BILLY J KRAMER AND THE DAKOTAS – "Little Children"

Tom, you obviously listened to a later recording of “Little Children” WITHOUT the Dakotas, which I have heard and HATE! Your reference to the electric piano would confirm that as in the 1960s version, the piano was, I believe played on an upright piano…not high pitched, at all…very low, deep chords that sounded awesome. Also, the rhythym guitar in the original is absolutely unique and sounds great. Wish you had heard the original before you commented…it really was a great song.

Tom
I was 7 when the original came out. I can still see Billy J in my mind’s eye on a black and white TV. The song was immensely popular, and, if you listen carefully, in a no-judgemental way, will see that it really is an innocent song.
The chords structure is surprisingly simple yet highly effective.
Terri, yes, it was an upright piano, quite popular at the time. Gerry and the Pacemakers had a similar line up.

TOTP Watch: This is the first number one for which a performance on the show survives. It comes from the edition transmitted on the 26th of February 1964. Also in the studio that week were The Dave Clark 5 (this clip also survived), Cilla Black, Eden Kane, Kathy Kirby, The Bachelors and The Merseybeats. The host was Jimmy Saville.

‘Totally unsettling’?? It’s a pretty common occurrence – two teenagers trying to cop off while younger siblings keep getting in the way. The ‘seasick’ backing perfectly suits Billy’s slightly overheated amorous intentions.

I’m sure pop pickers knew exactly what was going on here, don’t think it was any more or less innocent than a 21st century teen tryst. I like the way some of the lines are left half-finished as the pesky kids interrupt the couple once again. Having said all that, Little Children’s a bit of a slog when compared to Billy’s sprightly 45s either side of it, I’ll Keep You Satisfied and the especially fresh sounding From A Window.

Writer Mort Shuman went on to translate Jacques Brel’s work into English, lyrics which included more than the odd sly fumble and flash of knicker.

A friend of mine recalls a teenage instance in which, while snogging his girlfriend when his parents were out, his little brother came in, whacked him in the groin and shouted “I’ll crack your stiffy!” This was, I should add, in Australia.

maybe if this was sped up bit and played more for laughs it might sound more like ‘I saw mommy kissing Santa Claus’ but as it is this lopes along drearily making you wonder what his girlfriend sees in him that he is so oppressed by her young siblings

A snapshot of the early sixties. It’s not perving on young kids – that sort of thing didn’t happen in those days. Well, it did obviously, but the prevailing mood was to pretend it didn’t so we could all pretend everything was lovely. Which meant, obviously, that the kids had no idea and were more vulnerable. And were not believed – I can recall millions of TV shows and films that would have the “pay no attention, the kids are making it up” about so many things – usually about how “Bonzo Can Talk” or “there’s a flood coming” or whatever, but the inference was there.

Anyway, Billy.

Back in these days, Billy J and the Daks were looked on as being the more mature option, compared to the Beatles and Gerry&thePacemakers. And in those days, the more mature option was commonly regarded as the better one – not for too much longer as we all know.

And this song is a reflection about how there wasn’t much space for young people to get close – the living room being full of these little bros and sisters, and often enough cousins and ‘aunts/uncles that are younger than you are how about that?’ – Yep, I remember I was there..

Eventually, we’d all become that exploitable feature – young people with disposable income – and there’d be more than plenty places to go.

Unless the weather is rubbish. Obviously.

I believe I always saw this in terms of Robert Brown trying to get little brother William and his friends out of the way so he can spend some uninterrupted time with his latest girlfriend. At the time this first came out I was in thrall to the William books and never saw anything creepy there, more half a crown for a bag of sherbet lemons and an afternoon at the pictures.

There were certainly a few paedophile predators about – this was when the Moors Murders were in full swing and Ray Morris was prowling the West Midlands, and we had regular warnings about accepting gifts or lifts from strangers. I can’t recall anybody making the link to the song. It was a more innocent time without the obsession with paedophiles lurking in every crevice. True, a lot of child abuse went unreported, or reported and not believed, but possibly the pendulum has swung too far the other way.