From MCA Records, 1984

"Anything can happen in this unpredictable business," proclaims Jerry Hludzik who, with Bill Kelly, comprise the core of the MCA Records' group Dakota. "But that's why we're still in it. You just gotta hang in and believe what you are doing means something"

That belief, a rock-solid relationship, and a healthy dose of tenacity have resulted in a 15-year partnership that has traveled down some rough business roads, producing a pair of albums on two labels prior to their MCA debut LP, Runaway. Both Dakota halves point to this new album's Angry Men song, an expansive rocker with reflective lyrics, as their favorite song as it says so much about their frustrating experiences as musicians.

"'We angry men have landed," says Hludzik, recanting the song's powerful chorus, "a fire inside is burning, it's time to win."

"We wrote that song just one year after we had toured with our band as the opening act for Queen on The Game tour," recalls Kelly. "We were playing five nights a week with our band, and that just paid for the band. To make money for ourselves, we were playing the other two nights of the week as a duo... So there we

were kicking sand on a beach in Wildwood, New Jersey, and thinking that a year ago we were playing Madison Square Garden, and now we couldn't get arrested"

Things haven't always been so bleak. Back in 1970, just before the twosome got together in Scranton, Pa., Kelly led a band called The Buoys, which in 1971 scored a #13 hit on Sceptor Records with Timothy, a Rupert Holmes- penned song based on a true event—that year's Shepton Mining Disaster, in which cannibalism by the survivors was presumed to have occurred. At that time, 20-year-old Kelly was the oldest in the group. "We had our own plane, but we didn't know any better. So, five months later we were driving through the Midwest in the back of a truck in mid-winter," he remembers, not so fondly. "For the most part, we've seen the dark side of the business ever since."

With Jerry Hludzik joining a year after Timothy, The Buoys stayed intact until 1977. Their only other noteworthy success was the hit's follow up, Give Up Your Guns, the story of which is a perfect example of Jerry's 'anything can happen' dictum. 'Guns' was a modest hit in both the United States and Europe, and it had a long instrumental coda which ended up being used throughout Europe as an introduction to the news long after the single died. Then in 1980, 10 years after the tune's original release, it was re-issued in Holland, reaching #6 due to listener familiarity with the news theme.

In 1978, longtime Pennsylvania friend Mike Stahl, who was mixing sound for the group Chicago, brought Hludzik and Kelly's music to the attention of that group's drummer, Danny Seraphine. Later that year, a suitably impressed Seraphine produced an album for the duo on Epic Records under the name The Jerry-Kelly Band, which was followed in 1980 by the first actual Dakota album on Columbia.

"We tried so hard to establish Jerry- Kelly," says Kelly of the name change. "But they wanted a rockier sounding name, and our studio drummer John Robinson, who has worked with Quincy Jones and Michael Jackson, suggested Dakota. The front office loved it, and thus we became Dakota."

"We originally hated the name," Kelly continues, "being from Pennsylvania. But we took some consolation from the fact that there is no Dakota itself; it's either North or South Dakota. Now it's grown on us. As long as the record is good, we're happy, whatever our name."

Dakota was good enough to yield a pair of regional hits, including If It Take All Night, which streaked to #1 in a number of cities. However, according to the Dakotans, the album never reached its full commercial potential as it become entangled in record business politics.

Subsequent to the Queen tour, Dakota stayed on the road for three solid years, and then, after the exhausting touring schedules and having temporarily parted with Seraphine, Hludzik and Kelly decided to take time off to evaluate their circumstance and to decide their next move.

"We had never taken a week off," says Hludzik. Adds Kelly: "Here's two guys who had earned a living for the lost 20 years only by playing in a band. Taking a break was a scary proposition."

The break and scare was short-lived. Chicago had garnered a new record deal, and Kelly called Danny Seraphine to congratulate him. Danny asked what the pair were doing and if they wanted to work with him again. A demo was cut, and a deal struck. This was around Christmas of 1982, and by the time the duo were ready to record, they had been signed to MCA.

For Runaway, Hludzik and Kelly have assembled an all-star cost including Toto's Steve Porcaro, Rufus' Hawk Wolinski, saxophonist Ernie Waits, guitarist Richie Zito, Thriller rhythm guitarist Paul Jackson and that album's engineer Humberto Gatica. The result is a mature album with both Kelly and Hludzik singing lead and playing lead guitar, alternating and intertwining to meet the demands of each song.

"We like to think that our harmonies are like a knife's edge, a one-two punch, that took 15 years to develop," says Kelly. Each of the songs that those vocals wrap around is an expertly crafted pop gem, and Hludzik promises that Dakota already has 15 new ones ready for their next album. And that is part of their master survival plan.

"We've had to survive on guts," Hludzik notes. "and we won't be beat of our own game. We've been around long enough to know that staying creative means something very positive. So, right now is not only square one of the last 20 years, it's also square one of the next 20."