Billie Davis - Whatcha Gonna Do? Singles, Rarities & Unreleased 1963-1966

Talent adrift and struggling to stay afloat

Pop success has always been a lottery. If it wasn’t, then Davis, rather than lesser vocalists such as Lulu and Kiki Dee, would have remained a chart contender after the swinging 60s gave way to a dingier decade. Instead, all signposts for her pointed towards the nostalgia circuit, where she’d be lynched if she left the stage without giving them the brace of Top 20 entries (one of them a duet, Will I What?, with Mike Sarne) that prefaced an almost immediate decline.

This 28-track retrospective includes these, albeit with 1963’s Tell Him recorded inconcert. Elsewhere it focuses on most of the ghostly era between then and a small UK chart windfall in 1968 with the dancefloor-filling I Want You To Be My Baby. Among many intriguing items are the selfcomposed Ev’ry Day, which wouldn’t sound out of place on an album by some postpunk garage band; a previously unissued Will You Love Me Tomorrow from a teenage tribal gathering at the Edmonton Granada; and a twee arrangement of You Don’t Have To Be A Baby To Cry, in which Davis conveys the impression that she too is aware of its inherent ridiculousness.

3 stars 3 stars 3 stars

RPM | RPM 326

Reviewed by Alan Clayson
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