Rest in Peace Davy Jones

It is very sad to hear of the death of Davy. He isn't just Davy Jones to his fans or fans of the Monkees. This is a death in the family. It hurts and we all feel sorry for his real family and friends. I only met him once, just long enough to ask for his autograph but it was memorable to me. I just listened to a live version of of the song Every Step of the Way he preformed it with the energy of a true preformer that made you feel the energy while you just listened. One song that he wrote is one I like to sing to my wife. That song is I'll love you Forever. It is sad to know that we will never see or hear him act again.
Now please don't missunderstand this next part of this post. It is not an attempt for me to make any money and I will take back the offer if you think I am trying that. I don't want to cause any harm. I wrote a book in which the charater of Davy was one of the stars. It is called Last Train to Murder and the Monkees solve the crime. Any money that it generates that normally would go to me I will give to a mission or charity. I haven't heard if his family has designated a charity but I know of some Christian missions that need money and I will send it there unless his family designates a charity. You can get it at amazon.com or at http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/last-train-to-murder-pb/14445916?productTrackingContext=search_results/search_shelf/center/2 I recomend Lulu as the charity will get more money if you buy it from them.
This is a dark day for Monkee fans everywhere and for a while this sites background will be dark.

Monkee Music

I started this blog to do reviews on the Monkees albums much like Rolling Stone did for the Beatles this past summer in the publication ROLLING STONE SPECIAL THE BEATLES ULTIMATE ALBUM BY ALBUM GUIDE. I did it because no one was doing that for the Monkees.
Well I have to admit I was wrong. I saw this book, that was released in December of 2011, for sale before but didn't bother to read what it was about. I recently did and see that this book covers what I wanted to cover with this blog. It gives reviews of all of the Monkees albums. I will still be running on this blog but it hurts to know that I missed being the first with this idea by just a month. It's also nice to know I'm not the only one who respects their music enough to give it a more critical look.

Happy Birthday Peter Tork

Monkees Ad for show and First album

Here is an ad that I saw on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/2204471940/photos/ for the Monkees first album and TV show.

The Monkees: The Singles: A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You/She Hangs Out/The Girl That I Knew Somewhere

The pictures above are from this site. Except for the one labeled My Favorite Monkee Davy Jones Sings. I got it from http://forgottenhits60s.blogspot.com/

The above photo is a picture sleeve of the 45 from France after the B side of the record was changed. I got it from from this site.
Originally I did this site just to concentrate on the albums. However, if I have information on the singles that weren't on or suppose to be on an album then I will showcase them here as well.
In the fight for musical independence the album More of the Monkees was the first shot fired by Don Kirshner. At this point Kirshner didn't do anything wrong. He just felt that he was just doing his job. He was hired to create hit songs for the soundtrack of the TV show. But he was given orders after that album that the Monkees were to produce the music for the B side of the next single.
This got him hot under the collar. Don felt that when it came to the music that he was the boss. That he was at the very least on the same level of command as the TV producers. That isn't how it worked out in the chain of command. Columbia Pictures owned both Screen Gems and Aldon music. The TV show was the reason why the records were being made and not the other way around. This ment that Krishner was answerable to the TV producers.
But since he didn't agree with that he went around them. He tried to sneak out the next single in Canada. A Little Bit Me,A Little Bit You was released with Kirshner's production of She Hangs Out as the B side. He even issued it with a picture sleeve. That was something he normally wouldn't do with out authorization. Some promo copies were released as My Favorite Monkee - Davy Jones Sings. Kirshner liked Davy more as he was the easiest one to convince to record songs for him. Kirshner thought that if the single became the third hit with his producion on the songs it would solidify him as the musical boss. But before that could happen Rafelson and Schneider blew their stacks. They recalled the single and fired Kirshner for releasing an unauthorized Monkees single.
However, word was now out that A Little Bit Me,A Little Bit You was the new single. So they had to choose the B side song. The Monkees produced 2 songs. All of Your Toys was good but rejected as the song was not owned by their publishing company. So the Nesmith penned tune The Girl That I Knew Somewhere was pressed and released. This gave the Monkees their second double sided hit on the Billboard charts. The A side went to #2 and the B side went to #39. Eventually even the song She Hangs Out was released but that is the story for another post.
After the sixties the master tapes for A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You were lost. Anything that was released of the song for years came from dubs of earlier mixes. Eventually Rhino Records found the tapes when they got the rights to the Monkees.
Rumor has it that the background vocals were by the songs writer Neil Diamond.
This isn't a bad little song but it is far from the Monkees best. If any other group had recorded it I doubt it would have made it to #2. I even doubt it would have been released as a single. At best it would have been an album cut. Since the Monkees were able to feature there latest single each week on their TV show I believe that is what pushed it up the charts. The Girl That I Knew Somewhere would have been the better choice for the A side. Even All of Your Toys or She Hangs Out would have been good A sides but She Hangs Out, sung the way Davy did in the Kirshner production, was actually pretty suggestive for a bubblegum/pop group like the Monkees.