That’s a Neil Diamond song. A lot of their stuff was written by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, too. Almost nothing of their own was on their records as far as I recall.
Until they got away from Don Kirschner.
Right.
The Boyce-Hart pop magic was always evident. Diamond, Carol King and Michael Murphy also contributed, along with some stellar work by top-drawer, LA session musicians.
I didn’t care for Nesmith’s songs very much; it seemed like he preferred the obtuse, “intelligent” route of his pal Frank Zappa.
To their credit, the Monkees themselves, did perform much of the music written for them, live.
As I recall, only Michael Nesmith was a true musician. Davy Jones, Peter Tork, and Micky "elephant boy" Dolenz were all actors, and the Monkees were a fabricated band specifically for the television series.
My “The Best Of” CD includes “Papa Gene’s Blues (Nesmith),
“Mary, Mary” (Nesmith), “The Girl I knew Somewhere” (Nesmith), “Randy Scouse Git (Dolenz), “For Pete’s Sake (Tork/Joseph Richards), “You May Just Be the One” (Nesmith), “Goin Down” (Tork/Diane Hilderbrand), and “Listen to the Band” (Nesmith).
I developed my crush on Davy in the 70’s watching Monkees reruns after school. I got to see them in the late 80’s when they came to Biloxi. Great show.
RIP Davy.