"Dakota" (released in the United States as "Dakota (You Made Me Feel Like the One)") is a song by Welsh

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...

band

Stereophonics Stereophonics are a Welsh rock band formed in 1992 in the village of Cwmaman in the Cynon Valley, Wales. The band consists of Kelly Jones (lead vocals, lead guitar, keyboards), Richard Jones (bass guitar, harmonica, backing vocals), Adam Zind ...

. It was the first single taken from their fifth studio album, '' Language. Sex. Violence. Other?'', and was released on 28 February 2005. "Dakota" was the first and to date only Stereophonics single to reach number one and the last to reach the top ten on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

and to chart on the US ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

Modern Rock Tracks Alternative Airplay (formerly known as Modern Rock Tracks (1988–2009) and Alternative Songs (2009–2020)) is a music chart in the United States that has appeared in ''Billboard'' magazine since September 10, 1988. It ranks the 40 most-played ...

chart. It also became the band's highest-charting single in both Australia and New Zealand. The song has been compared to the works of U2.

Writing

Kelly Jones Kelly Jones (born 3 June 1974) is a Welsh singer-songwriter and a founding member, lead singer, and guitarist of the rock band Stereophonics. Early life and debut Kelly Jones was born youngest of three boys for Beryl and Arwyn Jones in the s ...

started writing the music for "Dakota" in January 2004. He was staying in a hotel room in Paris while Stereophonics were on a promo tour for '' You Gotta Go There To Come Back'' and was trying to find a new sound. A month later, while the band were on tour in the United States, he wrote the lyrics in Vermillion and the song's working title was originally named after it. After Slipknot released a song from their

third album ''Third Album'' is the third studio album released by the Jackson 5 on Motown Records, and the group's second LP released in 1970, on September 18. ''Third Album'' featured the group's fourth consecutive No. 1 single on the US pop charts, " I' ...

entitled "

Vermilion Vermilion (sometimes vermillion) is a color, color family, and pigment most often made, since ancient history, antiquity until the 19th century, from the powdered mineral cinnabar (a form of mercury sulfide, which is toxic) and its correspondi ...

" and

Mercury Rev Mercury Rev is an American indie rock band formed in 1989 in Buffalo, New York.
Original personnel were sixth album with a song included on it also called "Vermillion", the band decided to change the title of the song. The name of the song was changed to "Dakota", named after the

apartment building An apartment (American English), or flat (British English, Indian English, South African English), is a self-contained housing unit (a type of residential real estate) that occupies part of a building, generally on a single story. There are ...

in New York City. One of the song's signature lines, "Take a look at me now", was first used—in a similar melody—in their earlier single " Since I Told You It's Over".

Promotion

Then

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance, ...

Jo Whiley Johanne Whiley-Morton (born 4 July 1965), better known by her professional name Jo Whiley, is an English radio DJ and television presenter. She was the host of the long-running weekday later weekend '' Jo Whiley Show'' on BBC Radio 1. She curre ...

was the first to play "Dakota" on air. Kelly and Richard Jones presented the song as part of Radio 1's "10 albums to watch for 2005".

US radio airplay

"Dakota" was the first Stereophonics single to achieve success on

radio stations in the United States—where it was promoted as "Dakota (You Made Me Feel Like the One)". After its American release on 21 March 2005, the single steadily gained ground on US alternative rock radio, notably on stations such as WFNX, WBCN and

KROQ-FM KROQ-FM (106.7 MHz) is a commercial radio station licensed to Pasadena, California, serving Greater Los Angeles. Owned by Audacy, Inc., it broadcasts an alternative rock format known as "The World Famous KROQ" (pronounced "kay-rock"). The stat ...

. "Dakota" continued to gain support across the US and eventually became the first Stereophonics song to chart on the ''Billboard''

chart. It first charted on 9 July 2005, almost half a year after its original release. The song peaked at number 34 on the chart and remained on the chart for six weeks. It was their first and so far only single to make the chart.

Release

Four weeks before the official release of the single, "Dakota" was released exclusively on the

iTunes Store The iTunes Store is a digital media store operated by Apple Inc. It opened on April 28, 2003, as a result of Steve Jobs' push to open a digital marketplace for music. As of April 2020, iTunes offered 60 million songs, 2.2 million apps, 25,00 ...

. The song was also available for download from the band's website. The single was released in the United Kingdom on 28 February 2005 across four formats: a CD single,

maxi single A maxi single or maxi-single (sometimes abbreviated to MCD or CDM) is a music single release with more than the usual two tracks of an A-side song and a B-side song. The first maxi singles Mungo Jerry's first single, "In the Summertime" was the ...

vinyl single Vinyl may refer to: Chemistry * Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer * Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation * Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry * Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl m ...

and

DVD single A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device ...

. "Dakota" was included as the opening track on Stereophonics' first

greatest hits A greatest hits album or best-of album is a type of compilation album that collects popular and commercially successful songs by a particular artist or band. While greatest hits albums are typically supported by the artist, they can also be crea ...

compilation album A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several Performing arts#Performers, performers. If by one artist, then generally the tr ...

Decade in the Sun ''Decade in the Sun: Best of Stereophonics'' is a compilation album of greatest hits by Stereophonics. It features tracks from all six of the band's previous albums, beginning from the 1997 debut release, ''Word Gets Around'', all the way throu ...

''.

Music video

The music video for "Dakota" was filmed in

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota people, Lakota and Dakota peo ...

, United States. It features Stereophonics on a road trip through Dakota on the back of a truck. As the video goes on, the band pass various Dakota sights including

Mount Rushmore Mount Rushmore National Memorial is a national memorial centered on a colossal sculpture carved into the granite face of Mount Rushmore (Lakota: ''Tȟuŋkášila Šákpe'', or Six Grandfathers) in the Black Hills near Keystone, South Dakota ...

. The video was given an exclusive showing on

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

before it was shown on other music channels.

Reception

Critical response

"Dakota" received positive reviews.

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

editor MacKenzie Wilson said the song had "glossy guitar hooks" when reviewing the album. Along with the songs "Brother" and "Girl" she stated that they "find Stereophonics' second coming to be a convincing one." On the "Readers 100 Greatest Tracks of 2005" at '' Q'', "Dakota" was placed 8th.

James Masterton James Masterton (born 2 September 1973) is a music writer and columnist, his work focusing on the UK Singles Chart having been an online fixture on various sites since the 1990s. Masterton is also a producer for talkSPORT, and has worked on air ...

named the song his single of the year in 2005. Alexis Petridis from ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' praised the song for replacing their "standard smug lumbering with an urgent synthesizer pulse" and its "breezy, radio-smashing chorus." Pete Cashmore from ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'' was critical towards "Dakota" for sounding like a U2 stadium song and being "too concerned with making an impressive noise and not concerned enough with a tune."

Commercial performance

"Dakota" gave Stereophonics their first UK number one single as it topped both the

Singles Singles are people not in a committed relationship. Singles may also refer to: Film and television * ''Singles'' (miniseries), a 1984 Australian television series * ''Singles'' (1992 film), written and directed by Cameron Crowe * ''Singles'' ...

and

Download In computer networks, download means to ''receive'' data from a remote system, typically a server such as a web server, an FTP server, an email server, or other similar system. This contrasts with uploading, where data is ''sent to'' a remote s ...

charts. It remained in the charts for 44 weeks and ranked at number 40 on the year-end charts. It was also the band's first single to chart on the US

chart, peaking at number 34. In Ireland the song peaked at number 8 and remained in the chart for seven weeks.

Track listings

Personnel

Stereophonics *

– vocals, guitar, piano * Richard Jones – bass guitar *

Javier Weyler Javier Andrés Weyler (born 3 July 1975) is an Argentine-born Venezuelan-English drummer, best known as a member of Stereophonics from 2004 to 2012. He was the drummer in the Venezuelan band Claroscuro for over nine years until he left the countr ...

– drums Technical * Production – Kelly Jones, Jim Lowe * Mixing – Kelly Jones, Jim Lowe *

Engineering Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...

– Jim Lowe

Charts and certifications

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

Cover versions

Show of Hands Show of Hands is an English acoustic roots/folk duo formed in 1986 by singer-songwriter Steve Knightley (guitars, mandolin, mandocello, cuatro) and composer and multi-instrumentalist Phil Beer (vocals, guitars, violin, viola, mandolin, mandoc ...

recorded a cover version for their 2010 album '' Covers 2''.

In popular culture

"Dakota" made appearances in the video games '' FIFA Manager 06'' and ''

Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 ''Pro Evolution Soccer 2010'' (officially abbreviated as ''PES 2010'' and known in Asia as ''World Soccer: Winning Eleven 2010'') is the ninth football video game in the ''Pro Evolution Soccer'' series. The game was developed and published by K ...

''. The song features at the beginning of an episode of the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...

comedy

Him & Her ''Him & Her'' is a British television sitcom about a lazy twenty-something couple: Steve and Becky, who live in Walthamstow, London. It was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC Three on 6 September 2010. It is written by Stefan Golasz ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dakota (Song) 2005 singles 2005 songs Number-one singles in Scotland Songs written by Kelly Jones Stereophonics songs UK Independent Singles Chart number-one singles UK Singles Chart number-one singles V2 Records singles