6. “Saturday’s Child” (1966)
David Gates wrote this classic flower power pop song, and Micky sings it on the first album. Apart from Micky, there is very little of the Monkees on this track, and if you care to, you can downgrade the song for that reason. It was written and largely performed by others.
I choose not to do that. This song may only be a Monkees’ song because Micky sang it and it was included on a Monkees’ album, but it fits perfectly with the rest of that album. I think it kind of misses the point to argue that the Monkees’ songs are only legitimate if the four publicly identified members were primarily responsible.
For better or worse, the Monkees band, for much of its career, was a corporate entity, composed of many different voices. The trick was blending them into a coherent whole, and that is exactly what “Saturday’s Child" represents.
5. “Last Train to Clarksville” (1966)
This is my final selection from the debut album, and pretty much everything I just said about “Saturday’s Child” applies. This is Boyce and Hart at their pop best, and it is the song that sounds an awful lot like “Tomorrow’s Gonna Be Another Day,” only even more upbeat.
Micky sings it with Davy and Peter providing the soaring harmony. Louis Shelton plays lead. It became the Monkees’ first number one hit and helped launch a phenomenal run in the mid ‘60s.
I learned many years later, through Tom Breihan’s outstanding Stereogum series on number one songs, that the singer is headed for Vietnam, thus making this one of the most infectious and subversive anti-war songs of the decade.
4. “What Am I Doing Hanging’ ‘Round?” (1967)
A couple of the honorable mentions came from the Monkees’ fourth album, Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones LTD. But this is the first in my countdown of the top ten. (Teaser – there may be another in the top three.) It is the Monkees' best, most complete album – the perfect nexus of the pop-making overlords who controlled them early and their burgeoning control over their output.
That is very evident on Nesmith’s most infectious country vocal. He didn’t write it – that honor went to Michael Murphey and Owen Castleman. But he makes it his own.
“What Am I Doing Hangin’ ‘Round” stands right in between is early pop of the Coasters’ “Down in Mexico” and the sophisticated storytelling of Bob Dylan’s “Romance in Durango,” all examinations of succumbing to passion in a strange land. The three songs take different musical approaches, and all are excellent.
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