A secret weapon behind their success was the songwriting team of Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart. The duo wrote composed the memorable "(Theme from) The Monkees" for their hit TV show as well as their first chart topper "Last Train to Clarksville". They also provided recycled numbers like "(I'm Not Your) Stepping Stone" and "Words" that already been recorded by others. Throw in gems like "I Wanna Be Free" and "She" and you have some terrific garage rock with bits of psychedelic rock and even folk.
My only real complaint is that Boyce and Hart didn't write nearly enough for The Monkees. Just by presenting producer Don Kirshner with the theme and "Clarksville" alone should have had them kept on in a full-time role. They could have contributed the lion's share to their studio albums, with maybe Naismith and/or Tork contributing a smattering of their own. Then, for their second album, it could have been more of the same, with perhaps a slightly large share of the writing credits for The Monkees themselves. Rinse and repeat.
For whatever reason, this never happened. Others were brought in to make contributions. Some worked but many did not but, whatever the quality, something was lost. The struggling band that the quartet were trying to portray didn't seem to be well translated through the writing of others. Neil Diamond's "I'm a Believer" is a solid piece from the golden age of the staff songwriter and it was bound to be a big hit for someone but I think that's sort of the point: just about anyone could have taken it to number one. The truly outstanding Monkees' hits are those that feel like they belonged to them.
The last time they came up, I remarked upon how "Clarksville" sounded as if The Monkees were playing on it, even if they had nothing to do with it beyond the vocals. In the case of follow-up "I'm a Believer", it doesn't feel like something they would have recorded. Maybe it's the cutesy organ which is too childlike for a garage band or perhaps it's the twangy guitar that is far too professional. (Even Dolenz sounds a little too rehearsed with his nearly whispered singing in the verses — only when he gets to the chorus does he sound confident and fully committed; a believer in fact)
It's a minor quibble, I know, but it's noticeable enough that it marks a step in the wrong direction following their previous hit. "Last Train to Clarksville" sounds authentic but "I'm a Believer" seems contrived. Of course, they were similarly manufactured but in this respect pop is no different from magic shows and professional wrestling bouts: I'm fully aware that it's all a big con but the best stuff manages to fool me all the same. Still, it was big enough to spend a fortnight on top of the RPM chart, three weeks at number one over in Britain and a very impressive seven down in the States. It's almost as if they figured the good times would continue indefinitely.
Score: 6
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Hey! Where's...
Granted, it isn't a huge pop injustice that Donovan Leitch failed to have a number one in Canada. "Sunshine Superman" gave him at chart topper on the Billboard Hot 100 which he doubtless made a lot of money off of. "Mellow Yellow" only got to the runner up spot up in north of the border but it would be enough to ensure that it would eventually be used by the Dairy Farmers of Canada in a series of memorable TV spots. I can't hear it — or indeed think of it — without that jingle supplanting the Scottish singer-songwriter's original. It's one thing to create a pop hit but it's an altogether different matter to get a whole nation to know the lines "they call me mellow yellow (just butter it)" as if it was the national anthem. Or maybe it's just me having watched way too much TV as a kid. Apparently, Donovan had other songs but they weren't used for melted butter on popcorn, were they?
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