1963 Billy J Kramer & The Dakotas: Bad To Me

When I was about eight years old, I was given a Thomas Salter Chemistry Set as a Christmas present. It came in a huge box stuffed with an array of coloured chemicals and compounds in glass test tubes and a meths powered Bunsen burner to mix them over. The idea was that you worked through the experiments in the instruction manual from start to finish to gain an understanding of how the various chemicals interacted with each other.

Being the impatient sort, the dull book was soon forgotten when I found that far more dramatic results could be had by mixing a dose of every chemical together in a tube with water then plugging it up; the gas generated was potent enough to blow the cork almost to the ceiling with a satisfying 'THUNK'. Mr Salter would no doubt frown at the less than educational use his product was being put to, but to me this was true experimentation, to not follow Tom's rules and to see where reckless abandon got me.

I can hear the same spirit of adventure in 'Bad To Me'. I commented in a previous post how The Beatles did things differently right from the start and so it goes here; for one - how many other up and coming bands would give away a number one hit song to a rival? Generosity indeed, because 'Bad To Me' is a good song. Billy J Kramer knew as much too, and evidently not keen to mess with the pedigree both he and The Dakotas serve it up it exactly as you'd imagine The Beatles would have, almost to the point that this could be the work of a Beatles tribute act. Which in all honesty is how I regard this single.

But even so, 'Bad To Me' positively revels in its display of John Lennon's (it's essentially a solo composition) flair for tune and melody; after an innocuous enough start and a main theme you think you've got a handle on, it breaks off to seamlessly chase a different tail before dipping into bridges and middle eights where you least expect them. A busy tune for sure, and one which almost makes 'Bad To Me' a dry run (albeit in microcosm) for side two of 'Abbey Road', a butterfly net that captures all their stray tunes and weaves them into one solid quilt.

True, 'Bad To Me' doesn't have the rounded neatness or apparent simplicity of other Beatles early hits, and true the lyrics may read as embarrassing juvenilia when taken cold ("The birds in the sky would be sad and lonely, if they knew that I lost my one and only"), but the mix of chemicals in this song provides substance enough to pop the pop cork delightfully and doubtless gave the band confidence to stretch their wings that bit further in the future (its experimental nature may also provide a clue as to why they were happy to give it away). 'Bad To Me' is the sound of writers gleefully ripping up the instruction manual titled 'How To Write A Popular Hit Song' and mixing up their own chemicals in the grooves of a seven inch vinyl test tube. And if they aren't yet throwing everything in to make a fizzy bomb, they've long gone by the page one instructions to always wear safety goggles.