Doing Fine” paints a scenario where friends and acquaintances of a couple speculate they got into a big fight. However, the lyrics tell “My love is hers, her love is mine. We’re doing fine.” It’s clear she cares about him. So there shouldn’t be any doubt in anyone’s mind.

“We’re Doing Fine” reached #2 in St. John’s (NL).

While Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas were on the pop charts, they appeared on ten episodes of the British TV pop shows Ready, Steady, Go! between 1963 and 1966; Nine episodes of Thank Your Lucky Stars between 1963 and 1966; And eleven episodes on Top of the Pops between 1964 and 1965. They appeared on these and other TV variety show stages. They shared the stage alongside the Bachelors, Cilla Black, The Applejacks, Peter and Gordon, The Swinging Blue Jeans, Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders, The Pretty Things, Kathy Kirby, The Rolling Stones, The Tremeloes, Dusty Springfield, The Beatles, Millie Small, Manfred Mann, Billy Fury, The Honeycombs, The Animals, The Kinks, Roy Orbison, Petula Clark, Sandie Shaw, Gene Pitney, Donovan, Bob Dylan, Sonny & Cher, The Who, Chris Andrews, Jet Harris, Tony Meehan, Dickie Valentine, Tommy Roe, Gene Vincent, Freddie & the Dreamers, Dion DiMucci, Timi Yuro, Johnny Kidd, Karl Denver, Danny Williams, Ben E. King, Julie Rogers, The Nashville Teens, The Four Pennies, Twinkle, The Spencer Davis Group, Unit Four Plus Two, Frank Ifield, Vic Dana, Del Shannon, The Tornados, Elkie Brooks, The Isley Brothers, Georgie Fame, Doris Troy, Kenny Ball and His Jazzmen, The Fortunes, Major Lance, The Walker Brothers, Rolf Harris, and others.

Ray Jones left the music business in 1967 to pursue a career in psychiatric nursing, and later as a computer instructor for the handicapped. The Dakotas disbanded in 1968. Tony Mansfield went on to pursue a career in finance.

Billy J. Kramer carried on as a solo recording act. He released sixteen solo singles between the late 60s into the early 80s.

However, Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas got back on occasion to perform on a TV show. On August 10, 1973, the group shared the stage on a Midnight Special British Invasion showcase with Gerry and the Pacemakers, The Searchers, Herman’s Hermits, The Hollies, as well as the Bee Gees (born in the UK and living in Australia).

In 2014 Kramer released a his first album in fifty years called I Won the Fight. In 2015 he was part of the British Invasion 50 Year Anniversary Tour in the UK and the USA, along with The Searchers, Chad & Jeremy, Peter Asher (of Peter & Gordon) Terry Sylvester (of the Hollies) and Denny Laine (of the Moody Blues). In 2016, Do You Want To Know A Secret: The Autobiography of Billy J. Kramer, was co-authored with Alyn Shipton.

Ray Jones died of a heart attack in 2000 at at the age of 60.

Robin McDonald died in 2015 at the age of 72.

In 1989 Mike Maxfield reformed The Dakotas, along with Tony Mansfield, and some new musicians. Maxfield performed as part of the Dakotas on concert circuits until he had a stroke in 2005. Mike Maxfield died in 2023 from dementia at the age of 79.

April 24, 2026
Ray McGinnis

References:
Billy J. Kramer and Alyn Shipton, Do You Want To Know A Secret: The Autobiography of Billy J. Kramer, (Equinox Publishing, 2016).
Billy J. Kramer, Billy J. Kramer.com
John Wright, “Billy J Kramer: ‘Brian Epstein offered me £50 a week – that was my turning point’,” Telegraph, October 2, 2016.
“Raymond ‘Ray’ Jones,” Obituary, Find a grave . com, March 10, 2013.
“Robin McDonald,” Second Hand Songs.
Ian Woolley, “Dakotas’ Mike Maxfield Fondly Remembered – Eddie Mooney,” Beat Magazine, December 17, 2023.

Newfoundland’s Only Official Survey | VOCM 590-AM | April 1, 1966