Billy J. Kramer

William Howard Ashton, known professionally as Billy J. Kramer, was born on August 19, 1943, in Bootle, Lancashire, England. He was the youngest of seven siblings and attended St. George of England Secondary School. Initially pursuing an engineering apprenticeship with British Railways, Kramer dedicated his spare time to music. He began by playing rhythm guitar in a self-formed group before transitioning to a vocalist. He adopted ‘Kramer’ from a telephone directory and added the ‘J’ at John Lennon’s suggestion to give his stage name a ‘tougher edge’.

Kramer soon attracted the attention of Brian Epstein, manager of The Beatles, who was actively seeking new talent. Kramer became a professional musician, and when his original backing group, the Coasters, were unwilling to commit full-time, Epstein enlisted the Manchester-based band, The Dakotas. Both acts signed with Parlophone, under the guidance of producer George Martin, and were collectively named Billy J. Kramer with the Dakotas, maintaining individual identities within the group. This collaboration quickly led to chart success in the UK and later in the United States during the British Invasion period.

His career was significantly boosted by several Lennon-McCartney compositions. These included the UK number two hit “Do You Want to Know a Secret?” in 1963, followed by the number one single “Bad to Me” in the same year, which sold over a million copies. Billy J. Kramer with the Dakotas also achieved another UK chart-topper in 1964 with “Little Children,” marking his biggest commercial success. Kramer continued to record and perform following the peak of the beat boom. His autobiography, “Do You Want to Know a Secret,” co-written with Alyn Shipton, was published in 2016.