(Theme From) The Monkees

Album: The Monkees (1966)
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Songfacts®:

  • This was the first song written and recorded for The Monkees TV series, which ran on NBC 1966-1968. Written to introduce the irreverent act, a portion of it was used as the theme song for the show.

    It was written by the songwriter/producers Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, who were hired to write three songs for the show's pilot, including the theme. When they wrote it, the cast had not been chosen and they had very little direction - the show was pitched as "An American version of The Beatles" and loosely based on the Beatles movie A Hard Day's Night. Boyce and Hart wrote the song in the style of The Beatles, composing good-natured lyrics positioning the band as a fun group of guys who are "too busy singing to put anybody down."
  • The finger snaps and "here we come" line were influenced by the Dave Clark Five song "Catch Us If You Can," where they sing, "Here we come again, catch us if you can."
  • The Monkees didn't play on their early albums, so very often the only band member to appear on a song would be its lead vocalist, which in this case was Micky Dolenz. This song was produced by the song's writers, Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, who had members of their band, the Candy Store Prophets, play the instruments. The backing credits are as follows:

    Micky Dolenz: vocal
    Tommy Boyce: backing vocals
    Wayne Erwin, Gerry Mcgee & Louie Shelton: guitar
    Larry Taylor: bass
    Billy Lewis: drums
    Gene Estes: percussion
  • Turns out this song works very well in a documentary about actual monkeys: It was used to open the 2015 Disney film Monkey Kingdom.
  • "I always thought the song worked fine as the theme song for the TV show. But I never allowed us to sing it in public," Peter Tork, the group's keyboardist/bass guitarist, told Entertainment Weekly. "The whole idea of standing up there and singing, 'We're wonderful/We're the wonderful ones/And our names are The Wonderful Ones,' was too self-congratulatory. What we do now is, the backing band plays [the music] and Micky and I come out onstage to it. I can't ever see us singing 'Hey, hey, we're the Monkees!' I couldn't bear it."

Comments: 4

  • Kev from Rogers, ArI loved that song. I would sometimes watch the Monkees on Saturdays, but by the time they came on, my mom had usually chased me out of the house. "Children should spend Saturdays outdoors!"
  • Stephen from PaA lot of their songs are pretty easy to play on guitar...Good stuff!!
    I have always been a fan. I even watched their show as a kid!
  • Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn September 23rd 1956, the adventure series 'Circus Boy' had its premiere on the NBC-TV network...
    The main character in the series was a young boy named young Corky, he was played by Micky Dolenz but at the time his stage name was Mickey Braddock...
    The show ran for two seasons with forty-nine original episodes...
    Just under ten years later on September 12th, 1966 the musical comedy series 'The Monkees' premiered on the NBC-TV network...
    See the next post below.
  • Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn March 25th 1968, the last episode of the musical TV sitcom 'The Monkees' was aired on NBC-TV network...
    The series ran for two seasons with a total of 58 original episodes...
    It won two Primetime Emmy Awards, "Outstanding Comedy Series" and 'Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy'...
    The song "Zor and Zam' was featured on this final episode...
    Between 1966 and 1987 the made-for-TV quartet had twenty-one songs make Billboard's Hot Top 100 chart, six made the Top 10 with three reaching #1, "Last Train to Clarksville" for 1 week in 1966, "I'm a Believer" for 7 weeks in 1966, " and "Daydream Believer" for 4 weeks in 1967...
    They just missed having a fourth #1 record when "A Little, Bit Me, A Little Bit You" peaked at #2 {for 1 week} in 1967, plus they also had two records peak at #3...
    Davy Jones passed away on February 29th, 2012 at the age of 66...
    May he R.I.P.
see more comments

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