10 Songs is a weekly list of ten songs that happen to be on my mind at the moment. The lists are usually dominated by songs played on the previous Sunday night's edition of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl. The idea was inspired by Don Valentine of the essential blog I Don't Hear A Single.
This week's edition of 10 Songs draws exclusively from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1304.
DOLENZ, JONES, BOYCE AND HART: I Wonder What She's Doing Tonight
This week, we put the TIRnRR spotlight on Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, serving as our Featured Performers and also as our Featured Songwriters. And we kicked that off with a 1976 live-in-Japan performance by Dolenz, Jones, Boyce and Hart, reuniting Tommy and Bobby with former co-workers Micky Dolenz and Davy Jones from the Monkees. The guys who sang 'em and the guys who wrote 'em! And in this case they're all singing "I Wonder What She's Doing Tonight," a song that was Boyce and Hart's biggest hit as performers. Great, great song in either rendition.
THE FLASHCUBES: She
A feature on Boyce and Hart as songwriters allowed us to program a bunch of their songs as interpreted by a number of different artists. That includes the Monkees (of course!), as well as a few covers of B & H tunes recorded by and primarily associated with the Monkees. Syracuse's own power pop powerhouse the Flashcubes cut a fabulous version of the 1966 More Of The Monkees album track "She" for a 2017 Monkees tribute album called Listen To The Bands. I confess that I suggested the 'Cubes do "Love Is Only Sleeping," but the 'Cubes rightly knew that "She" was a better match. HEY!
THE ARMOIRES: You're Not The Police
From the Flashcubes covering the Monkees, let's move to the Armoires covering the Flashcubes. From the various-artists blockbuster Make Something Happen! A Tribute To The Flashcubes, the Armoires apply Byrdswax and all sortsa Cheap Tricks for their rendition of the Flashcubes' "You're Not The Police." Flippin' the song's gender POV delivers extra added gravitas, drawing a rockin' pop line in the sand, a line that will not be breached. Back off, bro! If I wanted the cops, I'd be watching TV.
THE FOUR TOPS: Last Train To Clarksville
It still feels weird to me that my favorite Motown group the Four Tops covered a Monkees song, and weirder still that they covered two Monkees songs, Neil Diamond's "I'm A Believer" and Boyce and Hart's "Last Train To Clarksville." Both of these were on the Four Tops' 1967 album Reach Out, an LP that mixed the two Monkees covers with covers of the Left Banke's "Walk Away Renee," Tim Hardin's "If I Were A Carpenter," and the Association's "Cherish," all alongside some new tunes crafted at Hitsville USA.
The Four Tops' Left Banke and Tim Hardin covers were magnificent, and the album gave the world the outstanding Four Tops classics "Reach Out I'll Be There," "Bernadette," "Standing In The Shadows Of Love," and "7 Rooms Of Glow." In contrast, neither of these fine Monkees songs is a proper fit for the Four Tops. Interesting as oddities only.
JAY AND THE AMERICANS: Come A Little Bit Closer
When we consider Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart's success as songwriters, a lot of people (me included) automatically think of Boyce and Hart songs recorded by the Monkees. That list includes "(Theme From) The Monkees," "Last Train To Clarksville," "I Wanna Be Free," "Let's Dance On." "She," "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone," "I'll Spend My Life With You," "Mr. Webster," "Words," "Valleri," "P. O. Box 9847," "Through The Looking Glass," and "I Never Thought It Peculiar," among others. There's even a Boyce and Hart song ("Whatever's Right") on the Monkees' 2016 triumph Good Times!, a track begun in the '60s and finished in this high-flyin' 21st century.
One of Boyce and Hart's most notable successes outside of the Monkees' aegis is "Come A Little Bit Closer," which they wrote with Wes Farrell. It was a # 3 hit for Jay and the Americans in 1964, and an integral part of my childhood musical memories. MY kind of song!
TOMMY BOYCE AND BOBBY HART: Out And About
Boyce and Hart followed their success with the Monkees by trying to establish themselves as a recording act, the guys who sang 'em and the guys who wrote 'em. The above-noted "I Wonder What She's Doing Tonight" was their only Top 20 hit (# 8 in 1967). Nonetheless, their established track record as tunesmiths and producers made them bona fide contenders in the pop music sweepstakes.
The guys' pursuit of brass rings and gold records led them to a guest appearance on the TV sitcom I Dream Of Jeannie. The show aired on NBC, the very same network that aired The Monkees. The episode included a scene set in a record store, which displayed copies of Headquarters (ironically, the album released after Boyce and Hart were effectively relieved of duties as Monkees producers). The ensuing hijinks portrayed cute 'n' magical Jeannie's efforts to move into rock 'n' roll artist management with Boyce and Hart as her first clients.
I haven't watched this episode in a very long time, but a quick visit to YouTube supports my memory that Boyce and Hart lip-synced two of their records on the show: "Girl, I'm Out To Get You" (as Jeannie uses her magic to turn Tommy and Bobby into musicians, perhaps a sly shot at the assembly process that created the Monkees), and "Out And About," the latter with the lovely Jeannie herself sitting in on drums as they audition for Wall of Sound producer and future murderer Phil Spector.
The sitcom exposure was not sufficient to lift the "Out And About" single higher than # 39. BUT! They did get to meet Jeannie.
ANNE RICHMOND BOSTON: Mr. Webster
The Monkees (well, Micky Dolenz and some studio pros) first recorded Boyce and Hart's "Mr. Webster" during the sessions for what became the 1967 album More Of The Monkees. That version was originally unreleased, and the group returned to it in '67 for a fresh recording used on their album Headquarters, the Monkees' third album and the first to feature the Monkees themselves as the musicians in the studio. As produced by Boyce and Hart and played by studio musicians, the first recorded version is overly melodramatic, even ponderous, in telling its tale of a long-tenured and underappreciated bank teller; for Headquarters, the Monkees worked with producer Chip Douglas to give the song an underlying bounce that actually enhances the drama without detracting from it. The Headquarters "Mr. Webster" is the definitive "Mr. Webster."
Anne Richmond Boston of the Swimming Pool Q's recorded a cover of "Mr. Webster" for the 1992 compilation Here No Evil--A Tribute To The Monkees. Boston's "Mr. Webster" threads the needle between the two disparate Monkees takes, retaining drama but eschewing melodrama in a slow burn that is both folkier and silkier.
THE MONKEES: (I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone [live]
The Greatest Record Ever Made!
REDD KROSS: Blow You A Kiss In The Wind
In addition to appearing on I Dream Of Jeannie, Boyce and Hart were also on an episode of Bewitched, once again playing themselves and once again gettin' mixed up with a magic chick. Two magic chicks in this case, the show's star Samantha and her wicked identical cousin Serena, both played by Patty Duke...er, I mean Elizabeth Montgomery. Jeez, you can lose your mind when magical cousins are two of a kind.
Where was I? Right: On Bewitched, our heroes perform "I'll Blow You A Kiss In The Wind" at the Cosmos Cotillion. And, continuing a TV tradition from The Monkees (where a storyline called for Michael Nesmith to be credited as the author of the Boyce and Hart composition "Gonna Buy Me A Dog"), Bewitched presents Serena as the author of "I'll Blow You A Kiss In The Wind." You can re-live and remember the episode's performances of the song by Serena and by Boyce and Hart right here.
You know who else remembers Boyce and Hart on Bewitched? Why, Redd Kross, of course. Hawthorne, California's other great group included a cover of "Blow You A Kiss In The Wind" on their 1984 EP Teen Babes From Monsanto. Serena could not be reached for comment.
THE MINUS 5: Boyce & Hart
On Sunday, the afternoon before this week's evening broadcast of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, I was listening to former Paul Revere and the Raiders lead singer Mark Lindsay's Underground Garage show American Revolution. In a set paying tribute to Boyce and Hart, Lindsay played the Minus 5's specific tribute to the pair, a wonderful track called--what else?--"Boyce & Hart."
And it was only the fact that I was driving at the time that prevented me from kicking myself as the track played. Why didn't I think to include that in our own B & H feature? The song comes from the Minus 5's album Of Monkees And Men, a collection of Minus 5 originals inspired by the Monkees and their milieu. We did include another track from Of Monkees And Men earlier in this week's show ("Micky's A Cool Drummer"), but I completely forgot about the even more appropriate "Boyce & Hart." My brain was apparently out and about. I wonder what it's doing tonight?
Ah, but fortune stepped in! An unexpected complication forced us to swap out one of the tracks played during the show's coda, and that provided a perfect opportunity to sub in the Minus 5's sublime "Boyce & Hart" at the very end of the show. Thank you, MonkeeMen! And Godspeed Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart.
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I compiled a various-artists tribute album called Make Something Happen! A Tribute To The Flashcubes, and it's pretty damned good; you can read about it here and order it here. My new book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) is now available, and you can order an autographed copy here. You can still get my previous book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones from publisher Rare Bird Books, OR an autographed copy here. If you like the books, please consider leaving a rating and/or review at the usual online resources.
This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, streaming at SPARK stream and on the Radio Garden app as WESTCOTT RADIO. You can read about our history here.
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