Dino, Desi & Billy's first album, 1965's
I'm a Fool, features the singles "Not the Lovin' Kind" and "I'm a Fool" both of which climbed near the Top 20 in 1965 and represented the commercial high point for the Hollywood trio. In the spirit of the mid-'60s, most of the rest of the album is made up of covers of hits of the day -- "Like a Rolling Stone," "Chimes of Freedom," " (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" and "It Ain't Me Babe." Like their originals, these covers are competent and breezy featuring the lads' light and polite vocals and restrained musical backing from the cream of L.A.'s session players. Unlike their originals, you'll never need to hear any of these reverent and mostly irrelevant covers more than once, if that. The only fun to be had here is the aforementioned singles, both of which are groovy folk-rockers penned by
Lee Hazlewood, the moody and almost punky "The Rebel Kind" and the bopping bubble-fuzz of "Boo-Hoo-Hoo (I Can Tell)." These tracks are good enough that you wish the rest of the record was written by
Hazelwood and "Boo-Hoo-Hoo"'s author
Joey Cooper. As it is, the album is mostly forgettable. ~ Tim Sendra