THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

121-Monkees-Daydream Believer.

1967-Number 5 single.

Best Bit-At 2.15. The song is about the ‘seven year itch.’

The Monkees were the brainchild of Bob Rafelson, (1933-2022) and Bert Schneider (1933-2011) who after watching the Beatles films ‘A Hard Days Night,’ (1964) and ‘Help!’ (1965) were inspired to make a television sitcom about four young men trying to make a name for themselves as a ‘Rock ‘N Roll’ band. The show proved to be very successful running from 1966-1968, over two seasons, and 58 episodes. An advertisement had been placed in the ‘Daily Variety,’ and ‘The Hollywood Reporter,’ to which 437 applied, with the eventual four who were selected to become the ‘Monkees’ being Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith, (1942-2021) Peter Tork, (1942-2019) and Davy Jones (1945-2012.) The Monkees remained active until officially breaking up in 1970, but there have been many re-unions over the years, leading to new recordings, and touring, although rarely with all four members together at the same time. In total there have been 16 studio Albums issued between 1966-2018, and 24 singles in the same time period. In America on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, they have achieved seven top 40 hits, with three of those songs reaching Number 1, while in the UK, they have charted eight times, with ‘I’m a Believer’ making Number 1 in 1966. The Monkees are one of the worlds best ever selling bands with sales in excess of 75 million records worldwide.

The Monkees were very much considered second class ‘musical’ citizens in their day by many in the music industry and the press, who heavily criticised them for being manufactured, and also for their lack of supposed musical talent. but history now shows them in a much more favourable light. They are now seen as a forerunner to what was to become the ‘Boy Band,’ and lead singer Davy Jones is considered an inspiration for future teen idols such as David Cassidy, (1950-2017) and Justin Bieber.

‘Daydream Believer’ was the first of two singles released from the Monkees fifth studio Album ‘The Birds, the Bees & the Monkees’ from 1968, it was written by John Stewart, and produced by Chip Douglas, who had also worked with the Monkees on many previous occasions. John Stewart (1939-2008) was a prolific songwriter who is said to have written over 600 songs. and recorded around 50 Albums. Apart from ‘Daydream Believer’ his biggest chart success came in 1979 when his song ‘Gold’ reached Number 5 on Billboard, and was also a top 5 hit in Canada and Australia. Stewart who had been a member of the ‘Folk’ group the ‘Kingston Trio’ between 1961-1967 wrote ‘Daydream Believer’ shortly after leaving that group to embark on a solo career.

John Stewart has explained the songs meaning,’Married couples start out in a idealistic haze, but after a few years it wears off, and each see the other as he or she really is, this is supposedly when genuine love is proven.’ Stewart’s original lyrics were ‘Now you know how funky I can be, (one meaning of funky being smelly.) RCA records objected to the Monkees singing ‘funky’ and insisted on a word change to ‘happy,’ which Stewart detested, stating that it ‘Completely reversed the meaning of the line, and would not make sense in the context of the song.’ Stewart eventually relented, and said,’The proceeds from ‘Daydream Believer’ kept me alive for all these years.’

‘7-A. What number is this to? 7-A, okay, don’t get excited man, it’s ’cause I’m short, I know.’