RIP Peter. It’s surprising how well the music of the Monkees holds up today as compared with a lot of the 60’s bubble gum music. The songwriting (I think most were written by the team of Boyce and Hart) was very good; producing tight, well crafted pop tunes. I’ve read that Tork was surprised the first time he showed up at the music studio and was told not to worry about taking out his guitar, all they needed him for was some very brief backing vocals. Other than lead vocals, studio musicians recorded the vast majority of the Monkee songs.
Boyce and Hart
Carole King
Neil Diamond
The Monkees had some top-notch song writers.
‘It’s surprising how well the music of the Monkees holds up today as compared with a lot of the 60’s bubble gum music.’
‘Daydream Believer’ was a classic...and they covered a couple of Neil Diamond tunes, I think, ‘A Little Bit Me, Little Bit You’, a real good song...note how much it resembles Diamond’s great classic ‘Cherry, Cherry’...
I think Neil Diamond wrote a couple of songs as well. I got to see the Monkees live in Fairfax, Virginia about 15 years ago. I remember Peter Tork during the intermission playing Bach’s Invention #8 on the keyboard before the second half.
That was a fun concert. The Moms along with their daughters were still shrieking when Davy Jones ran out to the crowd.