Balarama Music

Originals Week: Who Was A Believer?

{Jun 01}

Doug1960s neil diamond, originals week, the monkees No Comments

Sorry about the late post. When I tried to post it yesterday at 6, the internet wasn’t working so I said fuck that, grabbed some cigars, and invited a friend over. Six hours later, I promptly passed out.

Let’s travel again back to 1967 but under different circumstances. A year earlier, Beatlemania was still riding high and the entertainment industry of America was looking to cash in on it in an original manner. The best thought they would come up with would ultimately the same formula that made the New Kids On The Block, Backstreet Boys, and N*SYNC so famous in the latter part of the century: just create a band. So in essence, the American entertainment industry created the American version of the Beatles complete with misspelling: The Monkees. Their show was a hit and their popularity took off as Hollywood crafted each of their identities and the best in music wrote their songs for them including one man who was on the rise in the late 60s: Neil Diamond.

The Monkees were on shaky ground going into the last month of 1966. Their first single, “Last Train To Clarksville,” had performed very well on the Billboard and had good reactions, but the relation to the Beatles’ “Paperback Writer” was far too much (especially considering the songwriter got the idea while listening to the song) and the fact that The Monkees were subtly protesting the Vietnam War which didn’t make their record or television producers overly thrilled since they were supposed to be the bubblegum pop Beatles of America, not the social conscience version. So what to do, what to do? Well, a love song is always a good way to establish yourself as that pop group and guarantee that not only will women flock over your looks, but also what you say.

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